Netgear’s newest TV box, the NeoTV 550, is hosting a TV operating system from Zixi that gives the box the ability to access over-the-top content, Netgear announced.
The two companies had talked about working together as long ago as the CES show in January. Netgear introduced the NeoTV 550 Ultimate HD Media Player (NTV550) last week. The two companies said this marks the first time ZVOS is enabled on an off-the-shelf and high-performance HD media player.
The two say the key is the ability to stream HD content without pauses, interruptions or significant degradation in HD quality.
Zixi’s platform allows the synchronization of multiple video and audio inputs during broadcasting. In turn, the companies explained, this enables Zixi to integrate live video feeds to and from different geographic locations in the world, as well as to get video to studios, TVs, PCs, Macs and mobile devices, such as iPhone, iPad and Android devices.
The NeoTV 550 acts as a sort of home networking gateway that bridges consumers’ TVs with content stored on other devices throughout the home through a Wi-Fi connection, allowing them to play movies and display other content on their TVs. The box also has ports to directly plug in USB storage and SD storage cards. With the integration of Zixi’s Video Operating System (ZVOS), the NeoTV 550 can also deliver live and VOD full HDTV via the Internet.
Israel Drori, CEO and founder of Zixi, said, “Users no longer have to deal with transcoders or encoders in order to experience full HD over the Internet.”