Netgear’s ITV2000 Internet TV Player is half the size of the Roku Netflix Player and pulls from 90+ live streams (foreign news!), plus search clips from sites like NBC, ESPN and YouTube.
The Skinny: If you don’t already have some device hooked up to your TV that can access these sites, or you want to watch European news whenever you feel like it, you might want check this thing out. In addition to the video clip search and 90+ live feeds (200-300 planned for the future), the ITV 2000 can connect to cinema now, vu now, or photo services. You can also plug in a USB drive and watch or listen to your own media via USB.
The device connects over wi-fi or ethernet, and has composite, component and HDMI connections. The Netgear ITV2000 Internet TV Player will be available this summer for $200.
Internet TV Player (ITV2000)
NETGEAR’s Internet TV Player (ITV2000) is a compact, easy-to-use, “plug in and go” Internet set-top
device with a simple 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 retrieving billions of Internet videos from a place it was previously unavailable —
the TV in their living rooms. Rather than watching videos on PC screens in separate rooms, families can
watch video from a variety of Internet sources on the TV together, in the comfort of their den or family
room.
The Internet TV Player unlocks the value of new HDTVs as well as old analog TVs. It is ideal for the
Internet families who enjoy online video, and for those who are geographically displaced from their
preferred television content, such as international sporting events and Bollywood productions. It streams
content from popular sites such as BBC.com, CNN.com, ESPN.com, EuroSport.com, NBC.com,
PGATour and TMZ.com, as well as video powerhouses YouTube, Google Videos™, Yahoo Videos™ and
MetaCafe™. NETGEAR’s Internet TV Player 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®. Its superior 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.
Slightly larger than a deck of cards, the compact Internet TV Player connects to the home network and the
Internet via Ethernet or wireless USB adapter. It does not require a PC to play Internet video, nor does it
require installing any PC software or setting up file sharing or firewall settings.
The NETGEAR Internet TV Player (ITV2000) is expected to be available in early Summer 2009 through
leading retailers, e-commerce sites, and value-added resellers, at an MSRP in the U.S. of $199. More
information can be found at
(http://www.netgear.com/Products/Entertainment/DigitalMediaPlayers/itv2000.aspx).
