NEC Home Electronics Ltd. has built a unique form of "push" technology into an Internet TV that incorporates the Navio TV Navigator, a browser developed by Netscape affiliate Navio Communications Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.)

A proprietary user interface displays Web home pages as if they were TV programs. A dedicated server set up by NEC Home Electronics patrols the user's 50 most popular Web sites, and automatically pushes the top pages of those sites onto a built-in hard-disk drive in each TV set at midnight. The server periodically updates each user's bookmarked Web sites with up to 50 linked pages, also at midnight. The hard drive can store 5,000 to 10,000 home pages, which users can view with a click of the remote control.

"We chose the Navio browser because it supports all of the basic functions of HTML 3.2, and the rendering speed is very good," said Yasuyuki Toki, the NEC Corp. manager for the project. "With the human interface, users can enjoy most of the home pages they want to see without waiting for connection to a provider, and to each Web site."

NEC Home Electronics will introduce the 28-inch wide-screen Internet TV in July. The system runs in about 4 Mbytes, with another 4 Mbytes for data storage. Marketing will be limited to Japan because the NEC group does not have distribution channels in consumer markets elsewhere. The TV carries a price tag of about $2,600-steep compared with the $880 or less for a non-Internet TV in the same screen size.

"We hope consumers feel the added value justifies the price difference," said Hiromasa Koike, in charge of the multimedia division at NEC Home Electronics. "Thus far, Internet TV products have not been very successful because the performance did not match the functions required. We put enough horsepower into this TV so that users will be able to use it easily and enjoy the experience."

The TV is based on the VR4300, a 64-bit MIPS RISC processor, and includes 8 Mbits of ROM, 8 Mbits of RAM, a 1-Gbyte hard-disk drive and a 33.6-kbps modem. The screen supports wide SVGA (1,024 x 600-pixel) resolution.

Internet TVs launched last fall by Mitsubishi, Sharp and Sanyo have seen disappointing sales due to limited functionality and slow connection to the Web. Matsushita has held off introducing its own model, which was scheduled to hit the market this spring.

Source: Electronic Engineering Times