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2008-Digital media server trendsetter ReQuest will seize the opportunity at the 2008 CEDIA Expo in Denver, CO, to unveil a groundbreaking new product that will bring online streaming content and DVD movies into living rooms of owners of the ReQuest iQ and F-Series media servers. The ReQuest Intelligent Media Client (IMC) is a powerful network device that creates an expandable media platform and a new level of convenience and functionality for mutliroom enjoyment of music, videos, photos, and information widgets, and it provides upscaled 1080p HD playback of local and archived DVD movies.
Peter Cholnoky, CEO of ReQuest, says, "When combined with ReQuest servers, the IMC delivers a complete entertainment ecosystem that includes multiroom music, videos, photos, and Web-based widgets such as weather, stocks, and web-cams. The expandable platform empowers home owners to enjoy their CD and DVD content as well as leverage the expanding online services for streaming and downloadable content."
The ReQuest Intelligent Media Client includes a slot-loading DVD drive to deliver local playback of DVDs, as well as the ability to archive movies to the host system's iQ or F-Series media server. Once archived, music, movies, and videos become part of the server's library, available for search, instant recall, and enjoyment in any room of the house via ReQuest's powerful yet simple graphical user interface (GUI). Movie playback, whether local or archived, is upscaled to 1080p by the IMC for near-HD image quality via its HDMI and component outputs. The IMC also acts as a gateway to online media and offers access to millions of videos from YouTube. In the near future, ReQuest plans to integrate many more services like YouTube for streaming and downloadable content of music, video, and photos.
The IMC provides a user experience as impressively elegant as its performance. Because its operating system runs from solid-state memory, the IMC is incredibly quiet, and its gigabit Ethernet networking makes communication and response lightning fast. And because ReQuest's new on-screen HD-TV GUI serves as the main interface for all content and control, it is incredibly easy and intuitive to use. An infrared-in jack lets the IMC integrate local, full-system control with no additional hardware other than a standard IR-sensor. And any IR remote can quickly be configured to operate the ReQuest HD-TV GUI using just the four basic directional cursor commands, plus Enter.
Setup is equally easy: The IMC requires just a standard Ethernet CAT5 connection to the home network, and is quickly configured using the HD TV GUI. The IMC provides high-definition video output up to 1080p via HDMI and component video simultaneously, allowing installers to display HD on the local room's TV or projection system while distributing the same HD content throughout the house. Connections for optical digital audio output are supported for the local home theater or stereo audio installation.
Not only is ReQuest's new Intelligent Media Client easy and affordable, it is intriguingly scalable as well. ReQuest will introduce storage-expansion options using standard gigabit-Ethernet NAS (network accessible storage) support in Q4 2008 so that owners' content libraries can grow as needed, economically, without their being forced to purchase expensive proprietary storage.
Availability: October 2008 - Suggested Retail Price: $2495.
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