Pinnacle ShowCenter vs Momitsu DVD-V880N

I am looking forward to THG doing a relook at the "Pinnacle ShowCenter: Symbiosis Between PC And Hi-Fi Device" in January 2004 comparing it to the Momitsu DVD-V880N http://www.manowa.com.tw/dvdplayer880N.html. Not only will this DVD play have all the play features of its cousin DVD-V880 (available here for $229: https://www2.setssl.com/~hivizone/d [...] frame.htm) including control over the MacroVision, DVD regions, HDPC (DVI path encryption), true 1080I/720P resolutions through DVI, it will add network content client features. Although the Momistu site indicates only 802.11b support, besides the standar 10/100baseT, it remains to be seen if the PCMCIA card slot will accept and run with a G wi-fi.

dc

This seems like an interesting product. It's getting closer but still lacks "table stakes" features. To play in this space it needs to add:
1) DVD Loader with region code control
2) 1080i/720P resolution support (network bandwidth may limit this to a lesser bit stream rate??)
3) DVI out with control of DVI encryption
4) Coax/Optical digital audio out

Finally, other than cost and the user interface issues, I've just decided to put a full-up 1U PC in my audio rack and forego the audio/video appliance. I'll just have to build up the features myself. I can't wait for this emergent market space to mature sufficiently for the box that has all that I want.

dc