Today at the 2004 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Microsoft Corp. announced Windows® Media Connect, technology designed to enable hardware manufacturers to easily develop devices such as Digital Media Receivers (DMRs), which have rich functionality for playing digital media files stored on personal computers over home networks. A broad range of industry leaders have announced their support of this upcoming technology, including leading PC OEMs and consumer electronics device manufacturers including Arcadyan Technology Corp., Creative Labs, Dell Inc., Mediabolic Inc., PRISMIQ Inc., Rockford Corp., Roku, Simple Devices Inc. and Toshiba. Leading content service providers such as LAUNCH Music on Yahoo!, MusicNow (formerly FullAudio), and Napster also endorsed Windows Media Connect for its ability to extend the reach of their content and services to a new range of consumer devices. Available in 2004, Windows Media Connect technology will overcome two critical hurdles faced by networked media devices today: compatibility between proprietary devices and ease of access to content stored on the PC.

"With the growing popularity of legitimate music and video services and the exponential growth of digital media collections on Windows-based PCs overall, Windows Media Connect solves a looming home networking problem for consumers," said Amir Majidimehr, corporate vice president of the Windows Digital Media Division at Microsoft. "The industry support we're announcing today is evidence of the benefits that Windows Media Connect will provide to manufacturers and consumers alike."