14 DAY TRIAL // Home media center solutions based on a dedicated computer system are becoming increasingly popular because they integrate a number of functions and technologies unavailable to traditional multimedia devices. One such home media center is the system built by the company Fiire that comes in the shape of a central hub that features some pretty impressive hardware specifications like an AMD processor, big memory, large storage capabilities and a graphics solution that is compatible with most multimedia formats.
The Fiire company built the FiireStation 1 to be the ultimate media connector between a plasma or LCD based TV set and eventually another home media center system that could be used in order to extend its capabilities. From the hardware point of view, the FiireEngine, which connects to the FiireStation 1, is made up of some powerful computing hardware like an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ processor, 1GB of system memory and an 160GB hard disk drive that can be used to store all the desired media files. The storage capabilities of the system can be easily upgraded using the internal eSATA connectors that support several RAID configurations for maximum performance. The storage space using all six connectors can be expanded to reach a capacity of 6TB. The mainboard of the FiireStation is built around an Nvidia chipset which integrates the video graphics chip 6200.
From the video playback capabilities? point of view, the home media center features most popular data formats and well as connectors. Services include "HD Video playback, full advanced PVR capability, Smarthome control facilities for lighting, HVAC, irrigation, and other home systems, Security camera access and integrated VOIP". The FiireStation 1 also supports "analog and digital video interfaces and resolutions from Standard Definition to 720P and 1080i", while audio support ranges to the 7.1 channels setup when S/PDIF is used or 2 channels in the case of the 192/24 analog audio.
The entire system runs a Linux distribution and all software parts that are found within are based on open source software, being also readily available for the users that may want to tinker with them.