Beijing start-up develops Web media player for TV

By Sumner Lemon, IDG News Service, 03/03/09

 Start a discussion    Print article

 Comments (1)    Print article

A fledgling software developer in Beijing has developed an embedded application that it hopes will bridge the gap between PCs and consumer electronics, allowing users to easily play computer video and audio files through their televisions and stereos.

Called Nth Code Player, the application was developed by Nth Code, a start-up company founded by CEO Peter McDermott], an American programmer and entrepreneur who lives in China.

"We're out talking to partners and potential customers to try to get that first deal that will help us get this to market," McDermott said.

Nth Code Player can be integrated with televisions or DVD players equipped with a Wi-Fi connection. The software automatically discovers computers and other devices on the network with shared media files, and allows users to browse and play them. No special software is required to be installed on a PC for Nth Code Player to work.

With Nth Code Player, Nth Code aims to enter a market already crowded by industry heavyweights, such as Microsoft, Sony and Apple. Making inroads won't be easy for a startup, but the simplicity of Nth Code's approach could appeal to some companies. So far, the company has yet to find a customer for Nth Code Player, having just started knocking on doors in a bid to win interest from hardware makers, McDermott said.

"There are a lot of companies making DVD players, televisions and set-top boxes, and I think these companies would like to have these kinds of capabilities integrated into the products they are already selling," he said.

Nth Code Player uses the open-source WebKit browser to link users to the Internet, allowing them to play or download files available from sites like Miro Guide. Users can also subscribe to media from such sites using Nth Code Player's support for RSS and BitTorrent, McDermott said.

While demand for digital content has exploded with the proliferation of broadband Internet connections, demand will only increase in the future. "The trend is a lot of this media, whether it's video or music, is now being distributed over the Internet," he said.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.

Invalid query - session: Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/tmp/mysql.sock' (2)

About Us | Contact Us | Advertising Info | Terms of Service/Privacy

Copyright, 2006-2007 Network World, Inc. All rights reserved.