Looking to expand their presence in the digital media player market, Netgear demonstrated two new players at CES 2009 – the Netgear Internet TV Player (model ITV2000) and the Netgear Digital Entertainer Elite (model EVA9150). The Internet TV Player is a small compact device focused on delivering Internet content directly to the home big screen TV while the larger Digital Entertainer Elite caters the advanced media enthusiasts with large collections of digital content at home.

Here’s what you need to know about Netgear Internet TV Player.  Using the form factor of a small Netgear switch, the ITV2000 has the following features and specs:

• Ideal for individuals who enjoy online video
• Streams content from popular sites such as BBC.com, CNN.com, ESPN.com, EuroSport.com, NBC.com, PGATour, TMZ.com, YouTube, Google Videos, Yahoo Videos and MetaCafe
• Supports streaming of live TV broadcasts from Internet sites around the world
• Supports premium, paid movies delivered on-demand from sites such as CinemaNow.com
• Supports downloaded videos using BitTorrent
• VTap video search for intelligent search of Internet videos – target video sites by country, topic of interest, person, or popular website
• Supports playback of video, music, and photos through a connected USB flash drive or through Netgear ReadyNAS storage solutions
• Expected during the summer of 2009 for a price of $199

Below are pictures of the device. Note the demo uses a prototype unit on the right to power the display. The final form factor for the ITV2000 will be in the middle (or left in the second picture).

For those of you with large collections of digital content at home, Netgear will be rolling out the Digital Entertainer Elite (EVA9150). This component styled device features a built-in, user-upgradeable 500GB hard drive, playback support for a wide variety of digital file formats, support for 1080p video playback, and support for Internet delivered content.

First, here are the supported file formats (and it’s an impressive list):

• Video formats: AVI, DivX, Xvid WMV, MOV, M4V, MP4, VOB, MPG, MP1, MP2, MP4, ISO, IFO, MKV, TS and M2TS;
• Audio formats: MP1, MP2, MP3, WMA, WMA-Pro, AAC, FLAC, AIFF, WAV, LPCM, Dolby AC3 5.1 stereo downmix, Dolby AC3 5.1 passthrough, DTS 5.1 passthrough, Dolby TrueHD Downmix, Dolby+ Passthrough and DTS-HD Master Audio passthrough;
• Subtitle formats: SUB, SRT, SMI, SAMI, TXT and DVD Subpicture; and,
• Video codecs: MP1, MP2, MP4, Xvid, VC-1/WMV-9, H.264 and OpenDivX.

Yes – the player will indeed play back full ISO images of DVDs – AND preserve the menus, chapters, and subtitles. Awesome stuff! AND yes, it supports MKV files too.

Other features and specs include:

• Two USB ports allowing you to connect USB flash drives, digital cameras, iPod, or other USB storage device
• Play files stored on PC, Mac, or from Network Attached Storage device
• Streams media directly from Internet sites
• Upconverts video to full 1080p HD via HDMI
• Three Netgear RangeMax internal metamaterial antennas and Dual-Band wireless 802.11n
• Sigma Designs 8635 processor
• Several Digital Entertainer Elites can work in the same home – pause video in one room allows you to pick it up in the same location in another room
• Support for Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS)
• Energy efficient power supply and automatic power saving mode consumes as little as 0.01 watts
• Expected in February for a price of $399

Technorati Tags: Netgear, Internet TV Player, ITV2000, Digitial Entertainer Elite, EVA9150, CES 2009