Networking gear maker Netgear is aiming to tap into all the digital media content folks have stashed on computers and devices around their homes and bring it to the living room HDTV with its new NeoTV 350 HD and NeoTV 550 Ultimate HD media players. The devices are designed to easily enable people to tap into movies, photos, and music on their personal digital media collections via a home network, and bring them out to the the HDTV and home theater system with no muss or fuss. Plus, the units support a wide range of codecs and file formats, and sport USB media and have media card inputs for bringing media directly to the HDTV.
Both units support 1080p playback via HDMI and offer complete access to media collections stored on home media servers, hard drives, memory cards, USB storage devices, home networks, or out on the Internet. Both models support Dolby Digital and DTS surround sound, DLNA/UPnP compatibility, network share connectivity, and optional wireless connection via an optional Wi-Fi adapter. The NeoTV 550 Ultimate HD also sports an ESATA port, and is also compatible with BLue-ray playback, navigation, and BD Live.
Netgear says the media players will be available in October, with the NeoTV 550 Ultimate HD carrying a North American suggested price of $219.99. The NeoTV 350 HD will only be available in Europe and Australia.