Elgato debuts EyeConnect: Universal Plug and Play Audio/Video Media streaming software for Mac OS X

Elgato Systems, creators of the award-winning digital TV recorder EyeTV for the Mac, today officially released EyeConnect, the Macintosh market’s first fully integrated media streaming software based on Universal Plug and Play Audio/Video (UPnP AV). EyeConnect enables digital music, video, or photo content, including EyeTV recordings, iPhotos and iTunes stored on a Macintosh, to be played on a broad variety of UPnP AV certified devices throughout the home. EyeConnect supports all digital media formats and is capable of streaming slideshows, music and even HDTV in full video quality with Dolby Digital sound. Starting today EyeConnect can be purchased online for US$99.00. A free, 30-day trial version is available for download.

“CES 2005 was bursting with announcements about new media players and devices that will revolutionize the media experience in the living room,” says Freddie Geier, Elgato’s CEO in the press release. “Elgato’s EyeConnect media streaming software addresses this rapidly growing market for home networking. In the first four months of this year the market has already seen a broad range of consumer electronic brands announcing their UPnP AV solutions. We want to give the Mac community the freedom of choice for their favorite living room equipment.”

The research company In-Stat expects media networking to continue to grow rapidly over the next few years. The integration of media ports into CE devices will continue, with many devices having Ethernet and 802.11x ports standard in coming years. Total media networking connections will grow from over 51 million in 2005 to over 223 million in 2009, a 29% annual growth rate. Much of the growth will be driven by PC vendors, who are rolling out Media Center PCs that fit both in look and function in the living room.

Now Mac users can manage the wired or wireless streaming of stored multimedia content to multiple devices in a connected home environment. EyeConnect automatically determines the digital media formats supported by the UPnP AV certified device, which typically include MP3, AAC, JPG MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 and many more. As an added benefit, the content remains organized as found in the user’s Macintosh library. In addition, EyeConnect supports HDTV content as well as Dolby Digital.

EyeConnect works with all UPnP AV devices and was tested successfully with the following products: Philips Streamium (SL300i, SL400i and MX6000i), Netgear MP115, D-Link DSM-320 MediaLounge, Buffalo LinkTheater PC-P3LWG/DVD, GoVideo D2730. These devices and many more like them support UPnP AV, which is a broadly accepted industry standard that enables digital content to be identified, managed, and distributed across multiple devices. It is supported by a wide range of consumer electronics companies including major players like HP, Netgear, Panasonic, Philips, Pioneer, Samsung, Sony, Toshiba and many more.

What is UPnP AV technology? UPnP AV (Universal Plug ‘n Play) technology is an open networking architecture that employs TCP/IP and other Internet technologies for a seamless flow of digital content through a home. UPnP AV products work easily with each other and do not require complex configuration. EyeConnect supports the growing number of brand name digital media devices certified for UPnP AV.

Elgato Systems is a member of the Digital Living Network Association (DLNA), the Intel Developer Network for the Digital Home and the UPnP Forum. An EyeConnect Plug-in SDK is available, allowing third parties to develop add on software.

System Requirements:
A Macintosh computer with PowerPC G4 500MHz or G5 processor; Mac OS X 10.3 and Mac OS X 10.4. or later. 256MB of RAM (512MB recommended). Wireless Network or Ethernet Network required. Different UPnP( AV media servers support different file formats. Depending on the file formats supported by the media players, EyeConnect can stream audio and image as well as video formats.

More info here.