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T-Online
T-Online launches TV-based Internet solution
T-Online Vision will provide a wide range of Internet services on TV as well as the ability to download movies and trailers in Windows Media 9 Series
T-Online  has launched a new service in Germany, T-Online Vision, which enables customers to use their TV sets to access Internet services that up to now have only been available via PCs or mobile terminal devices.
 Thanks to Windows Media® 9 Series, T-Online customers are able to watch films and news without delay and can even experience concerts live. They can also access email and online information services.
Windows Media Digital Rights Management guarantees the security of this content, which includes downloadable movies, trailers, television programmes and interactive games such as Who Wants to be a Millionaire.
T-Online's existing 3.2 million customers who already use T-DSL are the first target group to whom the broadband solutions are being marketed, while T-Online can already deliver interactive services to more than 10 million customers across Germany.
Thomas Holtrop, CEO of T-Online International AG, says the service supplements traditional broadcast offerings. "In terms of digital TV, programmes will still continue to be broadcast by the mainstream players via satellite, cable or terrestrially. With T-Online Vision, we are offering a product and content portfolio tailored to the TV set. This will see TV-related services such as video on demand combined with typical Internet products such as e-mail and a suitably optimised TV portal. Our product concept ties in closely with the terminal device provided by our hardware partner, Fujitsu Siemens Computers. As part of this process, we have opted for a highly sophisticated ACTIVY Media Center that provides customers with a future-proof offering in terms of digital TV and multimedia in the living room. We firmly believe that features such as digital TV, a digital, remotely programmable video recorder, time-shifted TV viewing, video on demand and interactive television formats will appeal to a large number of customers. These will include a group of early adopters who are also willing to pay for added value.
The fast-growing T-DSL market coupled with the plans to switch off the analogue TV signal will also contribute to ensuring the product is a success."
The ACTIVY Media Center is a hybrid set-top box that has been designed to enable users to watch either television or surf the web through their television. It provides both a DVB digital TV input and a DSL Ethernet interface.
"In terms of encryption technologies, we are using Windows Media® 9 Series, the very latest version of the Microsoft® tried-and-tested Windows Media platform," Holtrop says.
"We are also using the Internet protocol, primarily over T-DSL but in future also via satellite, where necessary. Daily schedules for our electronic programme guide as well as the latest films from our video-on-demand offering are downloaded overnight onto the Media Center hard disk. Customers can then access this chargeable offering whenever they wish from the Media Center."
The DVD drive can handle a range of formats including DVD, audio CD, MP3 or Windows Media Audio, and play them on the TV set or put them through a stereo or Dolby Surround system.
Windows Media 9 Series was chosen because of the high image and sound quality available. The high level of security offered by Windows Media Digital Rights Management technology was also a major factor, ensuring content can only be accessed by those customers who have paid for it.
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