NETGEAR, Inc., a global networking company that delivers innovative products to consumers, businesses and service providers, today announced a new family of next-generation streaming players that deliver a superior connected home entertainment experience. The three new NETGEAR NeoTV Streaming Players are among the first to support the HTML 5 standard, which is rapidly being adopted by content providers as the ideal method for streaming entertainment into homes. The new NeoTV Streaming Players use HTML 5, HLS, and digital rights management tools like Microsoft PlayReady to provide access to hundreds of HD streaming channels and a variety of entertainment features that offer an outstanding home theater experience for consumers.
The new NETGEAR streaming players are perfect for upgrading standard TVs to smart TVs. Additionally, if you are unsatisfied with the content availability or ease-of-use of your smart TV, NeoTV will broaden your access to content and features apps that turn smartphones into remote control devices to simplify finding and playing content.
The streaming players – NeoTV (NTV300), NeoTV PRO (NTV300S) and NeoTV MAX (NTV300SL) – are perfect for streaming thousands of movies, TV shows or songs from Netflix, Vudu, Hulu Plus, YouTube, Best Buy CinemaNow, Pandora, Rhapsody and many other channels to your big screen TV in full 1080p HD and 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound. All three streaming players offer flexible Internet connectivity through built-in WiFi or a wired Ethernet connection. Each streaming player includes a remote control featuring one-touch Quick Start buttons to ensure easy access to your favorite streaming channels like Netflix, YouTube and others. An optional free remote control app is available for download from Google Play® or from the Apple App Store. The app turns an Apple® iPhone®, iPad®, iPod® Touch, Android® smartphone or tablet into a simple touch screen remote control for any of the NeoTV Streaming Players.
According to a study by Parks Associates, the percentage of connected device owners going online every month to watch streaming movies and TV shows grew nearly 20% from the third quarter of last year to early 2012. NeoTV Streaming Players feature higher performance processors for faster navigation and support for HTML5 streaming channels, providing a rich, interactive and dynamic streaming experience. These enhancements strongly position the NeoTV Streaming Player line to take advantage of the rapid growth in web-based content delivery.
In addition to the streaming channels and all the NeoTV (NTV300) features, the NeoTV PRO (NTV300S) is still the first streaming player to offer Intel® Wireless Display (WiDi), which allows you to wirelessly display your laptop screen on your TV in up to 1080p full-HD video resolution and 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound. If you have a compatible Intel WiDi laptop, you can now wirelessly display videos, photos, music or any website on a big screen TV, instead of watching it on the small laptop screen. The NeoTV PRO also brings smart TV capabilities to virtually any TV by offering an AV port that enables the NeoTV PRO to be connected to older TVs that do not have HDMI ports.
The NeoTV MAX (NTV300SL) takes the connected home theater experience a step further – beyond the capabilities of most existing smart TVs. In addition to all of the NeoTV and NeoTV PRO features, NeoTV MAX offers the ability to play personal media from external hard disk drives, USB drives and DLNA media servers. NeoTV MAX enables you to enjoy your favorite home movies, view photos from your vacation, or listen to songs directly on your TV. The NeoTV MAX also comes with a premium remote control with simple navigation buttons on one side and a full QWERTY keyboard on the other, so you can easily type in the titles of the videos, movies or songs you are searching for. In addition, with the NeoTV MAX Streaming Player you can now enjoy 3D streaming movies from Vudu on your 3D capable TV for an immersive, connected entertainment experience.
"NeoTV Streaming Players offer a variety of entertainment features to meet every consumer’s need, whether you are a novice at streaming movies or someone who wants an advanced experience like wireless display or playback of personal media," said Damir Skripic, product line manager for connected entertainment at NETGEAR. "NeoTV lets you stream your favorite TV shows like 'Modern Family' on Hulu Plus, listen to Maroon 5's songs on Pandora, or watch 'The Hunger Games' on Vudu–all on your big screen TV in HD for an ideal connected home entertainment experience."
As an added bonus - from now until December 31, 2012 NETGEAR NeoTV, NeoTV PRO and NeoTV MAX will include select content from Disney’s “Wreck-It Ralph,” a hilarious arcade-game-hopping adventure in theaters Nov. 2, 2012. NETGEAR is also introducing a nationwide sweepstakes for an amazing movie-fan prize pack –enter for a chance to win a trip for four to Los Angeles for a tour of Walt Disney Animation Studios and four tickets to a theatrical release of every Disney movie in 2013! No purchase necessary to enter or win. Open to US residents, 21 and older. Void where prohibited or restricted. Starts 9/15/12 and ends on 12/31/12. Visit netgear.com/disney to enter and for complete rules.
Pricing and Availability The entire NETGEAR NeoTV Streaming Player line is available in the United States beginning September 20, 2012 for purchase at major retailers and online. The NeoTV Streaming Player (NTV300) is priced at USD $49.99. The NeoTV PRO Streaming Player (NTV300S) is priced at USD $59.99, and the NeoTV MAX Streaming Player (NTV300SL) is priced at USD $69.99.
To learn more about the NeoTV Streaming Players and other NETGEAR connected entertainment products, please visit http://www.netgear.com/stream.
