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Benjamin Higginbotham: Benjamin Higginbotham with technologyevangelist.com. fellow techie Ryan has sent us this question.

Ryan Carlson: Ben and Ed, I hope all is going well at CES, but two things I wanted to know was competing products for the Apple’s iTV, for the war of -the living room and the second was if there is any thing DRM free in the realm of the Sony readable books, the electronic books and see if there is any new content or new devices that may be competing in that realm against Sony.

Benjamin Higginbotham: Now those are some great questions The second part of the question regarding the e-readers. We haven’t found any thing as DRM free release, nothing that’s really good yet, so if you find something we will let you know. But, the first part of the question something that competes with Apple’s iTV which is now known as Apple TV product. That we have an answer for and that we found that Net Gear in the form of a digital entertainer HD, to get you more answers we got a great interview with the Net Gear guys.

Jamison Ching: I am Jamison Ching, I am the Product Line Manager for Digital Media Products, The Net Gear.

Benjamin Higginbotham: Oh cool and you have got a new HD box that goes under the TV, tell me little bit about that?

Jamison Ching: Yeah, it’s our digital entertainer HD the model EVA8000, it’s a brand new high definition digital media receiver and it has a one of the cool features as then HDMI output to the HD TV. It will play all of your files from a PC or a Mac or stores device that’s on the network and shift it over to your living room and then play that video right on your HD TV, its pretty cool.

Benjamin Higginbotham: Up to what resolution?

Jamison Ching: Up to 1080p its what we release board on the video side one of the first digital media receivers to be able to support up to 1080p.

Benjamin Higginbotham: And I can actually stream so I can download 1080p contents, stream that 1080p to this box an it is played on my 1080p plasma?

Jamison Ching: Correct and it’s a great way we handle both the protected content for Windows Media Video and as well as un protected content and many different types of formats such as as mpeg,wmv and then also H.264 for HD.

Benjamin Higginbotham: What about download a content from iTunes?

Jamison Ching: iTtunes we can do unprotected AAC we also have a sort of a speaker extension function, where you can play the iTunes on your pc and then have the output come out through the network in to your living room.

Benjamin Higginbotham: Ok,Is that—and that work on Mac and pc is that one of the other?

Jamison Ching: Right now we worked in pc only and then you can also we were looking at different ways we can do that may be on the Mac .

Benjamin Higginbotham: But other functionality does work on the Machintash , so if I got a HD file on my Machintash I could move an unprotected HD file I can move that?

Jamison Ching: Correct one of the great things about the digital entertainer HD is that is doesn’t require any service software, So it operates purely on file sharing and so that means you can talk to a network attached storage or PC, Linux or a Mac.

Benjamin Higginbotham: Can you talk the multiple computer’s at the same time, So if have 10 computers on my network all with content on it Can I go out and say well this computer has this and this computer has that?

Jamison Ching: Right that’s one of the great thing about the digital entertainer HD It actually takes all of the content that should be around at your different computers or your source devices, collects it into one big library and then allows you to look at that library as if it was just on one source device and allows you to look at the different clipart combines it together you never have to look. You never have to remember what pc it stored on or what source device it was on. It’s all there right in front of you.

Benjamin Higginbotham: So I can use my favorite program to download my internet television show such as the one we were recording right now I can stream my pictures in my music all from all the different computers in my home I can use your network attached stores device to store all of these content, So what about live television what about actual television support?

Jamison Ching: So another feature of the digital entertainer HD as if there is not enough features is PVR we actually give you a PVR application which runs on your pc. So if you have a HD tv tuner in your pc, the digital entertainer HD can control a schedule program, so that you can record them on your pc an then have them play back from your pc back on to your HD TV it’s a fantastic feature.

Benjamin Higginbotham: Can I play back through the tuner live on it?

Jamison Ching: Yes, actually you can do that, you can play it live, you can pause, you can rewind and lot of the trick modes that are available on PVRs that might set on your entertainment center you can do that with the digital entertainer HD.

Benjamin Higginbotham: So I can watch my HD cable content if my computer has a cable card support in it I can download my HD content watch all of that now I saw a really cool feature in the press release where you could actually move from room to room Could you describe that a little bit for me?

Jamison Ching: Sure, If you have two or more digital entertainer HD devices you can actually pause the say you are watching the movie in your living room you will get tired you pause the movie there, you move you select the function called follow me and then if you have another unit up in the master bedroom you can send that program up to the bedroom and then continue watching it were you left off down in the living room, It’s a fantastic feature.

Benjamin Higginbotham: And then the results are party feature we can synchronize them all or?

Jamison Ching: Yes, another multi room feature is called party mode which allows you to synchronize all of the devices, so in the different rooms of your house you want to have a party and have all the speakers playing the same song in a synchronized setting, then you can have all of the receivers do the same --play the same song at the same time and have your all house filled with music.

Benjamin Higginbotham: Now today Apple announced APPLE TV I believe what’s there calling it now how would you compare this to that?

Jamison Ching: So, you know from what we have heard of APPLE TV because I really haven’t been able to see it, we think that our digital -- to see Apple coming to the market because we think it will really grow this the entire industry for the downloaded videos and so we think we really have a differential product that will compete very well with whatever they come out with.

Benjamin Higginbotham: You know it seems great, we love the demos, thank you so much for your time.

Jamison Ching: Thank you.