Specifications, Availability and Pricing

The EM7280 comes with room for an internal 3.5" hard drive to use for storage with this system. There are versions with drives in place in one and two terabyte flavors if you don't have a drive handy already. This media player will stream video from any source on your network and has an app section with various external sources for podcasts and other various HD content. The same goes for audio; you can store it on the internal hard drive, stream it from a laptop or desktop, or even use some of the apps that bring you sources like Shoutcast radio SKY.fm, with many others. One feature not really described on Eminent's site or in the chart is the awesome ability of the NZBget option built into the EM7280. Logging in through a PC to do the initial setup is all the external support needed to get this functional. Once the setup is complete, the EM7280 is fully autonomous and no longer needs the PC to find, download, or play the .nzb files.

For those that are used to streaming media through the PS3 or something, the way the menu works and functionality of the HD Media device without a hard drive is very intuitive and easy to navigate. The included remote control along with the internal software running from the Realtek 1185DD C+ chipset that I read runs at 500MHz. That combined with the 1000Mbps inflow of media coming in via the network, or through the USB 3.0 port, transferring files will be done in no time at all. I could go through the entire audio and video codec list that will read without issue in the EM7280, it is much easier to say if you have the file type, this thing very likely is plug and play ready to deliver 1080p video, digital audio, or both without spending hours converting the files over first.

I'm sorry to say this, but it seems currently there is little interest for Eminent to bring these units to the US, at least any time in the near future. I was able to surf through Google.co.uk and found some pricing for the EM7280. In the low end, without a hard drive pre-installed, I am seeing pricing from £130; that's right around $200 USD for those not good at conversions. If you are looking into units with a 1TB or 2TB hard drive packed inside, be prepared to spend upwards of £240; that is $370 dollars in US funds just to put that into perspective. Since I had a hard drive on hand, the only investment I had to make was to hunt down a power converter so I can test this with a US power source. Of course, those on the other side of the pond won't have to do this, but for the Americans thinking about having one shipped over, keep that in mind.