Stefan Mileschin

We have been closely following Netgear's efforts in the media streaming space since the NTV550 / NTV350 was launched almost two years ago. Around that timeframe, online media streaming services such as
Netflix, Hulu Plus and Vudu started to see explosive growth. With the rise of these premium streaming services, media streamers also moved to a IPTV STB (Set Top Box) model. The D-Link Boxee Box and the WDTV Streaming Media Player also paid attention to local media streaming, but came in with a price premium.

The star of the streaming media player space in 2011 was undoubtedly Roku. From Roku LT's $49 to Roku 2 XS's $99, they had models for every price point. Though we didn't find the value proposition at $99 to be good enough compared to the WDTV Live Streaming Media Player, their huge marketing push enabled them to sell more than a million of the Roku 2 players last year alone.

In December, we reviewed Netgear's answer to the Roku challenge, the NTV200 (It had launched in late September). Netgear's suggested MSRP was $79.99, but it was common to find it being sold for $49.99. This low price enabled them to sell around 200K units (similar to Boxee Box, but in a much shorter time frame).

At CES, we talked briefly with Netgear about their efforts in the media streaming space. It was indicated to me that Intel's WiDi would make its appearance as an app in the NTV200, and it would probably be a paid upgrade. I had also made a note of that in our CES coverage. We also talked about a model based on the NTV200, but with an added USB port. Today, Netgear is introducing the first of the two improvements. However, instead of an app, it has turned out to be a new unit called NeoTV Pro (NTV200S). The unit is priced at $69.99 and it available right now.

There is no hardware difference between the NTV200 and the NTV200S. The difference lies only in the software and the codec licensing. Upon receipt of the press release, I was quite upset as to why Netgear would want to make users buy a fresh unit just for this functionality. My impression was that Netgear could have just asked interested users to pony up $20 for the app and call it a day. Netgear explained that the necessity for a fresh unit had to do with codec licensing. In the rest of this piece, we will discuss the WiDi initiative, with emphasis on what Netgear has done till now.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5957/n...streamer-combo