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Netgear Launches Media Player – MSRP. $219

post #1 of 35
8/31/10 at 11:38am
Thread Starter 
Netgear Launches Media Player - MSRP. $219


NETGEAR®, Inc. today announced the NeoTV 350 HD and NeoTV 550 Ultimate HD Media Players as the flagship products in the NETGEAR AV Series. The NeoTV HD Media Players enable users to play their digital videos, photos, or music directly on their HDTVs whether the media is stored locally, on the home network, or the Internet. The AV Series is made up of easy-to-use products that help consumers easily connect their Internet-ready devices such as HDTVs, Blu-ray players, IPTV set-top boxes, media players and game consoles to the Internet and the home network. Other NeoTV features include a built-in memory card slot for instant photo slideshows on the TV, DLNA/UPnP compatibility for access to media servers, network share connectivity and an optional wireless connection with the AV Series NETGEAR Universal Wi-Fi Internet Adapter (WNCE2001). The NeoTV 350 HD Media Player and NeoTV 550 Ultimate HD Media Player will be available in the fall 2010. The NeoTV 350 will be available in Europe with an MSRP of Euro 129.99 and Australia with an MSRP of AUD $189.99. The NeoTV 550 will be available in North America with an MSRP of $219.99, Europe for Euro 199.99 and Australia for AUD $299.99.

For links and more stories visit the new Streaming Media section at HomeToys.com
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post #2 of 35
8/31/10 at 1:54pm
FYI, from Netgear's product page:

Quote:


Video:
Codec format:
WMV 7/8/9
VC-1
H.263
H.264
MPEG 1/2/4
M–JPEG
Container format: AVI, Xvid, MOV, MP4, MPEG2-PS, MPEG2-TS, DVD VOB,DVD ISO, FLV, MKV, ASF, RM, RMVB
Audio:
MP3, WAV, PCM, LPCM, WMA, WMA Pro, AAC, FLAC, MKA, OGG, APE, Dolby® Digital (AC3), DTS
Photo:
JPEG fi les up to 20 megapixels, BMP, GIF, PNG, TIFF

Looks like an attractive device for those who don't want an HTPC at each TV.
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post #3 of 35
8/31/10 at 2:11pm
Indeed. This thing appears to have it all, for just over $200 msrp. Almost makes me wish I didn't just throw down $700 for HTPC parts. The only thing it's missing (and not everybody will miss it) is HDMI 1.4/3D capability.
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post #4 of 35
8/31/10 at 2:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by bustamelon View Post

Indeed. This thing appears to have it all, for just over $200 msrp. Almost makes me wish I didn't just throw down $700 for HTPC parts. The only thing it's missing (and not everybody will miss it) is HDMI 1.4/3D capability.

And HD bitstreaming, although if you're playing blu-rays with this you can just decode the bitstream ahead of time into LPCM.
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post #5 of 35
8/31/10 at 3:28pm
No BD iso support and no bitstreaming HD audio = meh for me
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post #6 of 35
8/31/10 at 3:36pm
Definitely sounds like a win. I can see myself buying it. Pair it with the eSATA dual HDD enclosure I am going to get and it should be perfect for playing back all my 1080 WMV and MP4 files.
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post #7 of 35
8/31/10 at 3:50pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by daveyd View Post

no bd iso support and no bitstreaming hd audio = meh for me

+1
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post #8 of 35
8/31/10 at 4:01pm
Beta tested this for the past month and must say it is a very nice box to have in place of the HTPC. Very straight forward and easy to stream my existing content on both Windows Vista and 7 machines. No complaints here.
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post #9 of 35
8/31/10 at 5:15pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by stpaulboy View Post

+1

+1000! NO HD audio? BARF...
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post #10 of 35
8/31/10 at 7:15pm
How this compare with e great S1
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post #11 of 35
8/31/10 at 8:03pm
Any screen shots of the menu system? is it snappy?

And does it show the embedded data in the files? That's one thing about appletv I like. (I embedded it using metax)
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post #12 of 35
8/31/10 at 9:08pm
The 350 does NOT have BD support (menus, HD Audio, etc). The 550 DOES have FULL BD support from both ISOs and external eSATA or USB BD readers, including bitstream HD Audio (It cannot decode those formats internally, however - only bitstream over HDMI 1.3 is supported).

The 350 is a more expensive, less featured WDTV Live. The 550, however, is an ideal media streamer for everything from iTunes purchases to High-Resolution Audio on Blu-Ray discs. Do want.

EDIT: Straight from the spec page:

Package Contents

NeoTV™ 550 (NTV550 and stand)
Infrared (IR) remote control
Two (2) AAA batteries
Ethernet cable
AV cable
Note: HDMI cable not included
Quick install guide
Resource CD
Power adapter (localized to country of sale)
Warranty

Localized to country of sale
System Requirements

Analog or HDTV
Connections

Two (2) USB ports (1 front, 1 back)
SD card slot
eSATA port
10/100 Ethernet
Languages

English, French, German, Spanish, Swedish
Media Sources

USB Storage devices
eSATA storage devices
SD memory card
CIFS/Samba, NFS
UPnP AV and DLNA Servers
Windows Media Player 11 Media Sharing
Video and Audio Output

HDMI 1.3a, 36bpp deep color, 12 bit xvYCC processing and HDCP 1.2 compliant
Component video
Composite video
Stereo analog audio
S/PDIF optical digital audio
Digital Media File Formats

Video:
Codec format:
H.264 HP@L4.1 to 1080p
VC1 MP@HL, AP@L3
WMV 7/8/9
MPEG-2 MP@HL to 1080p
MPEG-4 Part 2 ASP@L5 to 10 Mbps (Xvid)
MPEG1/2/4 SD
H.263
Container format: AVI, Xvid, MOV, MP4, MPEG2 PS, MPEG2-TS, DVD ISO/VOB/IFO, MKV, ASF, AVCHD, DivX, WMV, M4A, M2TS, MTS, MP1, MP2, MPG, DVR-MS
Media: Blu-ray
Audio:
Dolby® Digital (AC3), Dolby® Digital Plus, TrueHD
DTS 2.0+, DTS HD and DTS HD MA (passthru)
MP3 up to 320 Kbps or variable bit rate (VBR)
WMA8 and WMA9 up to 192 Kbps or variable bit rate (VBR)
WMAPro, AAC, FLAC (to 5.1, 192Khz), PCM LPCM/WAV (to 5.1, 192Khz)
Internet radio (streaming MP3)
MKA
Photo
JPEG, BMP, PNG, TIFF
Subtitle:
SRT, SMI, SSA, SUB, TXT, DVD, PGS

So even those of us who may have recoded DTS-HD MA and Dolby TrueHD into multichannel FLAC audio will be A-OK with the 550. I'm loving Netgear more and more, lately.
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post #13 of 35
8/31/10 at 11:13pm
Wireless N should also be included at these prices.
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post #14 of 35
9/1/10 at 4:23am
A step in the right direction. Sure the chip is obsolete but I'm sure they'll fix this in the next iteration. Until then this will do just fine. In fact I'm thinking pre-ordering from http://www.lambda-tek.com/components...prodID=2056802
Anyone going to IFA? If yes would you please ask if the player (550) does source direct? This is a deal breaker for me.
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post #15 of 35
9/1/10 at 6:12am
I've got the WDTV Live now but was looking for Netflix support which the new WDTV Live Plus has. I'll have to compare the rest of the features.
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post #16 of 35
9/1/10 at 6:17am
Quote:
Originally Posted by neomaine View Post

I've got the WDTV Live now but was looking for Netflix support which the new WDTV Live Plus has. I'll have to compare the rest of the features.

Let me know if it is worth paying twice as much.
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post #17 of 35
9/1/10 at 6:49am
Quote:
Originally Posted by JustinGN View Post

The 350 does NOT have BD support (menus, HD Audio, etc). The 550 DOES have FULL BD support from both ISOs and external eSATA or USB BD readers, including bitstream HD Audio (It cannot decode those formats internally, however - only bitstream over HDMI 1.3 is supported).

The 350 is a more expensive, less featured WDTV Live. The 550, however, is an ideal media streamer for everything from iTunes purchases to High-Resolution Audio on Blu-Ray discs. Do want.

EDIT: Straight from the spec page:

Package Contents

NeoTV(TM) 550 (NTV550 and stand)
Infrared (IR) remote control
Two (2) AAA batteries
Ethernet cable
AV cable
Note: HDMI cable not included
Quick install guide
Resource CD
Power adapter (localized to country of sale)
Warranty

Localized to country of sale
System Requirements

Analog or HDTV
Connections

Two (2) USB ports (1 front, 1 back)
SD card slot
eSATA port
10/100 Ethernet
Languages

English, French, German, Spanish, Swedish
Media Sources

USB Storage devices
eSATA storage devices
SD memory card
CIFS/Samba, NFS
UPnP AV and DLNA Servers
Windows Media Player 11 Media Sharing
Video and Audio Output

HDMI 1.3a, 36bpp deep color, 12 bit xvYCC processing and HDCP 1.2 compliant
Component video
Composite video
Stereo analog audio
S/PDIF optical digital audio
Digital Media File Formats

Video:
Codec format:
H.264 HP@L4.1 to 1080p
VC1 MP@HL, AP@L3
WMV 7/8/9
MPEG-2 MP@HL to 1080p
MPEG-4 Part 2 ASP@L5 to 10 Mbps (Xvid)
MPEG1/2/4 SD
H.263
Container format: AVI, Xvid, MOV, MP4, MPEG2 PS, MPEG2-TS, DVD ISO/VOB/IFO, MKV, ASF, AVCHD, DivX, WMV, M4A, M2TS, MTS, MP1, MP2, MPG, DVR-MS
Media: Blu-ray
Audio:
Dolby® Digital (AC3), Dolby® Digital Plus, TrueHD
DTS 2.0+, DTS HD and DTS HD MA (passthru)
MP3 up to 320 Kbps or variable bit rate (VBR)
WMA8 and WMA9 up to 192 Kbps or variable bit rate (VBR)
WMAPro, AAC, FLAC (to 5.1, 192Khz), PCM LPCM/WAV (to 5.1, 192Khz)
Internet radio (streaming MP3)
MKA
Photo
JPEG, BMP, PNG, TIFF
Subtitle:
SRT, SMI, SSA, SUB, TXT, DVD, PGS

So even those of us who may have recoded DTS-HD MA and Dolby TrueHD into multichannel FLAC audio will be A-OK with the 550. I'm loving Netgear more and more, lately.

Is there any good reason why they are not using gigabit connections with these media players!!!!
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post #18 of 35
9/1/10 at 6:59am
Quote:
Originally Posted by JustinGN View Post

The 550 DOES have FULL BD support from both ISOs and external eSATA or USB BD readers, including bitstream HD Audio (It cannot decode those formats internally, however - only bitstream over HDMI 1.3 is supported).

Justin, etc......when you mention above that it cannot decode HD audio, does that mean if I hook up directly to a TV via HDMI (no avr connected) and stream bluray .m2ts rips with HD audio only (DTSHD / TrueHD) I will not get audio?
I tested my EVA9150 this way and TrueHD audio works but not DTSHD......this is a critical need so if you can help clarify or confirm that'll be great.

The 500 definitely can stream bluray ISO's?

Lastly if I may, comparing the Dune with the new 550, do you know how many mbps the 550 will max out at?.....I believe the Dune can handle 50+ which is great since some of the BD discs these days are 45+ mbps.
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post #19 of 35
9/1/10 at 6:59am
Quote:
Originally Posted by kciaccio View Post

Is there any good reason why they are not using gigabit connections with these media players!!!!

I can think of two:

1. It is not required for streaming blu-ray.
2. gigabit would require a separate card = additional cost.
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post #20 of 35
9/1/10 at 10:19am
Quote:
Originally Posted by JustinGN View Post

The 350 does NOT have BD support (menus, HD Audio, etc). The 550 DOES have FULL BD support from both ISOs and external eSATA or USB BD readers, including bitstream HD Audio (It cannot decode those formats internally, however - only bitstream over HDMI 1.3 is supported).

The 350 is a more expensive, less featured WDTV Live. The 550, however, is an ideal media streamer for everything from iTunes purchases to High-Resolution Audio on Blu-Ray discs. Do want.

EDIT: Straight from the spec page:

Package Contents

NeoTV 550 (NTV550 and stand)
Infrared (IR) remote control
Two (2) AAA batteries
Ethernet cable
AV cable
Note: HDMI cable not included
Quick install guide
Resource CD
Power adapter (localized to country of sale)
Warranty

Localized to country of sale
System Requirements

Analog or HDTV
Connections

Two (2) USB ports (1 front, 1 back)
SD card slot
eSATA port
10/100 Ethernet
Languages

English, French, German, Spanish, Swedish
Media Sources

USB Storage devices
eSATA storage devices
SD memory card
CIFS/Samba, NFS
UPnP AV and DLNA Servers
Windows Media Player 11 Media Sharing
Video and Audio Output

HDMI 1.3a, 36bpp deep color, 12 bit xvYCC processing and HDCP 1.2 compliant
Component video
Composite video
Stereo analog audio
S/PDIF optical digital audio
Digital Media File Formats

Video:
Codec format:
H.264 HP@L4.1 to 1080p
VC1 MP@HL, AP@L3
WMV 7/8/9
MPEG-2 MP@HL to 1080p
MPEG-4 Part 2 ASP@L5 to 10 Mbps (Xvid)
MPEG1/2/4 SD
H.263
Container format: AVI, Xvid, MOV, MP4, MPEG2 PS, MPEG2-TS, DVD ISO/VOB/IFO, MKV, ASF, AVCHD, DivX, WMV, M4A, M2TS, MTS, MP1, MP2, MPG, DVR-MS
Media: Blu-ray
Audio:
Dolby® Digital (AC3), Dolby® Digital Plus, TrueHD
DTS 2.0+, DTS HD and DTS HD MA (passthru)
MP3 up to 320 Kbps or variable bit rate (VBR)
WMA8 and WMA9 up to 192 Kbps or variable bit rate (VBR)
WMAPro, AAC, FLAC (to 5.1, 192Khz), PCM LPCM/WAV (to 5.1, 192Khz)
Internet radio (streaming MP3)
MKA
Photo
JPEG, BMP, PNG, TIFF
Subtitle:
SRT, SMI, SSA, SUB, TXT, DVD, PGS

So even those of us who may have recoded DTS-HD MA and Dolby TrueHD into multichannel FLAC audio will be A-OK with the 550. I'm loving Netgear more and more, lately.

Where do you see BD ISO on that list?
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post #21 of 35
9/1/10 at 10:46am
For those prices, I'll stick with the Dune player and the new Dune "lites" that are coming out
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post #22 of 35
9/1/10 at 8:42pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by OnlyMe View Post

I can think of two:

1. It is not required for streaming blu-ray.
2. gigabit would require a separate card = additional cost.

1. Duh, though, my network is gigabit.
2. No, a different chip. GB network cards and wireless N cards can both be purchased for under $10 retail. Therefore, not much difference in a $200+ device.
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post #23 of 35
9/2/10 at 3:46am
There are good reasons these should be gigabit.

At least on the WD player, I am not sure if the netgear can, but you can transfer files to the attached HDD's. This is done three times faster with a gigabit connection.

Also, I don't mind a little future proofing in the equipment I buy. Gigabit is slowly becoming the mainstream and who knows what kind of formats we will be dealing with in a year or two.
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post #24 of 35
9/2/10 at 4:29am
Quote:
Originally Posted by 73ChargerFan View Post

1. Duh, though, my network is gigabit.
2. No, a different chip. GB network cards and wireless N cards can both be purchased for under $10 retail. Therefore, not much difference in a $200+ device.

FWIW I would also have expected it to be gigabit. I'd like to think netgear know a thing or two about networks and so if it needed gigabit then they've have included gigabit.

Quote:
Originally Posted by kciaccio View Post

There are good reasons these should be gigabit.

At least on the WD player, I am not sure if the netgear can, but you can transfer files to the attached HDD's. This is done three times faster with a gigabit connection.

Also, I don't mind a little future proofing in the equipment I buy. Gigabit is slowly becoming the mainstream and who knows what kind of formats we will be dealing with in a year or two.

Yeah, the NTV550 does not have an internal HDD. I own the EVA9150 and the transfer speed when copying files to/from the IHD is abysmal. If it had a gigabit network card it would still be abysmal. The transfer rate has been specifically throttled to reserve enough processing power for streaming so you can still watch a movie whilst copying a file to/from the IHD.

With all of these streamers the bottleneck is the processor and/or the firmware, not the network port. So, the only future-proofing you could hope for is one were the chip was not soldered to the board and so you could swap it out for a better one just like you would on a computer.
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post #25 of 35
9/2/10 at 5:27am
Quote:
Originally Posted by OnlyMe View Post


FWIW I would also have expected it to be gigabit. I'd like to think netgear know a thing or two about networks and so if it needed gigabit then they've have included gigabit.

Yeah, the NTV550 does not have an internal HDD. I own the EVA9150 and the transfer speed when copying files to/from the IHD is abysmal. If it had a gigabit network card it would still be abysmal. The transfer rate has been specifically throttled to reserve enough processing power for streaming so you can still watch a movie whilst copying a file to/from the IHD.

With all of these streamers the bottleneck is the processor and/or the firmware, not the network port. So, the only future-proofing you could hope for is one were the chip was not soldered to the board and so you could swap it out for a better one just like you would on a computer.

Damn, ok the real reason I want it to be gigabit is because I hate looking at one of my ports on my netgear switch being amber instead of green! Lol
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post #26 of 35
9/2/10 at 6:55am
Quote:
Originally Posted by kciaccio View Post

Damn, ok the real reason I want it to be gigabit is because I hate looking at one of my ports on my netgear switch being amber instead of green! Lol

Well, if you want to upgrade it to gigabit you could could buy one of these!
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post #27 of 35
9/2/10 at 7:59am
Quote:
Originally Posted by onlyme View Post

well, if you want to upgrade it to gigabit you could could buy one of these!

lmao!!!!
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post #28 of 35
9/2/10 at 8:16am
Many of these set top box media players are using a media processor. And the use of Gigabit and streaming Netflix is much determined by the media processor itself. In order to support Netflix the processor must support DRM.

It seems many of these companies are using media processors built by Sigma Designs, thus a set top box using the Secure Media Processor SMP8656 would give us our Netflix and Gigabit, at least on paper.
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post #29 of 35
9/2/10 at 12:13pm
Am I missing something here? Is this box going to have Netflix compatibility?
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post #30 of 35
9/3/10 at 6:08am
Quote:
Originally Posted by kciaccio View Post

Is there any good reason why they are not using gigabit connections with these media players!!!!

Yes but no one will ever tell you:
These players do not have the resources to serve files to other sources especially when playing-back locally. That is why they cost less than a HTPC.

They also do not play back OTA recordings stored by WMC 7. The are great when connected to a 2TB drive chalked full of media files. However these files cannot typically be shared to other rooms.

The Netgear 3700 router does allow sharing of hard drives connected to its USB port. Reads rates are fine for playback but writes are only 3.1MB/sec.

In this way I've "escaped" having a NAS and headaches they bring: power, backups and mandatory reformatting of already full drives to an incompatible windows format.

A small form factor Intel i3 based HTPC with ATI 5750 video card allows me to do anything and everything without constraints. I even have a USB 3 port with Blu-ray 3D playback coming shortly.
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