Kodak Theater HD Media Player Announced
Written on Jul 29, 2009 by Brian and filed under News
Kodak has a new wireless HD media streaming box which actually has several compelling features that help it stand out in an increasingly crowded space. The Kodak Theater HD has a new YouTube player that allows for full screen HD viewing, Net Video access, digital picture viewer and Café, an online content dashboard for news, weather and the like. And of course it also handles a wide variety of digital formats and codecs including Divx and xvid, H.264 and WMV-9.
That’s all great, but what Kodak is really pushing in this latest revision is interface. The Theater HD player utilizes a “Point and Play” motion-sensing remote control to navigate content sources and menus. Ease of use will go a long wayto determining adoption on a large scale, though it remains to be seen if more mainstream audiences will gravitate to media players in general.
Of course the Theater HD Player also connects to a home network over WiFi or wired Ethernet to gab and play content off a connected PC. The Theater HD Player can also consume content from its multi-card reader (SD, MMC, CF, MS, xD, SDHC) or one of the two USB 2.0 ports (mass storage, digital still camera).
Kodak Theater HD New Content Features
- YouTube – Designed specifically for viewing on an HDTV. Consumers can search for videos by keyword, author, featured, top-rated and more; flag, rate and save videos; and maximize them to full screen.
- Net Video - View hundreds of the latest free on-demand video feeds on the web—categories include news, sports, entertainment, lifestyle, comedy, family, and nature; add videos to your queue and mark favorites; browse feeds by newest, latest by category, most popular, or the entire selection
- Discovery collage views - Select “Today’s Collage” and the Theatre HD Player locates and displays pictures relevant to today’s date and two weeks forward, such as holidays, birthdays, and special family events. “Random Collage” searches for pictures on your PC and rotates randomly through your entire collection. Pictures you may have forgotten are found and displayed in HD, and whenever one catches your interest, simply select it to see more from that date or event.
- Café - Enables you to create a configurable home page with personalized information including weather, news and traffic information, as well as a Picture Chronicles slideshow, which displays personal photos taken around the same time of year.
The Kodak Theatre HD Player is available now and retails for $199.99.