NETGEAR Unveils Internet-Connected Set-Top Boxes

NETGEAR introduced an Internet-connected set-top box for playing online content on HDTV screens. NETGEAR's Internet TV Player (ITV2000) is a compact "plug in and go" Internet set-top device with a remote control that enables viewers to catch up on the world of Internet videos including YouTube, live Internet TV, popular Internet video websites, premium video-on-demand and online video searches.


It supports streaming of live TV broadcasts from Internet sites around the world, and premium, paid movies on demand such as CinemaNow.com, in addition to downloaded videos from sites such as BitTorrent. It also features "VTap" video search capabilities enable the intelligent search of Internet videos, including targeting video sites by country, topic of interest, person or popular website. Consumers are also able to play video, music, and photos from a local USB flash drive as well as from the NETGEAR ReadyNAS family of storage solutions. The device is priced at US.$199 MSRP.


"Internet video consumption is at an all-time high," said Vivek Pathela, NETGEAR's vice president and general manager of home/consumer products. "Just in the month of October 2008 alone, comScore estimated that almost half of the total U.S. population viewed more than 13.5 billion online videos. That's a large number of Internet videos that are viewed mostly on PCs, even though many people would rather watch them on their TVs."http://www.netgear.com