Digital Media Receiver - History

History

By the fall of 2000, work had been pursued on an audio-only receiver by a company called SimpleDevices, which was awarded two patents covering this invention in 2006. Developed under the SimpleFi name by Motorola in late 2001, the design was based on a Cirrus Arm-7 processor and the wireless HomeRF networking standard which pre-dated 802.11b in the residential markets. Other early market entrants in 2001 included the Turtle Beach AudioTron ethernet receiver and the Rio Receiver phone line networking receiver.

An early version of a video-capable DMR was presented by F.C. Jeng et al. in the International Conf. on Consumer Electronics in 2002. It included a network interface card, a media processor for audio and video decoding, an analog video encoder (for video playback to a TV), an audio digital to analog converter for audio playback, and an infrared receiver for remote-control-interface.

The concept of a digital media receiver was also introduced by Intel in 2002 at the Intel Developer Forum as part of their “Extended Wireless PC Initiative." Intel’s DMR was based on an Xscale PXA210 processor and supported 802.11b wireless networking. Intel was among the first to use the Linux embedded OS and UPnP technology for its receiver. Networked audio and DVD players were among the first consumer devices to integrate DMR functionality. Examples include the Philips Streamium-range of products that allowed for remote streaming of audio, the GoVideo D2730 Networked DVD player which integrated DVD playback with the capability to stream Rhapsody audio from your PC, and the Buffalo LinkTheater which combined a DVD player with a DMR. More recently, the Xbox360 gaming console from Microsoft was among the first gaming devices that integrated a DMR. With the Xbox360, Microsoft also introduced the concept of a Windows Media Center Extender, which allows you to access the Media center capabilities of your PC remotely, through your home network. More recently, Linksys, D-Link, and HP introduced the latest generation of DMRs that support HD video playback and may integrate both Windows Extender and traditional DMR functionality.

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