Pinnacle ShowCenter 250HD Review

by Christopher Kirkman · Published December 3, 2007 · Updated

Got a device that streams HD videos, music and photos from your computer to your 42″ flat screen? No?!?!? Is it time to get one? Probably. Is Pinnacle ShowCenter 250HD it? Probably not.

At it’s core, the ShowCenter is a remote window to your PC. If you’re running Windows Media Player 11 or compatible media server software (Orb, Winamp Remote, etc..) the ShowCenter will read and playback most of the content contained in your media library. A USB port let’s you plug in a camera or other USB storage device for more files. However, don’t let it’s name fool you. At first glance, Pinnacle had us believing it had a 250gb hard drive to store said files, eliminating the need for an always-on computer. The entry level $199 price tag should have made us look closer.

Aesthetically, the ShowCenter should easily assimilate to any home theatre system. Silver and black with a single power button, a few up front LEDs (which were a little distracting) and an exposed USB port. A matching remote control will similarly blend in to your burgeoning collection looking strikingly similar to a TiVo remote, minus the wooden taster spoon shape. Built in 802.11 b/g wireless capabilities eliminate the need for further cables, though the option is available to less than upgraded households.

Connections you ask? Well, you got your wired ethernet, a set of composite outputs, a set of component outputs, s-video, optical audio out, power and umm…. SCART. If you’re not reading this article from somewhere in Europe, yer probably either saying “WTF is SCART” or “SCART? Really? Wow.” The ShowCenter is being distributed internationally, so in the box you’ll find 4 power plug options depending on your corner of the world. The SCART audio/video connection is a European standard for home theatre and built into the unit. It looks, and in a way is, antiquated since it’s been around since the lates 70’s. Still, I can understand Pinnacle’s drive to reach a wider audience. Though I can’t speak to their international product success, I found it very annoying that by default, video output is set in the software to ouput via SCART, requiring immediate user adjustments by US residents. Even more dissapointing for a High Definition product was the lack of an HDMI port. Oh, and this just pissed me off. They gave us every cable under the sun, several we won’t ever use, but FAILED to include a set of component cables. C’mon folks, international standards or no, if you’re marketing and distributing a High Definition product, you MUST include the HD cables. It’s a no brainer.

Functionally, the ShowCenter performed just OK. Initial setup was frustrating on several levels. After getting the video output to finally use the component output, it was time to set up the network. Being security minded, our wirless network is naturally behind a WEP key, which needs to be provided in order for the unit to connect. Unfortunately, it has to be typed in as if it were on a cell phone’s numerical keypad. Keyboard support is nill, so get those thumbs warmed up. Once an IP address was established a list of available media servers were displayed allowing us to select. Happily, it recognized our Winamp Remote Server, Windows Media Player and even one older system with Windows Media Connect. Missing: our iTunes share. The ShowCenter will not play AAC files, so don’t count on plugging in any of your popular portable media devices.

After choosing our server, the unit displays a GUI interface to nagivate between available music, videos, pictures and saved playlists. The menus are, we’ll say, ‘strongly influenced’ by a certain other media player, mentioned earlier as being incompatible. Similarities however are only skin deep. From here on out, the menus are sluggish and navigation is incohesive. Pressing the back button works on some menus to go back, other times you actually need to navigate to the word ‘back’ in order to exit a menu or return to the main screen. Even the prominent home button on the remote only works in certain menus, and even after 2 weeks of review, I couldn’t tell you which it worked in and which it didn’t.

We were impressed that streaming media fed via Winamp Remote (youtube feeds, aol video, internet radio) played, albeit choppy (we assumed this was an issue with download to stream ratio). MP3, WMA and WAV audio came through flawlessly, but skipping from track to track or ahead in the playing tracking was very slow. We were able to play MPG, AVI and even DivX videos, but several video onyl produced a vague missing codec or playback error, neither of which we could consistantly reproduce. Since this is a PC based product, don’t expect Quicktime or h.264 encoded MP4 files to play. Fortunately, we did see a full 1080i resolution reproduced cleanly and crisply on our office’s plasma. We’re told that when coupled with a Pinnacle PCTV stick, the unit has some DVR capabilities allowing you pause, rewind and record live TV to your PCs hard drive, but as of this writing we’ve been unable to review the compatibility.

As media centers go, the ShowCenter 250HD isn’t a terrible solution, especially for it’s low price, for doing exaclty as advertised, just not doing it especially well. For around a hundred bucks more you could get an Apple TV that actually has a hard drive for media storage or an Xbox 360 Core that plays Hi-Def games in addition to the functions offered by the ShowCenter and without all the frustration. Sorry Pinnacle. Some of your past video products were first on my list, but the ShowCenter 250HD comes off as a quick-to-market, let’s-jump-on-the-bandwagon media center.