Say you have a lot of home movies. Like a lot. And you want to stream them on the Internet to where you are. What do you do? Well Pogoplug Video is the answer. This device transmits your legally downloaded content into a format that can be easily streamed to any computer in the whole wide world. The device grabs video from your home network and then converts it on the fly. It also support AVCHD streaming straight out of cameras, starting with Sony’s latest crop.
The Pogoplug video will cost $200 when it launches April 1.
Cloud Engines Unveils Pogoplug Video
Instantly streams personal video library anywhere on the Internet
San Francisco, CA (January 6, 2011) – Cloud Engines Inc. today announced Pogoplug Video, a new version of the award winning Pogoplug that allows personal video content to stream instantly to any device on the Internet without requiring end users to convert video to a new format or to upload it to an external website.
Pogoplug Video is built upon next-generation hardware video technologies. The product enables users to stream video directly to iPhone, iPad, Android and other Internet connected devices. Video can also stream to UPnP Internet-connected TVs or set-top boxes.
“Pogoplug Video is the breakthrough product that many of our end users have requested.” said Daniel Putterman, co-founder and CEO of Cloud Engines, Inc. “Now you can become your own personal broadcaster and share and stream personal video without uploading it to a website.”
Ensuring compatibility with the latest HD video formats, Pogoplug Video has been optimized to work with Sony’s AVCHD camera products to make high-quality video instantly streamable. Sony has selected Cloud Engines Inc. as a featured solutions provider, and will showcase Pogoplug Video at the Sony booth at the Consumer Electronics Show 2011.
“Sony is pleased that Pogoplug Video will support our latest AVCHD camera products and will make premium quality AVCHD recorded content accessible to anyone on the go.” said Masashi Imamura, Corporate Executive, Senior Vice President of Sony Corporation.
Daniel Putterman, co-founder and CEO of Cloud Engines, Inc., said “Sony represents high quality video. Pogoplug Video lets users easily share content without compromising quality.”
Pogoplug Video is $199, will be available for pre-order on March 1, 2011 and will sell at various retail locations, and directly from www.pogoplug.com, on April 1, 2011.
Pogoplug Video Features
· Share high-quality videos of supported formats immediately. Users no longer need to wait for complicated conversions and lengthy uploads to view and share personal content on mobile or networked devices.
· Watch videos and pictures in full HD. Pogoplug Video automatically streams at the highest quality possible.
· View multimedia on all devices. Pogoplug Video uses multiple streaming protocols to support the most popular mobile and Internet enabled devices. For local viewing, Pogoplug Video supports UPnP so users are able to play content on any UPnP set top box or video game console.
· Stream media from many of the most popular camcorders, video cameras and mobile phones.
About Cloud Engines, Inc.
Founded in 2007 by experienced entrepreneurs from the digital media and security industries, Cloud Engines is located in San Francisco, California. The company was formed with a mission to change the way personal content is stored and distributed over the Internet. The Cloud Engines philosophy is that by making a product simple, open and affordable, the community will participate in making it better. To this end, the Pogoplug service is available across multiple products and through partners. For more information, please visit www.cloudengines.com and www.pogoplug.com.
Useful Links
Pogoplug Site: www.pogoplug.com
Pogoplug Twitter: www.pogoplug.com/twitter
Pogoplug Facebook: www.facebook.com/pogoplug
But.. but.. $200 bucks. Ain’t that a bit expensive for the convenience offered when you could set something similar up with an existing PC?
It is a bit pricey, but the lower-cost Pogoplugs (starting at $65 at Amazon for the older model, $99 for the newest “pro” version) can already stream H.264, MP4 and AVI video – just not convert it for you or stream the HD stuff. If what you want to do is stream video to a phone, I reckon HD doesn’t really matter that much anyway.
The Pogoplug does a lot more than stream media, too. It’s a NAS device, which means it can be used to store backups of files, and it’s always-on and always-connected to the Internet, regardless of whether your home PC is on. It can also be accessed remotely by you or by people to whom you grant permission without having them tunnel in to your PC (which could cause security problems). In short, while the video streaming may be the most fun use for a Pogoplug, it’s hardly the best use of one. I have one myself and I think it’s a must-have device for pretty much everyone, especially SOHO users.
@weatherman – Good comment, I agree.
I don’t think this product will be as useful as SlingBox. When I’m away from home, it’s really useful to be able to stream my cable and DVR content to my remote devices using Slingbox. I’m not sure the same would be true for my media library because I can easily add it to my devices before I leave – and then I don’t need to worry about network connectivity. I guess it might be handy if I want to provide single-user access to my media library to my freinds and family.
It would be cool if I could stream my content library to 3 or 4 locations at the same time, but that would require more upstream bandwidth than most people have (or a network media server).
HD streaming out from your home requires a good upload speed, so not many households will benefit the HD streaming.
I would much rather just keep my content with me on high capacity SD cards (SDHC or SDXC). Using the cloud is a huge step backwards, especially if you pay per MB.