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Friday, December 9, 2011

NETGEAR NeoTV 550 NTV550 Ultimate HD Media Player

Why NETGEAR's NeoTV 550? Bring all your digital media to your TV. Play movies, music, and photo collections stored on your networked devices (such as PC, Mac, and network attached storage). The NeoTV 550 also provides easy access to files stored on your USB drives and SD cards. Features: Automatically searches and scans your networked and local devices, and organizes your movies, music, and photos. Live Browsing provides an easy and fast access to your media collection. Built-in media card slot for convenient access to personal photos and videos (AVCHD compatible). Compatible with a wide range of SD file formats including. Blu-ray with menu, navigation and BD-Live support1. Delivers your movie sound tracks in Hi-Def 7.1 (Dolby, DTS & LPCM compatible). Improved video and audio navigation using movies and CD covert art instead of file names. Custom remote with shortcuts designed for quick selection and ease if use. Disclaimers: 1Blu-ray experience requires an external USB or eSATA Blu-ray drive. Package Contents: NeoTV 550 (NTV550), Infrared (IR) remote control, Two (2) AAA batteries, Ethernet cable, AV cable, Note: HDMI cable not included, Quick install guide, Resource CD, Power adapter (localized to country of sale).

Amazon Sales Rank: #375 in Personal Computers Color: Black Brand: Netgear Model: NTV550 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: 10.50" h x 2.80" w x 9.90" l, 1.00 pounds Automatically searches and scans your networked and local devices, and organizes your movies, music, and photos Live Browsing provides an easy and fast access to your media collection Built-in media card slot for convenient access to personal photos and videos (AVCHD compatible) Compatible with a wide range of SD file formats including Blu-ray with menu, navigation and BD-Live support1

The NETGEAR NeoTV 550 Ultimate HD Media Player brings all your digital media together on your TV for enhanced viewing. The NeoTV automatically scans your networked and local drives, organizing your media files so that you can access them using the player's easy menu navigation. The player includes inputs for SD cards and eSATA and USB drives as well as Ethernet. It is compatible with most TVs, and supports HDMI 1.3a and HD 7.1 surround sound so that you can view photos, watch movies, and listen to music in full high definition.NeoTV 550 Ultimate HD Media PlayerAt a Glance:Play all your digital media on your home theater in full 1080p HDSupports Dolby Digital and DTS surround soundCompatible with a wide range of media formats, including Blu-rayEasy menu navigation using cover artDirectly access files via Ethernet, USB and eSATA drives, and SD memory cards  Access your files via Ethernet, USB and eSATA drives, and SD memory cards. View larger. NeoTV 550 Ultimate HD Media PlayerOrganize and enjoy all your HD media from anywhere in your home. View larger.Optional Wi-Fi adapter lets you connect the NeoTV wirelessly to your home network or internet. View larger.Play All Your HD Media on Your Home TheaterThe NeoTV 550 makes it easy to watch digital movies using your big-screen TV and home theater speakers--you can pause, fast forward, rewind, or resume videos at any time. You can also view and share photos on your TV and listen to music on your home theater speakers. The NeoTV 550 supports HD media and Blu-ray file formats (external USB Blu-ray player not supported) for viewing on a 1080p HD TV.Access Media from SD Cards, eSATA and USB Drives, or EthernetThe NeoTV 550 can be used with multiple media sources, offering the versatility to work with all your media no matter how and where you store it. An SD card slot, two USB ports, and an eSATA port allow you to connect memory cards and external drives. When the NeoTV 550 is connected to your network via Ethernet, it automatically finds and organizes your music, movie, and photo collections stored on your home computer (PC and Mac compatible).Connects to any TV via HDMI or Analog OutputsThe NeoTV 550 has HDMI, component, and analog composite outputs so it can connect to virtually any TV, analog or digital. It supports HDMI 1.3a for full 1080p HD output with 36bpp deep color, 12 bit xvYCC processing, and is HDCP 1.2 compliant.Full HD 7.1 Surround SoundIt isn't just video that gets HD treatment; the NeoTV also supports Dolby Digital and DTS, so you'll be able to hear movie soundtracks and music in full HD 7.1 surround sound. The NeoTV 550 also has stereo analog audio and S/PDIF optical digital audio outputs.Easy Access with Remote Control and NeoTV Menu NavigationThe NeoTV makes it easy to browse your digital media library. Rather than looking at a list of file names, the NeoTV lets you navigate your files by looking at cover art. The live browsing feature gives you easy access to your media collection.Additionally, the included remote control has shortcuts for quick selection and ease of use. The remote takes two "AAA" batteries (included).The NETGEAR NeoTV 550 Ultimate HD Media Player is backed by a one-year warranty.What's in the BoxNeoTV 550 device, stand, remote, two "AAA" batteries, Ethernet cable, AV cable, quick install guide, resource CD, and power adapter.

Most helpful customer reviews 59 of 61 people found the following review helpful. Solid Performing Media Player for Local Content By Robert Salita This is a review of the Netgear NeoTV 550 with updated firmware version 3.0.268 EU. I received the device from a European retailer on Nov 30, 2010. The Netgear NeoTV 550 is a complex product to review. Your success with the device is highly dependent upon situational factors such as usage, media source, network speeds, and user technical ability. While the device is easy to use, it requires a home theater geek to properly and optimally set up the device. When first received, I recommend going through the device's Settings menu, drilling down through all the submenus, to properly understand and configure the device. Take the time to go through the several dozen settings and try to make them match your home theater equipment. There are settings for DVD region, video resolution, frame rate, aspect ratio, language, audio output (pass-through (bitstreaming)) and so on. The remote is IR based, non-universal, non-learning, and not backlit. Ports include one HDMI port, two USB ports (front and rear), one SD port and one eSATA port. Some Blu-Ray menus require 1GB of storage. This can be a USB stick, SD cartridge or other attached storage device. The unit has no fan and is dead silent. My media consumption is largely local content so this review reflects that bias. Alternatively, other people will use this device for consuming online media. I selected this device because of its rare ability to play Blu-Ray content with full menu support, bitstream audio and WAF. A plus will be when and if it plays Netflix, Vudu or other streaming services. I have hundreds of movies stored on a Windows Home Server (WHS). DVDs are ripped to folders and Blu-Rays are ripped as an ISO file. I tested several dozen DVD and Blu-Ray titles. Blu-Rays and DVDs play fine, audio bitstreams and menus work. The device has a good user interface. Video quality seems quite good too. Movie files are shown as cover art. My girlfriend has given the NeoTV's usability an eager thumbs up whereas the HTPC was impossible for her to use and difficult for me to maintain. I do not use any reencoded media/containers so I can't speak about MKV, FLAC, etc. Initially, I had problems with stuttering on Blu-Ray. This is a common problem on networks that are not optimal. In my case, I had to turn of WHS's Drive Extender on my movie server. There's a host of technical problems that can prevent media, especially Blu-Rays, from playing properly. The device has a network speed test which can help identify some issues. However, my issue was the server's inability to sustain adequate disk read rates. The device offers no diagnostic for this situation. This must all be a nightmare for Netgear tech support -- customers too. Tip: The power button will stop a playing movie and bring up the Home menu. Update 3-Dec-2010: Updated firmware to 3.0.268 EU. It fixes a few annoyances, adds a couple nice touches, leaves a couple bugs not fixed. No sign of Netflix. Perhaps an annoucement next month at CES? Update 4-Dec-2010: Raised the rating to five stars because of resolution to my Blu-Ray networking problems (my bad) and bug fixes in 3.0.268 EU firmware. All's good now. Update 4-Feb-2011: NeoTV 550 is stuttering on some Blu-Ray ISOs when played across a network. Importantly, it does not stutter when playing directly from a file or folder across a network. I believe the NeoTV has some optimization issues on Blu-Ray network playback. I'm hoping the NeoTV developers fix the stutter issue with a firmware update. Otherwise I'll be spending hours converting ISOs to folders. Because of the stuttering issue, I've lowered the rating from five stars to three. Update 7-Feb-2011: I've confirmed that Blu-Ray stuttering is caused by NeoTV's SMB (network protocol) implementation. There's no stuttering when using NFS. This is a major problem as SMB is used by Windows

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