HP has announced the launch of a Media Extender for under the television ahead of CES in Las Vegas.

Called the HP MediaSmart Receiver x280N, the device will stream media via a home network, or from an optional internal hard drive.

The MediaSmart Receiver x280N has the ability to stream a wide variety of video (including MPEG-2, DivX, WMV, WMV-HD, and H.264/MP4 files), audio (MP3, WMA, WMA-Pro, WAV, AAC/m4a), and images (JPEG, BMP, GIF, and PNG photos) from networked PCs to your living room TV via its wired Ethernet or wireless 802.11a/b/g/n connections.

The box sports as you would expect a HDMI and component video output, although only at HD resolutions up to 720p and 1080i rather than 1080p.

No word on pricing or availability in the UK.

We will keep you posted.