XStreamHD Hits CEDIA With Plans to Start Slow Rollout of Service This Fall

XStreamHD, which first announced plans for a “pre-fetched” movie, music and game satellite delivery service at the 2008 CES, is demonstrating its technology at the AMX booth at CEDIA this week. AMX has developed customized controls for the service, which allows AMX home automation system owners to access and control movies from XStreamHD media servers for viewing on connected TVs in the house. The satellite-based service, which has experienced a series of delays since first announced in 2008, will automatically beam 1080p movies, based on consumers’ preferences, to a media server when titles become available on DVD, according to James Mahoney, vice president of marketing.

There’s still no firm start date for the service, which will operate from the EchoStar-leased AMC-16 satellite at 85 degrees west longitude for U.S. coverage, but the company is planning a soft launch this fall, Mahoney said. Delays have been due to safety testing, manufacturing issues and other kinks that “took more time than we would have liked,” he said.

XStreamHD, which originally planned a direct-to-consumer sales model, inked a deal with Nationwide last week to allow the distributor’s 3,000 dealers to sell and install the XStreamHD system. Customers who pre-ordered and select dealers will be first to get systems, “so we can roll out slowly and make any larger adjustments once we begin our national advertising program,” Mahoney said. It would be “ideal” for the company to have the marketing program in place during the holiday season, he said. Package prices are $399 for the Fast Start package, which includes an elliptical satellite dish, media server and media receiver, RF/IR remote control, Cat 2-certified HDMI cable and Cat 5e Ethernet cables. At $100 more, the Pro Start package adds eight analog outputs for connection to a matching preamplifier for high-resolution audio. Dynamic range of the Pro model is said to be 115 dB compared with 105 dB for the starter system. Two-terabyte and 4TB storage upgrades are optional with both starter packages, Mahoney said.

XStreamHD is targeting early adopters who are home theater and HD enthusiasts and appreciate the 1080p quality of Blu-ray discs and PS3 games, Mahoney said. The system’s receiver is said to have a network video recorder that captures up to three broadcast HDTV programs simultaneously. Asked if customers who were pre-disposed to satellite systems didn’t already have their needs met by DirecTV or Dish Network, Mahoney said, “There are 20 million-plus satellite owners in the country, but those systems are much lower quality. We're offering the highest quality playback for movies.” The service travels over Gigabit Ethernet in the home at 100 Mbps, he said, and can send multiple streams of video simultaneously, at varying quality, to DLNA-enabled TVs and computers.

Mahoney said 10,000 movie and game titles would be accessible through the service, but he wouldn’t expand on studio agreements other than the one previously announced with Lionsgate. The website says only that the full entertainment library “will be coming soon.” Content is also likely to include a la carte options including TV shows and cooking, exercise and entertainment programming, Mahoney said. The XStreamHD receivers aren’t 3D-capable, but he said 3D titles could be beamed to the receiver and streamed to the media server for playback on 3D TVs. Movies will be priced at $4.99 for a 24- or- 48-hour rental window, which begins the moment the user first begins watching the movie. A re-rent option may allow consumers to view a movie they've already watched for $1 more. A purchase model is also in the works, Mahoney said.