French-based set-top box manufacturer NetGem SA is set to announce a single motherboard that controls both TV and internet functionality. The new product, NetGem TV, will be unveiled at the IFA’99 fair in Berlin this week. It combines the hard- and software element of NetBox 3.5, the Linux-based version of its set-top box shown at CeBit in March, with the main board of the television, enabling TV manufacturers to offer fully IP-compliant sets.
In a thinly-veiled reference Microsoft’s WebTV initiative, Paris-based NetGem said other companies working toward the same goal approach it from a different angle, seeking to layer internet onto existing systems as an afterthought. NetGemTV, on the other hand, brings full internet functionality…as an integral element in its basic design, it claims.
The French company said the new product is also the first to support the Advanced TV Enhancement Forum (ATVEF) specifications, with HTML on-screen display, picture-in-picture, together with a vertical blanking interval (VBI) decoder for teletext, opening the way for advertising insertions, and interactive TV triggers.
