D-Link's Media Player Moves Your Computer to the Living-Room Plasma Screen

D-Link has just announced that its PC-on-TV MediaLounge streaming server is now publicly available. The device is primarily targeted at users who would like to enjoy web-based content on the living-room high-definition plasma screen.

The PC-on-TV DPG-1200 media player can be connected to the TV-set using a wide range of connectors, including VGA, component or even composite, then automatically tunes into your Wi-Fi home network. Moreover, the bundled trackball remote allows the users to control their PC directly from the sofa. The remote gives access to a wide range of navigation controls, both for the media Center and browser.

D-Link's PC-on-TV appliance unleashes the power of media services such as YouTube, Google Video or Veoh Networks. The video content is rendered on the TV directly from the corresponding webpages, without having to download their contents to the computer.

Local media is also accessible, and can be played using the computer-installed applications, such as iTunes, Nero, Windows Media Player or RealPlayer. However, DirectX-based content cannot be streamed, given the fact that Microsoft's proprietary technology has not been implemented in the DPG-1200 media player.

Should you ever need larger screen sizes your television is not able to offer, you can always connect the streaming server to a digital projector. The PC-on-TV supports photo viewing at 1024x768 screen resolutions, while video content is streamed at maximum resolutions of 640x480 pixels with up to 30 frame-rates.

"The D-Link PC-on-TV is an elegant solution for extending the PC experience to a television in the other room," said Chris Wong, director of product management, multimedia for D-Link Systems, Inc. "We've developed a simple way for our customers to leverage their big screen television for accessing and enjoying applications traditionally reserved for the computer. Users can now share virtually any movie, song or Internet video with others from the comfort of their family room, with only the click of a few buttons," he continued.

D-Link's newest addition to the MediaLounge family is available immediately and comes with an estimative price tag of $239.99.