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Get ready, here comes Kodak into the TV set-top box market. Due to hit stores in September, their Theatre HD Player is a Wi-Fi equipped TV set-top box that can stream music, videos, and photos from any computer that is connected to the same network right to your HDTV. It offers 720 playback, HDMI and component output ports, and a USB port.

Sounds decent, right? Sure. Until you take a look at the price tag and then compare it to what is already on the market and comparable. We have the PlayStation 3 and AppleTV. These two alone offer the exact same features and more. The Theatre HD Player will run you $300.  Now, while a 40GB PS3 is a little pricier at $400; it also has a Blu-ray player and the obvious video game console included. The AppleTV costs less than the Theatre HD at $229, and it even allows you to store media.

So, what confuses me most about this set is the price tag. Considering most of the media downloaded wouldn’t even be high definition that I’d be streaming to my HDTV from my computer...what’s the use then? Just seems like a high tag for what the consumer would be getting considering what else is on the market. Makes me wonder if Kodak’s research team is totally oblivious to this fact. I think I see “clearance price” written all over this one.

Product [Kodak] Via [GizMag]

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