With South Africans set to experience high-speed broadband services in mid-2009, Duxbury Networking has released details of two new products that will bring the world of Internet videos, live Internet TV, YouTube and popular Web site content to the home TV in high-definition (HD) format.
The Netgear TV Player and Netgear Digital Entertainer Elite are designed to enhance the connected lifestyles of both Internet-generation families and serious media enthusiasts, says Andy Robb, chief technology officer at Duxbury Networking.
“Most Internet videos are currently viewed on PCs with small image sizes. With the advent of high-speed broadband, end-users will be able to watch them on their large format HDTVs.
“The Netgear family of Internet-connected set-top products will, for the first time, enable South African users to stream content from popular sites such as the BBC, CNN, ESPN, EuroSport, NBC, PGATour and TMZ - as well as video powerhouses YouTube, Google Videos, Yahoo Videos and MetaCafe.
“It also supports streaming of premium, paid movies on demand from such sites as CinemaNow.com. Videos can be downloaded from sites such as BitTorrent.”
Robb says the TV Player's VTap search capabilities enable the intelligent search of Internet videos, including targeting video sites by country, topic of interest, person or popular Web site.
The Netgear Digital Entertainer Elite is targeted at serious media enthusiasts. It incorporates the latest video, audio and wireless technologies and is equipped with an integrated 500GB hard drive, easily user-upgradeable to larger capacity disks.
“In essence this is a powerful, home video jukebox,” adds Robb. “Users can play Blu-Ray quality TV and high-definition digital video and show high-resolution digital photos. They can also play recorded television shows from their PCs or storage on their network. And they can enjoy Internet content, such as YouTube, Internet radio, Flickr, RSS feeds, and videos from popular Web sites.”
The Digital Entertainer Elite automatically finds all digital media files on the home network and organises them into an easily accessible library. It works simultaneously with Windows, Mac and Linux computers as well as Networked Attached Storage (NAS) devices, such as Netgear's family of ReadyNAS storage solutions.
The Digital Entertainer Elite's two USB ports also enable instant access to content on a USB flash drive, digital camera, iPod or other USB storage device.
Multiple Netgear Digital Entertainer Elite units can work in concert throughout a house. Using 'follow me' technology consumers can 'pause' a video in one room and resume it in another. While in 'party mode' they can synchronise music playback for whole-home listening.
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