Gateway hopes to return to profitability with the help of home electronics:

The Poway, Calif., company has crafted the new device to look and act like a regular DVD player, but it will also be able to access and play multimedia files stored on a PC.

Gateway plans to begin shipping the new player, dubbed the Gateway Connected DVD Player, on Wednesday. It will sell the device alongside a number of new consumer electronics products, including digital televisions and new home theater equipment as it moves toward establishing itself as a player in the consumer electronics market, a Gateway representative said.


Aside from accepting regular DVDs, the player will work with Ethernet or 802.11b wireless home networks to fetch MP3 files or digital photos from one or more PCs in a home. It also will allow people to find the files they want by displaying a graphical user interface on a television screen. They can navigate the interface using the DVD player's remote control.

The price for the DVD player, which Gateway claims is the first to offer the PC connection, is $249.

The company will also offer customers help in setting up a home network, which it suggests they use to handle the connection between the DVD player and a PC. [CNET]