Streaming media players are no joke. In fact, cable has become the joke. Just take a look at this “Shit Silicon Valley Says” video — the first joke is, “are you cancelling cable?”
But at the moment, it’s still difficult to do so. You can’t get everything that you could possibly want through a streaming set-top box. The only place you can get everything you want is on the TV, or (cough cough illegally) on the internet. But what if you could get everything a streaming media player has to offer, like Netflix, HuluPlus, etc., but also wirelessly stream all of the content on your laptop to your big screen TV?
That’s clearly the question Netgear asked itself before building the NeoTV Pro HD streaming media player, which is one of the only media players on the market that can wirelessly stream your laptop display up onto your television screen. Of course, there are some limitations, as you’ll need an Intel-based Wireless Display laptop to play along. Sorry Mac users.
Past that, there are plenty of channels offered through the NeoTV Pro HD, including Netflix, HuluPlus, YouTube, Amazon Video, and Vudu and hundreds more. It also comes with built-in 300Mbps Wifi, an Ethernet port, and supports 1080p HD video resolution.
You’ll be able to download an iOS or Android app that will let you control the media player straight from your smartphone. And if you don’t have a smartphone, a regular remote comes in the box.
The NeoTV Pro HD is available now for $ 69.99.
Western Digital is getting a lot of mileage out of their WD TV media players, and that trend continues today with the announcement of their new WD TV Live box. Unlike its big brother, the WD TV Live is strictly a streamer, but it has a reason to boast: it’s the first WD product to ship with Spotify support
The WD TV Live doesn’t have any internal storage to speak of, but it does sport 2 USB ports for all of you who carry thumb drives full of illicit TV shows.
Once it’s set up on a wireless network or an ethernet connection, the WD TV Live can access media from computers on your home network, or from content partners like Netflix, Hulu Plus, and Pandora. It’s got enough horsepower to playback video content at 1080p, and supports a boatload of media formats from the mundane (like AVIs) to the more obscure (hello MKV!).
Ardent Spotify fans need not worry about missing out here. The WD TV Live supports a majority of Spotify features, like managing playlists, sharing songs, and subscribing to friends and fellow music lovers with good taste.
With companies like Microsoft looking to own the living room with their new media initiatives, it makes it harder and harder for boxes like the WD TV Live to pick up any steam. Still, its price point is sure to help: at $ 99, the WD TV Live is an inexpensive way to start streaming with minimal headaches. It’s set to appear in Western Digital’s online store shortly, and it shouldn’t be long before it hits your electronics retailer of choice.
Last time we saw the Xtreamer Prodigy, it was shaping up to be quite the slick little media streamer with a Realtek 1185 chipset running at 500MHz, a plethora of supported codecs, and a fancy flash-based GUI with Android underpinnings. In the months since, the Prodigy hit the gym and now packs Realtek’s 1186 silicon clocked at 750MHz and HDMI 1.4 for pumping out video in three dee. There’s also Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11n WiFi, and support for up to a 3TB HDD in its 3.5-inch bay, so you can source your videos from home or abroad with the greatest of ease. Currently up for pre-order, this digital media distributing dandy will cost €149 (that’s $ 213 here in the States), but won’t ship until September.
Xtreamer’s Prodigy media streamer gets upgraded internals, shoots 3D video to your screen for €149 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Jun 2011 22:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Carnegie Mellon student and a future Google intern Sohail Prasad built a working torrent streamer at this weekend’s TC Hackaton and demoed it to us today after tweaking a few things. The product will be available soon at Nowstre.am and Sohail is trying to figure out a more, shall we say “legal,” use case for the product.
The app allows you to grab a torrent link, pass it to the interface, and then begin streaming the video instantly. We saw it work at Disrupt but, obviously, he wants to assure you and the MPAA that he means no harm.
You can sign up for the beta or you can see the product in Sohail’s demo video below.
It’s not exactly a minty fresh concept, but if you’re bored with networked media streamers slinging content and content alone, Awind’s McTiVia might just be the nugget of unconventional that you’ve been after. For all intents and purposes, this is a souped-up wireless router that pipes all content from your Mac or PC onto your HDMI-equipped HDTV. The goal? To create cord-free HDTVs, in a sense. It’s capable of controlling up to eight computers via mouse or keyboard, and it also doubles as a WiFi access point for those needing to usher themselves into the modern century. She’s expected to hit retail in late May for $ 199, and we’ll be doing our darnedest to test one out as soon as shipments begin.
Gallery: McTiVia networked streamer press shots
Continue reading McTiVia networked streamer slinging PC content to TV screens this May
McTiVia networked streamer slinging PC content to TV screens this May originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 16 Apr 2011 06:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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It may look vaguely like an accessory to a late-80s PC that’s sprouted antennas, but Hauppauge’s new “Broadway” live TV streamer does have a few more modern tricks up its sleeve: it can stream live TV to your iPhone or iPad. That can be done over WiFi in your house or over the internet anywhere else, and the device packs a multi-format receiver that can tune in both digital cable TV channels and ATSC over-the-air broadcast channels (or analog TV, for that matter), which are all conveniently compressed for streaming. Alongside it, Hauppauge has also rolled out its new dual-format WinTV-Aero-m USB receiver for PCs (pictured after the break), which will let you receive Mobile Digital TV broadcasts designed for mobile TV reception, as well as high definition ATSC digital TV broadcasts. Look for it to be available soon for $ 69, while the Broadway streamer will be available in “about six weeks” for $ 199.
Continue reading Hauppauge debuts Broadway live TV streamer for iPhones and iPads, WinTV-Aero-m receiver for PCs
Hauppauge debuts Broadway live TV streamer for iPhones and iPads, WinTV-Aero-m receiver for PCs originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 08 Jan 2011 04:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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2010 may arguably be the year of the tablet, but darn if media streamers aren’t breathing down their neck. This year, we’ve seen an explosion in the quantity and quality of media streamer options, with even the mighty Google buying in via its Google TV solution. One of the earlier birds, Roku, decided to dole out an updated box just a few months ago, and now it’s competing against the Apple TV, a few WD TV Live units, D-Link’s Boxee Box and scores of integrated options within HDTVs. At $ 99, there’s an awful lot of choices on the market, but we’re curious to know how XDS early adopters would tweak and / or overhaul things if given the golden opportunity. Would you change the exterior at all? How about the user interface? Add any content partners? How’s the remote control situation treating you? Think of comments below ike you would an AA meeting — speak your heart and wait for nods. We’re all one in this brainstorming bubble.
How would you change Roku’s XDS media streamer? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Dec 2010 23:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Your Apple TVs and your Google TVs hold a lot of potential, but their limited access to content freely available to any ‘ol PC and Mac is what you’d call a bit of a problem. The latest product from Orb fixes that by being a simple media streamer, relying on a computer elsewhere on the network to pull that content locally before turning around and pumping it back out to the company’s new Orb TV coaster, which in turn displays it on your actual TV. Since the content is hitting the computer first (the “Orb Caster”) Hulu is available on-tap, but somewhere along the way support for HD video quality goes out the window: this thing maxes out at VGA. Sure, you can already do this with your TVersity’s and the like, but the Orb TV is a lot smaller than your average media extender hardware, has a very handy remote control app for the iPhone (Android coming soon), and kindly will support multiple Orb devices on the same network. Best of all? It’s shipping right now, so make with the clicking and get your Gleek on.
Orb TV is the $ 99 video streamer that will do Netflix and Hulu, but not HD originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Nov 2010 07:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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This certainly isn’t the first media streamer we’ve seen but the very fact that this non-smartphone sports HTC branding makes our hearts flutter with curious anticipation. HTC’s Media Link (model DH H100) just made its appearance in the FCC putting it right on schedule for a Q4 release. It tested on 802.11n WiFi at both 2.4GHz and 5GHz for wirelessly streaming (DLNA) photos, audio, and video up to 720p to your HDMI connected TV. Otherwise, you can always tether that HTC handset to the microUSB jack. We’re not seeing any mention of the rumored “Tube” product name — perhaps that was the internal codename and the more mundane (but descriptive) Media Link moniker will stick for retail. We should see lickity quick now that US certification is done.
HTC Media Link DLNA media streamer dances through the FCC with 802.11n WiFi originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Nov 2010 06:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We like the Google TV, we really do, we just think it needs another few months in the oven before it’s really going to rock anyone’s world. It won’t just be Google that makes or breaks it, though, and innovative uses like GameString Adrenalin are certainly going to help. That site offers what it calls “Personal Cloud Gaming,” letting you stream the output from seemingly any game on your PC to a browser, where it can be played on a number of devices. Chrome within the Google TV is just one of them, but given how something like a Revue comes with a keyboard and is usually attached to a big display it seems like a good choice. We can’t be sure what the lag is like when playing in this way, but the video embedded below does make it look pretty snappy — though hopefully the service doesn’t force you to listen to the same classic Prodigy that trailer does. Right now the service is in free beta, so have at it at the source link.
Continue reading GameString Adrenalin turns your Google TV into a game streamer, will WoW your couch (video)
GameString Adrenalin turns your Google TV into a game streamer, will WoW your couch (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 31 Oct 2010 17:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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