TVTonic Brings QuickTime Video to Windows Vista Media Center
Wavexpress, a provider of broadband media technology and services, majority-owned by Wave Systems Corp. (NASDAQ: WAVX), today announced the release of a new upgrade to TVTonic™ that is designed to allow native playback of QuickTime video within Windows Vista Media Center, the remote controlled media interface in the Microsoft Vista Home Premium and Ultimate platforms. This new upgrade opens up a wealth of video and media content created in QuickTime to Media Center users, whether they choose to tap hundreds of QuickTime video feeds available directly through TVTonic, or choose to play their own content outside of TVTonic (through Media Center’s My Videos, for example).
“We’re giving Media Center users easy access to a whole world of new online video collections,” said Michael Sprague, president of Wavexpress. “The video experience in Vista Media Center has changed the home entertainment experience with its ability to bring quality Internet video right to your big-screen TV, with the remote control navigation and high-end picture quality that consumers demand. So many of today’s best Internet video productions are created in Quicktime and now, with TVTonic, they can be enjoyed through the Media Center platform.”
The upgrade to TVTonic will provide Windows Vista Media Center users access to nearly 300 channels of QuickTime video in addition to the almost 100 channels they are already familiar with. New feeds include content from top media organizations, giving consumers a wealth of new and dynamic content that is refreshed daily and delivered straight to the user’s hard drive for a superior quality viewing experience–whether ported to the big-screen TV or watched via the computer. TVTonic allows users to subscribe to their own favorite podcasts or RSS feeds as well, leveraging the dynamic platform to download favorite video for superior-quality play back on demand.
“From free HD-quality channels, to the best roundup of today’s most popular video podcasts, there are many great productions being distributed through the Internet. Our job is to help bring those shows into your living room, onto the big screen and in high-definition whenever possible,” continued Michael Sprague. “Our products are designed to streamline the viewing experience, bringing Internet-distributed content closer to the quality, reliability and ease of use of traditional broadcast TV.”
TVTonic, a free offering available with any PC running Microsoft Media Center, and for online access by any PC user at www.tvtonic.com, creates a television experience out of Internet video by taking the hassle out of searching for quality video on the Internet and allowing the viewer to simply see what’s on, pick a channel, sit back and watch. TVTonic can manage a viewer’s subscriptions much like a digital video recorder (DVR) for the Internet. Viewers select the channels they want to record and TVTonic caches the shows on the hard-drive. This is designed to ensure that the content is ready for viewing in a seamless, up to HD-quality format that remains high quality in full-screen mode. TVTonic is also designed to be navigated with a remote control, either on a consumer’s PC or living room TV, for easy surfing across channels.
The technology behind the new native QuickTime video playback ability, licensed from Proxure, Inc., is a real-time transcoding filter that works in the background, designed to allow playback with very little memory usage.
“TVTonic offers quality entertainment, from the computer to your living room,” said Dan Reynolds, director of sales and marketing, Proxure. “By leveraging Proxure’s experience and expertise in multimedia software development, TVTonic can now support QuickTime video even in the Windows Vista Media Center, and can bring users the same quality experience regardless of the technology behind the video’s creation.”
About Proxure, Inc.
Proxure powered software solutions are helping to enable today’s multimedia-rich, mobile lifestyles. Consumers and businesses regularly turn to Proxure to solve real-world problems with the synchronization, management, and consumption of digital content across diverse platforms. Proxure is dedicated to creating innovative technology and user-friendly software to enhance the digital-life. Visit Proxure on the web at http://www.proxure.com.
About Wavexpress
Wavexpress enables secure broadband distribution of premium digital content. The company delivers full-screen video in up to HD-quality, as well as games, music and software. Wavexpress supports a variety of business models, including subscription, pay-per-view, and advertising services. For more information about Wavexpress, or to learn about its Internet television application TVTonic, please visit www.tvtonic.com.
About Wave Systems Corp.
Consumers and businesses are demanding a computing environment that is more trusted, private, safe and secure. Wave is a leader in delivering trusted computing applications and services with advanced products, infrastructure and solutions across multiple trusted platforms from a variety of vendors. Wave holds a portfolio of significant fundamental patents in security and e-commerce applications and employs some of the world’s leading security systems architects and engineers. For more information about Wave, visit http://www.wave.com.
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