14 DAY TRIAL // HP demonstrated advanced digital media technology for its high-definition televisions (HDTVs) that will give people direct access to digital content - from movies to photos to music to personal videos - that's currently stored on their PCs.
The company is also shipping a new line of microdisplay, plasma and LCD TVs as well as its high-definition Digital Entertainment Centers in time for holiday shopping.
Showcased this week at the Custom Electronics Design and Installation Association (CEDIA) tradeshow and slated for distribution next summer, the advanced digital media technology will enable HP HDTVs to communicate with all PC devices on a home network, including HP Digital Entertainment Centers.
HP HDTVs that ship with this functionality will also contain other advancements that will provide consumers with new ways to access entertainment. These future televisions will provide consumers with multimedia services over the Internet - directly via their HP advanced digital media HDTV.
The prototype HP HDTVs demonstrated at CEDIA contain a built-in digital media receiver that enables the TVs to communicate, wired or wirelessly, with practically any PC in a home.
Accompanying HP software will allow consumers to create virtual databases of media content on their PCs - from digital images to audio and video files. Once the library of personal media is created and the wired or wireless connections are made, consumers can use their remote controls to easily access libraries of content from their PCs or broadband networks directly on their advanced digital media HP HDTVs.
HP's HD Digital Entertainment Centers (DECs) are designed to pull everything together in one package, serving as a management, recording and storage component for all digital content - including music, photos, television programming, movies and games.
The HP z555 and z557 high-definition Digital Entertainment Center series, now shipping, come with three tuners: One ATSC over-the-air (OTA) HDTV tuner for the ability to pause, play and record HD OTA programming and two NTSC tuners for recording two standard-definition shows simultaneously.
The z555 model comes with a 250 gigabyte (GB) 7,200 rpm Serial ATA hard drive, and the z557 model comes with two 300 GB hard drives, one being a personal media drive to deliver over half a terabyte of combined storage. Both units offer high-performance TV quality with the Nvidia GeForce 6600 PCI-Express graphics card. This product enables digital entertainment enthusiasts to combine entertainment features and digital media management with the ability to surf the web or instant message friends, all in the convenience of their living rooms, by fusing the best of PC and audio-video elements.
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