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Roku Inc. today announced an all-new family of streaming players. Designed to provide a better TV experience for every streaming fan, the new Roku LT, Roku 1 and Roku 2 players give consumers more useful features – whether it’s the ability to turn up a late-night flick without waking the kids or search quickly for the latest movie – that let them focus on enjoying their entertainment. The new Roku LT player will be available in the U.S. while the Roku 1 and Roku 2 players will be available in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and the Republic of Ireland. The flagship Roku 3 player which launched in the U.S. in March is now also available in all of these countries.
“These new players bring useful improvements at existing prices – just in time for the holidays,” said Jim Funk, SVP of product management, Roku. “We’re giving customers more value for their money by adding a headphone jack for private listening and dual-band wireless to the Roku 2, and support for 1080p HD video to the Roku 1. We are excited to bring these and other great features to our new line-up which provides a better TV experience across every price point.”
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Rovi Corporation, driving digital entertainment innovation, today unveiled DivX 10, the first consumer software application to enable the free creation and playback of DivX video in the new High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC/H.265) standard. This innovative software application puts the power of HEVC – a standard expected to deliver up to double the compression of H.264 – into consumers’ hands for the first time with DivX. Rovi is demonstrating DivX 10 at IFA this week in Hall 25, Stand 151.
DivX 10 is the latest in a long line of DivX consumer software that collectively has been downloaded close to 1 billion times. Available via www.divx.com as a free download for Windows and Mac computers, DivX 10 lets consumers easily create DivX HEVC video up to 1080p for high quality playback across multiple screens, including personal computers, mobile phones and tablets, and consumer electronics (CE) devices.
“We believe DivX 10 is an application that will help fuel HEVC content availability and generate demand for playback support to be integrated into consumer electronics devices,” said Kanaan Jemili, senior vice president, product management, Rovi Corp. “A first of its kind, DivX 10 is one element of a broader DivX HEVC ecosystem spanning software, hardware, content and services that could help companies realize new cost savings and improve the video entertainment experience for consumers.”
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HDMI Forum, Inc., a non-profit, mutual benefit corporation, today announced the release of Version 2.0 of the HDMI Specification. This latest HDMI Specification, the first to be developed by the HDMI Forum, offers a significant increase in bandwidth (up to 18Gbps) to support new features such as 4K@50/60 (2160p), which is 4 times the clarity of 1080p/60 video resolution; 32 audio channels; as well as dynamic auto lip-sync and extensions to CEC. The complete Version 2.0 of the HDMI Specification is available to Adopters on the HDMI Adopter Extranet. HDMI Licensing, LLC will host a press conference to discuss the new features of the HDMI 2.0 Specification at IFA 2013 in Berlin on Friday, September 6 at 12:00pm in the TecWatch Forum area of Hall 11.1.
Version 2.0 of the HDMI Specification, which is backward compatible with earlier versions of the Specification, was developed by the HDMI Forum’s Technical Working Group whose members represent some of the world’s leading manufacturers of consumer electronics, personal computers, mobile devices, cables and components. The HDMI Forum currently has a membership of 88 companies.
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Rovi Corporation, driving digital entertainment innovation, today announced DivX Video Service, an end-to-end video solution for high-quality multi-screen video delivery that is designed to integrate with and enhance TV Everywhere and over-the-top entertainment services. Building upon core DivX video technologies and DRM, as well as MainConcept professional encoders, DivX Video Service offers components for managing the entire video distribution chain from creation and secure delivery to multi-screen playback. This end-to-end approach enables video services to offer the highest possible level of consistency, flexibility, and interoperability.
DivX Video Service is available now and supports a range of entertainment distribution models including digital downloads and connected-device streaming. Later this year, Rovi plans to update DivX Video Service to support HEVC/H.265, the latest compression standard set to enable the broader availability of HD video and delivery of 4K entertainment.
“DivX Video Service brings together established and proven technologies to streamline the otherwise complex and costly task of delivering video entertainment across multiple devices,” said Kanaan Jemili, SVP, Product Management, Rovi Corporation. “With upcoming support for HEVC, we believe DivX Video Service is not only a solution for high-quality video distribution today, but also set to drive a new-generation of advanced entertainment experiences in the future.”
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Today Roku is making it easier and quicker than ever to access more than 750 channels of the best movies, TV shows, sports, music and games with the new Roku 3. The fastest, most powerful Roku streaming player to date, Roku 3 delivers useful innovation – including a faster processor and an enhanced remote with a headphone jack for private listening – and marks the introduction of Roku's new user interface enabling more fluid browsing and navigation.
"As Roku continues to build the largest selection of streaming entertainment, we are always exploring ways to improve the TV experience for our customers," said Anthony Wood, founder and CEO, Roku. "Roku 3 introduces thoughtful new features that customers will love. The intuitive new interface makes it easy to find movies and shows quickly while the private listening mode is perfect for late-night streamers who don't want to wake up the family."
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WD, a Western Digital company, and a world leader in storage solutions for the connected life, today unveils WD TV Play, a versatile media player that streams popular Internet channels, as well as personal photos, music and movies from other networked devices in the home, directly to an HDTV. Priced at just $69.99 USD, WD TV Play expands upon the existing WD TV family of products, offering an engaging new app-based user interface to allow customers to easily personalize their entertainment experience.
With the Wi-Fi connected WD TV Play media player, customers can easily stream hit movies, view the latest viral videos, catch up on TV shows and stay connected to social networks through apps such as YouTube, Netflix, Hulu Plus, VUDU, SlingPlayer, Spotify, Pandora and Facebook, among many others. Unlike many other streaming media players, WD TV Play also lets customers enjoy a variety of media they already own, such as photos, music and videos. Customers can play content located on any computer or network attached storage that has a DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) server, such as the My Book Live personal cloud storage, as well as from any directly connected digital camcorder, camera or USB drive.
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Amazon today announced the launch of Amazon AutoRip, a new service that gives customers free MP3 versions of CDs they purchase from Amazon. When customers purchase AutoRip CDs, the MP3 versions are automatically added to their Cloud Player libraries, where they are available, free of charge, for immediate playback or download – no more waiting for the CD to arrive. Additionally, customers who have purchased AutoRip CDs at any time since Amazon first opened its Music Store in 1998 will find MP3 versions of those albums in their Cloud Player libraries – also automatically and for free. More than 50,000 albums, including titles from every major record label, are available for AutoRip, and more titles are added all the time – customers can just look for the AutoRip logo.
“What would you say if you bought music CDs from a company 15 years ago, and then 15 years later that company licensed the rights from the record companies to give you the MP3 versions of those CDs… and then to top it off, did that for you automatically and for free?” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com Founder and CEO. “Well, starting today, it's available to all of our customers – past, present, and future – at no cost. We love these opportunities to do something unexpected for our customers.”
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Hauppauge Digital, Inc., the world's leading developer and manufacturer of TV tuners and HD video recorders, has launched two new models in their line of high definition video recorders. One model is geared toward home media enthusiasts, while the other is designed for advanced gamers.
The new model for home media users is called HD PVR 2 model 1512. HD PVR 2 users can create a library of their favorite cable TV or satellite TV programs in HD. HD PVR 2 has a built-in high definition video recorder plus an IR blaster to control channel changing on a set top box. HD PVR 2 is connected to both a set top box with supplied component video cables and to a PC, using the PC's disk drive for storing the recordings. With the supplied Hauppauge WinTV v7.2 application, the HD PVR 2 can be programmed to change the channels on the set top box using the IR blaster at a designated time. HD PVR 2 is also compatible with Windows Media Center from Windows 7 and Windows 8.
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Toshiba’s Digital Products Division (DPD), a division of Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., today announced a new line of Media Boxes with Blu-ray Disc, DVD and Audio CD player capabilities that offers a better, smarter connected experience. Unlike other media streaming devices, the Toshiba Media Boxes include advanced features such as a full, open web browser with bookmark capability, an easy-to-use multi-page user interface. In addition, models with built-in Wi-Fi® support Miracast for seamlessly displaying video between devices, without cables or a network connection.
Toshiba Media Boxes also provide access to a wide variety of high quality content, including key media apps such as YouTube®, Netflix®, Vudu® Movies and Vudu Apps, CinemaNow®, Hulu Plus and Pandora®.
“The consumer embrace of streaming media continues to grow, yet families also own and continue to amass significant libraries of disc media. Toshiba has developed a Media Box that truly meets the needs of the time,” said Scott Ramirez, vice president of product marketing and development, Toshiba America Information Systems, Digital Products Division. “Toshiba has combined a high quality streaming media box with a universal disc player for Blu-ray Disc, DVD and CD playback to create a single device that handles all media needs.”
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NETGEAR, Inc., a global networking company that delivers innovative products to consumers, businesses and service providers, announced today at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) the new NETGEAR NeoTV PRIME with Google TV (GTV100) streaming player. As the newest addition to the NETGEAR family of streaming players for connected home theater entertainment, NeoTV PRIME enables you to easily find what you love to watch —whether it's on live TV, streaming entertainment, apps, or the web— using one small NeoTV player.
Building on the features of NETGEAR NeoTV, NeoTV PRO and NeoTV MAX family of streaming players, the new NeoTV PRIME with Google TV extends your entertainment experience beyond just streaming video or even basic TV viewing. NeoTV PRIME opens up the world of apps from Google Play, delivering access to a growing library of entertainment including movies, TV shows, and music from streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, HBO Go, Crackle, Flixter, Rhapsody, Pandora and many more. Google Play gives you movies and new releases in HD, music albums, and apps designed specifically for the TV.
