NetTV today announced its new
low-cost digital entertainment system for home users, an all-digital system
packing in a DVD player and PC technology for under $3,000.
The new entertainment system, comprised of the company's ExtremeDVD players
and DTV PC+TV monitors, purports to deliver five times the resolution of
DVD discs played on typical analog television, the company said in a
statement.
DVD discs hold much more data than videotapes, or even CD-ROMs, enough to
store high-resolution interactive games and movies. But the high
picture quality of DVD is not well served by analog television or monitors,
NetTV asserted in a statement today, noting that only a combination DVD-DTV
system provides the highest level picture resolution.
"It's like going to a movie theater without leaving home; it's like going
to the arcade without shelling out 20 bucks in quarters," said NetTV
founder Ron Perkes in a statement.
The DVD players start under $1,000, with the digital monitors starting
under $1,900. Digital televisions are expected to cost around $5,000,
without DVD capability. The DTV monitors accept inputs from PCs, VCRs,
cable television, laser disc players, digital satellite receivers, and
video recorders, in addition to DVD, the company said. Additionally, the
monitors feature a 125 channel television tuner for digital television
signals.
Net-TVs ExtremeDVD systems come with a 56-kbps modem, Windows 95, wireless
remote keyboard, and start at $999. The most robust version of the
ExtremeDVD, The Headliner, features a 300 Mhz Pentium II, 64MB of memory,
and a 56 GB hard drive for $1,999.
The new 34-inch DTV progressive scan monitor from NetTV will be priced
under $1,900.