Situations ideally accompanied by a set of small but powerful portable travel speakers. The Media Link is so portable that you're bound to pack it up and use it in situations where a decent amplifier isn't available - like, say, in a conference room with a projector or connected to a hotel room TV. One thing that we miss is a 3.5-mm jack to give us more control over the audio output. The only other remarkable physical feature on the Media Link is an unremarkable button on the front with an LED indicator letting you know if the device is on and serving up WiFi. Not that these are complaints, it's just surprising to see a media streamer this small when we're used to the relative bulk of more traditional streamers from Roku, Western Digital, and Popcorn Hour. As a result, the streamer's placement is easily overwhelmed by the tension of the attached microUSB-to-USB and miniHDMI-to-HDMI cables that come bundled with the device. The DLNA 1.5 hardware is easily dwarfed by HTC's modular wall plug (which is already pretty small). It's so small that we thought that our friendly government import agents had stolen it from the box that had obviously been jimmied open for inspection while en route to our European test lab. It measures just 71.5 x 45 x 8-mm which is about two-thirds the length and width of a credit card and about as thick as a stack of nine. To say that HTC's Media Link is small is an understatement. How did it perform? Click through to find out. Over the last week we've been testing the Desire Z (a Eurofied T-Mobile G2) with the Media Link, lazily streaming video, music, and images around the house using a myriad of sources and controllers from Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, and Western Digital. Recently, HTC joined the DLNA ranks with the introduction of two smartphones - the Desire Z and Desire HD - and a tiny media streamer known as the HTC Media Link, HTC's first attempt to gain a foothold in the living room. Since then, the alliance has certified thousands of products supported by more than 245 member companies, 29 of whom are listed as "promoter members" including such heavyweights as Sony, Nokia, Samsung, Toshiba, Verizon, AT&T Lab, LG, Qualcomm, Cisco, Microsoft, Panasonic, Intel, HP, and Motorola. In 2003, the Digital Living Network Alliance ( DLNA) formed with its first set of interoperable products hitting the market in 2004. Apple's AirPlay might be getting all the attention lately but it's hardly the first solution for wirelessly streaming media to the television.
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