Netgear brings YouTube to the living room

Netgear's Digital Entertainer HD is the first device that makes YouTube videos available on a television

Netgear has unveiled a new media adapter at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that allows users to access YouTube videos on a television. 

Using the YouTube API that the company has made available to developers, the device allows users to browse the most popular YouTube videos using a remote control. 

They can also search for videos and select users whose videos they want to track.

Netgear's Digital Entertainer HD is the first device that makes YouTube videos available on a television, according to Vivek Pathela, vice president of product marketing at the company.

In addition to accessing YouTube content, the device allows users to play digital music files, including tracks purchased from iTunes which are protected by Apple's FairPlay DRM technology.

Streaming iTunes content is available only for legally acquired content on computers running Windows.

FairPlay is remarkable because Apple does not support its DRM on third-party appliances. The company claims that proprietary technology allows it to transfer the music, but declined to provide any details.

One possible way to transfer music would be to stream the actual audio signal from iTunes directly to the media adapter, thereby evading the DRM.

The adapter also acts as an interface to play video content downloaded from the internet, including high-definition content.

It can record and play television shows, but this service requires a PC with a TV tuner running Windows Media Center Edition.

The recordings can be stored either on the computer's hard drive or on an external hard drive attached directly to the adapter through a USB connection.

Streaming high-definition content requires users to build a network using the pre-release 802.11n standard or nascent Ethernet over Powerline technology.

The device also offers Ethernet and regular Wi-Fi connections, and is slated for availability later this quarter and will retail at $349.

• A video demonstration of Netgear's Digital Entertainer HD is available on vnunet.com's CES Blog.