SyncTV Launches Beta of ‘Unlimited Download’ Service for TV Shows
Home-theater Quality Downloads Play Back on Windows PCs, Macs and Linux
PCs; TVs and Portable Players in Future
San Jose CA, November 19th 2007 — SyncTV (www.synctv.com) today announced
the private beta launch of its TV download service, which will provide
home-theater quality TV shows on an unlimited download basis. Completely
based on open-standards, the SyncTV service works on Windows PCs, Macs and
Linux PCs, and in the future it will also work on TVs and portable players.
SyncTV’s program library is organized by channels, some of which, like
Showtime, will already be familiar to viewers. Once subscribed to a
particular channel, viewers can download any show made available on that
channel, which in many cases will include every episode of every season of
a particular show. There is a small monthly fee for each subscribed
channel, though a minority of channels will make their content available on
a pay-per-download basis, rather than through subscriptions.
Those interested in signing up to the private beta can request
participation through the SyncTV homepage at www.synctv.com. Qualifying
beta-testers can then download the media player free of charge to their PC
or Mac to gain access to a rich library of TV content that is available. As
the SyncTV beta continues, there will be even more content available from
major channels and networks, creating one of the deepest libraries of TV
shows available anywhere.
The video and audio quality of SyncTV programming will be the highest
available through Internet download. The minimum video quality of all the
content is comparable to the same content on DVD, and where possible, HD
content will be available across the different channels. SyncTV will also
have programming available in discreet 5.1 Dolby Digital Plus surround
sound, which is being used at the highest available settings.
SyncTV allows you a great deal of flexibility in how you play back the TV
shows you download. You can play back shows on up to five ‘home’ devices,
which means PCs/Macs now and other home entertainment devices in the
future. Upon availability of compatible portable devices, SyncTV will allow
you to specify an additional ten portable devices for playback.
SyncTV has developed an open platform, which makes it easy for
manufacturers and application developers to create products to support it.
To facilitate development, SyncTV will make its protocols and data formats
available to developers and is using Marlin, an open-standards Digital
Rights Management (DRM) system. More information about new partners and
products will be announced in the coming months.
John Gildred, President of SyncTV, commented: “We are absolutely passionate
about giving consumers the highest-quality, best-value and most flexible TV
download service available anywhere. We really hope that our users will
agree that we have achieved that.”
Gildred continued: “This beta period will allow us to fine-tune the system
and get feedback on how we can improve the user experience. We are going to
be listening carefully to what our users are saying so we can give them the
service they want and need.”
To stay in touch with SyncTV news, including details of new channels and
new device compatibility, read the SyncTV blog at www.synctv.com/blog.
ABOUT SYNCTV
SyncTV was created to give consumers the highest-quality and most flexible
TV download service available. The service works on Windows PCs, Macs and
Linux PCs. Because SyncTV was designed to work directly on other consumer
audio-visual products, SyncTV will work on more and more devices in the
future, including TVs and portable players. The company uses an
open-standards DRM called Marlin and publishes all our open-standard
protocols and data formats.
SyncTV, Inc. is a subsidiary of Pioneer Research Center USA, Inc., and is
headquartered in San Jose, California.