NetGear lies in hype about new media player
901am reports on Netgear’s launch at CES of a new media player, the “Digital Entertainer HD”. Admittedly it does sound like a nice product, but do they have to tell lies in selling it:
“The Digital Entertainer HD is the first device that makes Youtube videos available on a television, claimed Netgear’s vice president of product marketing Vivek Pathela.”
Bullsh*t. Windows XP MCE edition plays YouTube videos on a TV via a very simple plugin. It plays Google Video videos as well as videos from Grouper and DivX Stage 6. I’m running an earlier version of the plugin (that only featured YouTube and Google video), but I’ve been running it for the better part of a year. Simply, Netgear has lied. I’m betting that some of the alternative software packages to MCE out there have YouTube capability as well. But before you say I’m talking software not a “device”, isn’t a MCE box a device? You can buy them online, both from mainstream retailers and specialists as well. Netgears box is after all nothing really more than cobbled together computer parts, and somewhere inside of it will be software to run it all.