Angus Kidman08 January 2007, 9:18 PM
At CES 2006, everyone was trying to frantically integrate with Skype. In 2007, there's a different dream partner: YouTube.
At CES 2006, everyone was trying to frantically integrate with Skype. In 2007, there's a different dream partner: YouTube.
One of the most heavily promoted features of Netgear's freshly-launched Digital Entertainer HD wireless media streamer is the ability to directly stream YouTube video to your TV -- a worthy concept, even if the demo video the company chose to launch the feature was the over-promoted rendition of the Bellagio fountains using Diet Coke and Mentos.
Netgear officials refused to comment on whether any licensing deal was involved, although they hinted rather broadly that an announcement of some sort of partnership would soon be forthcoming. Since anyone can integrate YouTube content online with a simple Flash embed, delivering it on a digital media extender presumably isn't a major technical or legal challenge. (You do have to install a small program on your PC to transcode the flash videos on the fly for the player.)
Netgear's Digital Entertainer: Streaming goes hi-def.
Other equipment developers are also jumping on the bandwagon, possibly emboldened by the thought that Google's buyout of YouTube at least ensures the service won't go broke.
Shozu, which offers an application that allows uploading of video from mobile phones direct to YouTube, has lined up more than 100 handset models to support its service. And the SlingProjector box for streaming PC content to a TV has already attracted reams of pre-show attention.
All that tubular wooing underlines a neat irony. Vendors are desperate to flog high definition equipment -- HD is a major selling point for the NetGear product -- but the most popular content source appears to be grainy streaming video that can barely fill the screen. Somewhere, something's gone awry in the planning.