World's Smallest Video Streaming - Live Streaming

Contour, leader in hands-free camcorder, announced a partnership Cerevo to unveil the world smallest and least expensive live-streaming video solution at CES 2012. The new partnership will allow a simple HDMI cable to connect Contour’s Contour+ camera to Cerevo’s LiveShell to bring real-time video to the Ustream website. Marc Barros, CEO and Co-Founder of Contour, said, “It’s a perfect compliment to our Contour+ camera model. We start with the best hands-free, POV camera with built-in GPS and mobile connectivity – and have now add a wireless live-streaming solution with the LiveShell. Partnering with Cerevo and Ustream will allow Contour customers to share their ski run, bike route, or any other hands-free action with their family and friends in real-time.” The two will be a perfect compliment indeed. Picture below is a demonstration of the two devices at work.

1. Broadcast POV footage as its captured: World’s first “Ustream Compatible” internet-broadcasting device (released November, 2011 in Japan) let’s you share your action live on the web.
2. Set-up Easily: No PC or Mac needed; change settings via remote control access on a Web-based Dashboard – by computer and/or smartphone
3. Deliver the Action Instantly: An HDMI interface makes recording and broadcasting live a snap!
4. High Quality Video: Fuzzy video streaming is gone! Contour+ delivers HD video in 1080p at 25/30fps or 720p at 25/30 and50/60fps and attaches to a variety of mounts.  The maximum resolution with Cerevo LiveShell is approximately 480p.
5. Film and broadcast for Hours: LiveShell and the Contour+ both have greater than 2-hour battery life

Contour also announced Contour’s remote control or Contour Connect App will allow users to remotely stop and start recording on Android devices. The Contour Connect App will be available in April.

Contour and Cerevo brought a fun way in sharing videos with the ability to mount the contour at the toughest spots, but now the experience can be watch instantly and live at the convenience of your phone, laptop, desktop, pretty much anywhere around the world now.

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NVIDIA Tegra 3: Games Plus SplashTop Streaming of Skyrim

Tegra 3 tablets are a big thing for NVIDIA right now, and we’ve seen quite a few new tablets using the SoC. At NVIDIA’s booth, they had a bunch of ASUS Eee Prime Transformer tablets set up with a variety of games and other software. Grand Theft Auto IV was running on one unit, but more impressive was the multiplayer ShadowGun running on two more tablets. Both of those games (personally, at least) pale in comparison to another tablet with Skyrim “running” on Tegra 3. It wasn’t actually running on the tablet natively, but NVIDIA worked with SplashTop to get and optimized remote desktop connection to a PC running Skyrim—in all its glory. Of course it’s really the desktop doing the work, but the game was running smoothly with the WiFi remote desktop stream.

The other thing NVIDIA had on display were some Tegra 3 tablets running Windows 8. These were behind glass and you couldn't interact with them, but Microsoft did some live demos of Windows 8 on an Eee Prime Transformer at their keynote Monday. It appears Tegra 3 is well on its way to being ready for Windows 8 (and vice versa).

Gallery: NVIDIA Tegra 3: Games Plus SplashTop Streaming of Skyrim

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Roku Streaming Stick Brings Smarts To MHL Equipped TVs

Smart TVs will be a big deal this year. If you sunk your money on one of last year's 3D sets, you probably don't want to do it again for a Smart TV. Not to worry, Roku has you covered. Introducing the Roku Streaming Stick, an over-the-top streaming solution squeezed into something the size of a USB drive. The device will bring the full Roku experience, including all 400 channels including Netflix, and Amazon Instant Videos; wirelessly and without any cables. 

The device is powered and delivers content through the Mobile High Definition Link (MHL) standard. The HDCP-compliant standard was established in 2010 and provides up to 1080p video, 7.1 channels of 192 kbps digital audio over a 5-pin interface that also provides 500 mA of 5 volt power. The 5-pin interface can be configured into various connectors, and can currently be found in a handful of devices from Samsung, though the consortium that formed the standard includes the likes of Sony, Toshiba and Nokia. That half amp of power is enough to power the BCM2835 that can be found in the Roku 2 line-up, so this could really be a case of efficient packaging. 

So, if Smart TVs will be big this year why not a Roku TV? Roku sees an issue with integrating the hardware platform directly into the television: upgrades. The hardware behind each successive generation of hardware streaming devices is a pretty big improvement over the last. So frequent platform changes drive thie software innovations we'll come to expect from a Smart TV market. Yet most consumers replace their TVs only every five years or so. Roku's solution is to provide a low cost, OTT, Smart TV platform that can be replaced when updated hardware is available. We'll be excited to see how well it performs in person at CES.

Gallery: Roku Streaming Stick Brings Smarts To MHL Equipped TVs

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Netgear NTV200 : Over-the-Top Streaming for Non-Networked TVs

The current flux in the television market is embodied by the emergence of two closely related categories, namely, the Smart TV and the connected TV. While the former category is being actively promoted by Google (and, till recently, Intel), the latter is in the hands of the usual TV manufacturers like Samsung, LG, Vizio etc. The popularity of OTT (over-the-top) premium content in the form of Netflix, Vudu, Hulu Plus etc. in the US has also aided in popularizing the concept of Smart / connected TVs.

With the upgrade cycle for TVs being in the order of 5 - 10 years, there are a large number of consumers who have yet to jump onto either of these bandwagons. This has opened up the market for an intermediate device to bring connected features to their existing TV sets. It is precisely this market that has made devices like the Roku boxes and the Sony network media players successful. Last year, we looked at one of the Roku models that Netgear rebadged, and came away satisfied. This time around, Netgear has decided to come out with its own device for this purpose.

In today's review, we will take a look at the NTV200, the next generation refresh of the rebadged Roku model. Can Netgear one-up the Roku 2 with its own product? How does the NTV200 stack up? Read on for our take.

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Western Digital Introduces New WD TV Live Streaming Media Player with Spotify in Tow

Western Digital jumped on to the local media streaming bandwagon quite early in the game. With better codec compatibility and a more stable platform compared to other vendors, the WDTV lineup caught the imagination of the consumers. Over the last few years (coinciding with the rise of Netflix), US consumers have tended to prefer over the top streaming solutions. Recognizing this trend, Western Digital has been strengthening their media streamers portfolio with the appropriate features.

Today, Western Digital is introducing the latest addition to their WDTV lineup, the new WD TV Live Streaming Media Player. Its roots (in terms of both hardware and firmware) seem to lie in the WDTV Live Hub which received praise from us last year. The industrial design has been updated, and the main hardware addition seems to be the integrated wireless network capability. The internal hard drive has been removed. Local media streaming compatibility seems to be retained.

Like the Roku 2 XS, the new WD TV Live has support for single band (2.4 GHz) 802.11n wireless only. However, the network port is Gigabit. Also, Western Digital PR claims that the new WD TV Live (as well as the WDTV Live Hub) supports 1080p video along with Dolby Digital Plus audio for selected Netflix titles. This is something we hope to evaluate and report back soon.

The new premium service making an appearance in the WD TV Live (as well as the Hub) is Spotify. As the PR reproduced below shows, the unit offers the full Spotify experience including account management and the social features (such as sending songs to your friend's inbox). In addition to YouTube, the new media player (as well as the WDTV Live Hub) gains access to DailyMotion, a service quite popular in Europe. The last few firmware releases for the WDTV Live Hub have also brought some simple games like Sudoku and Texas Hold'Em.

Priced at $99.99, this unit seems to cover all the media streaming aspects missed by the Roku 2 XS. It probably doesn't have the fan following of the Roku or the developer support that Roku provides. We also don't have much hope of it solving the DTS-HD MA bitstreaming issue. However, for the general consumer, Western Digital seems to have lined up a winner at a sweet price point (they could have chosen a better name, considering that the WD TV Live was the name given to the second generation player in the WDTV family). Stay tuned for our review of the new WD TV Live Streaming Media Player.

Press Release [DOCX]

Product Brief [PDF]

 

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Roku 2 XS Review : Streaming Videos and Casual Gaming on the Big Screen

Roku is one of the pioneers in the media streamer market. They introduced the first Netflix streaming box in 2008. New models have been coming out every year. This time around, the rise of connected TVs and the Smart TV push from Intel have forced Roku to come out with something different compared to offerings from previous years. We had covered the launch of the Roku 2 lineup earlier and pointed out the casual gaming angle as the differentiating factor.

The top tier Roku 2 XS model was sent for review by Roku. How does it fare in our testing? Is a mixture of Internet video streaming and casual gaming on the big screen worth the $99 asking price? Read on to find out.

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Intel Insider: Sandy Bridge Gets 1080p High Bitrate Streaming

In an attempt to ultimately raise its stock price, Intel is trying to shock and surprise investors by keeping details scarce on unannounced products. We saw the first example of this last year with Sandy Bridge. Intel was very late in disclosing architectural details, and it took a leak to even find out about Intel’s hardware transcode engine - arguably one of the biggest, tangible features of Sandy Bridge. I’m not a financial analyst nor do I have any influence on stock price, but this seems to be a strategy that ultimately won’t work. It’s not Apple’s withholding of information that results in its very healthy stock. If Intel wants to raise its share price it will ultimately have to do two things: 1) release killer technology, 2) put said technology to good use right away without waiting on its partners to do so.

We are seeing examples of this in the market already. Intel’s Wireless Display technology leverages Intel hardware with Intel developed software. Intel Insider, is another, more recent example.

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