Sound & Vision Magazine - Whole Lotta Convergence Goin' On

Whole Lotta Convergence Goin' On

Netgear's EVA8000 Digital Entertainer HD streams YouTube videos directly to your TV.

The bigscreen displays at CES are decidedly hi-def, but in an age when anybody can post a video, CE manufacturers are suddenly touting their products' prowess connecting to anything that moves on the Internet. We saw a slew of announcements intended to let consumers watch pixel-challenged videos, better suited for a corner of a computer screen, on their 50-inch displays.

Netgear, for example, introduced a wired and wireless (802.11g) media receiver that enables you to stream YouTube videos directly to your TV. Ironically, the receiver is called the EVA8000 Digital Entertainer HD and seems to be the first such device with HDMI for streaming high-definition movies at up to 1080p. But still, what did Netgear demo? The Extreme Diet Coke & Mentos Experiments, a YouTube hit in which men in lab coats mock the Bellagio fountains by dropping mints into an array of soda bottles. It's cute but a far cry from 1080p.

The receiver also streams songs, including ones purchased from the iTunes Music Store, from a Windows computer but not a Mac. A Netgear official refused to explain how the company got around Apple's Fairplay restrictions. The EVA8000 will be available in the first quarter for $349.

SanDisk offered a sneakernet solution for watching videos downloaded from the Internet on your TV. Referring to it as a "flash DVD player," the USBTV is actually a USB flash drive that you use to copy videos or other content from your computer. You then walk it over to its mate, a cradle containing a multimedia processor that plugs into any TV's S-video input. It comes with a small remote and is expected to be available in 2- and 4-gigabyte versions in March at an undisclosed price.

"In the convergence of the Web and home entertainment, USBTV solves in a simple, elegant way the last 10-feet of the content portability problem in the home between the PC and the TV," declared SanDisk CEO Eli Harari. The company says it is in discussions with LG, Mitsubishi, and Pioneer about adding connectors and embedded software into next-generation TVs so cradles wouldn't be necessary.

One other piece of sneakernet news: Panasonic said some of its future plasma TV models could embed software for decoding high-definition video captured on its new SD-card camcorder. The slot in current models is used to show just photos.

Of course, lugging storage media around the house by hand seems terribly low-tech in an age when content is transferred from the Internet or over a home network with a click. So, at CES Sony announced the Bravia Internet Video Link and Microsoft unveiled IPTV on Xbox 360. Two days later, Steve Jobs unveiled Apple TV at Macworld.

Available this summer at a yet-to-be-announced price, the Bravia Internet Video Link is an optional module that attaches to the rear of most of Sony's new televisions to access free Internet video content, including high-definition from partners AOL, Yahoo, and Grouper, Sony Pictures Entertainment, and Sony BMG Music. The book-shaped module connects to your home network through an Ethernet port (Wi-Fi is not built in) and includes a pass-through HDMI output to the TV.

Microsoft chairman Bill Gates announced IPTV on Xbox 360. But the software's availability, expected this fall, is limited to customers of specific cable and telecom operators that have adopted Microsoft's IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) platform. For them, the Xbox becomes their all-in-one set-top box. But a larger audience can already take advantage of Windows Media Center Extender software built into every Xbox 360 for streaming multimedia content from a networked PC or the Internet.

Finally, in San Francisco, Apple chairman Steve Jobs introduced the company's long-rumored set-top receiver, Apple TV. Expected to ship in February for $299, the box streams movies and other media from a Mac or PC via high-speed Airport 802.11n Wi-Fi. It includes a 40-GB hard drive for storing content locally. Its best connections include HDMI or component-video to your TV and optical digital audio to your receiver.

During The Tonight Show on Jan. 11, host Jay Leno noted the downside of Apple's announcement. "They're coming out with a device that will allow you to download videos from the Internet right onto your TV. I don't know," he said. "For most Americans the only activity they get is moving their fat ass from the computer to their TV."

Convergence takes a heavy toll.