Following the success of the original OutClass Apple TV media servers, the company has enhanced its range of products with the new OutCla...
Following the success of the original OutClass Apple TV media servers, the company has enhanced its range of products with the new OutClass-X and OutClass-T. The new models combine contemporary aesthetics with the power of the company’s dedicated Apple TV server technology, making the product suited to both in-room use and rack-mounted installations.
The OutClass-X comes in a slim line black aluminium case which features softly curved front corners and integrated feet to enable the product to be used on display in a media unit or AV equipment stand, without looking like an item of computer hardware. The slot-loading Blu-ray/DVD and CD drive enables the user to load their collection of movies and music into the server, which automatically rips the content into the user’s preferred format. Storage is external; using a network attached hard drive, which can be located out of sight in the house.
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OutClass-X and OutClass-T media servers[/caption]
The OutClass-T features a slightly taller case in the same aesthetic form as its smaller sibling, but includes two built-in mirrored hard drives, making it an all-in-one ripper, storage and server solution.
Both products are fully configured by the manufacturer before installation, but are customisable to provide the exact settings required by the user. Blu-rays can be ripped to either an uncompressed BDMV folder format or ISO format for playback via DNLA products such as Dune HD and retain the uncompressed 1080p signal and original soundtrack. DVDs can be ripped to either an uncompressed VIDEO_TS format or an ISO image format. Apple TV compatible M4V versions with the Dolby Digital 5.1 signal and 1080p video are automatically created once the initial rip has been performed. If the user is only going to be using Apple TV, the uncompressed rips are automatically deleted, providing much greater storage space.
Music from CDs can be ripped to WAV, FLAC or Apple Lossless, with an optional and additional MP3 to provide a compressed version for use on a portable device.
OutClass works in both Windows and Apple OS environments, as well as streaming movies and music to almost any DLNA and UPNP certified device, such as smart TVs or Sonos systems. Multiple streams of the same content or different streams can be played at the same time across the user’s collection of Apple TVs and DLNA streamers. At the same time movies can also be streamed to an iPad or downloaded from the OutClass for viewing on an iPad at a later time.
The company will also be making available its new OutClass-VM virtual server product. This device sits within an OutClass server, including the new X and T models and existing products, and overcomes the restriction imposed by Apple to limit streams to just five Apple TVs. An additional 5, 10 or 15 units can be played on the same network at anytime using OutClass-VM.
www.outclass.co
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