Sony HS1 Home Media Server Spotted

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Multimedia streaming devices for the home seem to be all the rage at the moment, so there should be no surprise to hear Sony is jumping on the bandwagon. Dubbed the VGF-HS1, and borrowing its styling more than a little from the Sony Vaio TP1, the system is designed to share media content with DLNA-compliant devices such as PCs, the PlayStation 3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360 - among many others.

It comes in two flavours, the vanilla VGF-HS1 packing 1TB of storage and the 1.5TB VGF-HS1S, so storage capacity certainly shouldn't be an issue. This capacity is made up of two drives in a RAID 0 array, and can be further augmented via either three USB ports or the various memory card readers sported by the HS1.

Data is primarily accessed over a gigabit Ethernet link, which should be more than fast enough for most home users. Outside the home, the HS1 also offers a remote access feature, the function of which is pretty self explanatory. A feature called VAIO Picture Lab collates a set of images stored on the HS1 to be played in a web browser as a slideshow and downloaded should you so wish.

As usual, we've no UK released dates or pricing yet, but given the availability of the VAIO TP1 in the UK, it seems that the VGF-HS1 will also ship over here very soon. In Japan you'll be paying ¥60,000 (£300) for the 1TB version and ¥80,000 (£400) for the 1.5TB system. That's a bit more expensive than many similar NAS boxes, but not extortionate.

Link:
Sony press release.