Netgear Updates Entertainment Lineup with Push2TV 3000 and NeoTV 300 Series
by Ganesh T S on September 20, 2012 8:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Media Streamer
- Home Theater
- NetGear
- WiDi
- miracast
Netgear has been at the forefront in supporting Intel's WiDi initiative on the receiver side. In fact, they had an exclusive on the first WiDi receiver (Push2TV 1000) for close to a year back in 2010. In June, we covered the launch of Netgear's NeoTV Pro NTV200S WiDi / Media Streamer combo. Using Broadcom's BCM7615, it had all the features of the NTV 200 media streamer and also added support for WiDi 2.1 (1080p / HDCP2 / DVD & Blu-ray / 5.1 channel audio etc.)
Today, Netgear is pushing out a number of products targeting the same market at various price points. These include the Push2TV 3000 WiDi receiver and three members of the NeoTV 300 series, the NTV300, NTV300S and the NTV300SL.
Push2TV 3000
Anand recently covered the launch of WiDi 3.5, and briefly mentioned that a new Push2TV receiver from Netgear would be made available at a $59.99 price point. The credit card-sized Push2TV 3000 supports both Intel WiDi 3.5 and Wi-Fi Alliance's Miracast (pre-standard compliance). These technologies allow the user to wirelessly mirror a laptop, smartphone or tablet screen onto another HDMI-equipped display.
The PTV3000 is one-third the size of the PTV2000, and supports all the WiDi 3.5 features. It can be powered over USB and Netgear expects consumers to get that from one of the USB ports on the display. However, a power adapter is also available (in the case that the consumer's display doesn't have a USB port). Miracast certification will take place towards the end of 2012 (after the finalization of the specifications). The PTV3000 is priced at $59.99 and available for purchase starting today.
NeoTV 300 Series
The NeoTV 300 series differs from the NeoTV 200 series in two aspects. The first visible aspect is the departure from Adobe Stagecraft 1.2 to a HTML 5 based UI. The second aspect is the replacement of the Broadcom BCM7615 SoC with chips from MediaTek. While the base model (NTV300) has the MTK8633, the two others (NTV300S and NTV300SL) have the Mediatek MTK8653 SoC. Mediatek seems to be a highly secretive company and doesn't seem to have published any of its datasheets online. All the units can connect to the network through wired Ethernet or Wi-Fi. Remote control apps are available for Android and iOS.
The NTV300 is similar to the NTV200 in terms of support for online streaming services, full 1080p HD and 5.1 channel Dolby Digital audio. The NeoTV PRO (NTV300S) has all the features of the NTV300 and also brings the PTV3000's Wi-Di 3.5 supoort feature. The NTV300S also has legacy A/V port (component?) support (for use with TVs which don't have HDMI ports). The NeoTV MAX (NTV300SL) has all the features of the NTV300 and NTV300S. It adds support for local media playback (over USB). It is also a DLNA DMR (Digital Media Renderer). The remote is similar to that of the Boxee Box's, with simple navigation buttons on one side and a QWERTY keyboard on the other. It also supports Vudu's 3D videos when connected to a 3D TV.
All the three models are available for purchase today. The NTV300 is priced at $49.99, the NTV300S at $59.99 and the NTV300SL at $69.99.
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Spuke - Thursday, September 20, 2012 - link
"The PTV3000 is priced at $59.99 and available for purchase starting today."Where?
ganeshts - Thursday, September 20, 2012 - link
That would be the usual retailers: Frys, Newegg, Amazon etc. I can already see it on Amazon, but from a 3rd party seller at an inflated price. Just wait till the end of the day.SilentSin - Thursday, September 20, 2012 - link
I can find a few listings on google that seem to align with the prices here. The part numbers all end with "100NAS" for some reason tho so the images are all wrong. Might just have to wait a few hours or a day or so to be updated. Netgear's own site doesn't even list anything for these yet.Like Conficio I'm confused on the features of these new parts. Why would I opt for a PTV over the NTV? There wasn't a mention of miracast on the NTV but if that's supported I will absolutely be buying one of these. Didn't know my S3 was miracast certified as well as DLNA. Very nice.
ganeshts - Thursday, September 20, 2012 - link
100NAS is used as a suffix for their entertainment lineup. I have already pinged Netgear for official links to the products.As stated in the piece, the PTV3000 is credit card-sized, and can be powered with a USB port. Makes for a really clean, minimal cable hassle solution. The NTV300S has similar capabilities, but will definitely need a wall-wart. They are priced the same, and some people really hate wall-warts / their TV already has Smart capabilities (and such TVs are more likely to have USB ports too). The PTV3000 targets those consumers.
SilentSin - Thursday, September 20, 2012 - link
Thanks! I did find the official NTV300 page by going through gdgt.com of all places: http://gdgt.com/netgear/neotv/ntv300/specs/http://www.netgear.com/home/products/hometheater/m...
No mention of miracast on those devices tho which worries me. That would pretty much be the perfect device if that is supported. Is there any way you could ask about that feature specifically or the chance of it being added in the future if it is not?
ganeshts - Thursday, September 20, 2012 - link
Note that NTV300 does NOT have Wi-Di or Miracast. Only the PTV3000 / NTV300S and NTV300SL support it. Netgear probably can't claim to be an official Miracast receiver in the marketing material till they get certification.However, the PR that was sent to us indicated that they would be certified at the end of 2012 after Wi-Fi Alliance finalizes the standard. As such, supporting Miracast is not difficult once Wi-Di is supported (from a technical viewpoint).
If you are a cautious consumer and Miracast to TV is very essential to you, I would suggest waiting for another 3 months before picking up the PTV3000 / NTV300S / NTV300SL.
SilentSin - Friday, September 21, 2012 - link
I went ahead and got a PTV3000 for $63 shipped from CostCentral.com to test out at work. I think the miracast functionality will be more useful than WiDi because it will eventually support more devices. I can't seem to find any instructions on HOW it's supposed to work tho. Where are the client apps for a laptop or phone? All I saw were demo videos of it already synced up and running. This video is less than helpful: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6F_wyyZg5sI&fea...Impulses - Saturday, September 22, 2012 - link
I don't think there's any phones that support it yet... Are there?SilentSin - Sunday, September 23, 2012 - link
The Samsung S3 and LG Optimus G were some of the first devices to be miracast certified. There are a bunch of Tegra 3 and TI OMAP demos on youtube as well. Samsung's AllShare dongle sounds suspiciously similar to miracast and I wonder if that was just their own adaptations of the spec. I will try it out with my S3 when I get it this week.Rajanjena - Saturday, September 29, 2012 - link
Were you able to try out the PTV3000 with the Galaxy S3? Just curious how that worked out...Thanks.