Today, TV might be where people go to be entertained. But make no mistake about it: New entrants are building ever-larger audiences without being burdened by the cost structure of the traditional TV ecosystem, making them more nimble and a potential threat to some of the big media players.
We’ve seen this movie before: In the newspaper and magazine industry, the wide availability of self-publishing tools like WordPress and Blogger allowed anyone to instantly create his or her own media empire. Suddenly digital publishers could reach huge audiences over the Internet, with very little cost involved.
That’s allowed new media companies like Gawker Media, AOL and yes, even GigaOM! to go up against the old guard of print publishers, which has had a devastating effect on the industry. Unable to compete with the relevance and immediacy of online news and information, and burdened by an unsustainable cost structure, local newspapers and weekly news magazines have struggled to stay alive.
So what happens when the video industry is democratized? It’s already happening, as the cost of high-quality video cameras, production and editing equipment has fallen dramatically. Furthermore, platforms like YouTube are making it easier than ever for anyone to build an audience and monetize those videos.
The key takeaway is that the video industry is ripe for disruption. New content creators, emboldened by cheap production and editing tools and the ease of reaching a huge number of people online, are emerging as real competition for the traditional TV marketplace. In my latest piece for GigaOM Pro, (subscription required) I explore who wins and who loses in this brave new world.
Just as The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal have held fairly strong in the face of online competition, it’s unlikely that the big broadcasters will see audiences flee en masse. But smaller networks, especially those in niche categories like food or lifestyle, could see serious audience erosion as viewers find Internet-delivered video channels that are more relevant to them. A vegan cooking show, for instance, might not last long at a cable network, but it could be a goldmine online.
Source is
http://gigaom.com/video/video-democratization/
Monday, December 26, 2011
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
How to watch DVD movie with Roku 2 XS
But this media box do not support to stream media from networked PC. If you have a great movie on computer or on your DVD disc, you can’t playback on HD TV via Roku 2 XS. However, this type of Roku contains USB port and it can read the video from external hard disk. And the video format is only for MP4 video format. So, if you want to watch DVD with Roku 2 XS, you need a DVD to MP4 Converter at first. You can try to use this free DVD to MP4 Video Converter. I always use it to rip my favorite DVD movie to MP4 video and enjoy with my iPad. Here we get our tutorial start!
Step 1: Add source DVD videos
Click “Load DVD” button to add your DVD content into this program.
Step 2: Set output profile
Click “Profile” and search “MP4”, just choose one type from the search result.
Step3: Start Conversion
Click the bottom right convert button to start to convert DVD to Roku 2 XS video.
After you get the MP4 video from your DVD disc, you can use a U-disk or external hard disk to stock your video, and then connect with Roku 2 XS through the USB port.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
New DirecTV TiVo HD DVR finally arrives
After years of waiting and hoping, DirecTV has finally
released a new HD DVR powered by TiVo. The new HD DirecTiVo is model
THR22 as has been rumored. What it offers, however, might not be what
DirecTV subscribers that are TiVo fans were really hoping for.
To start with, DirecTV has soft launched the THR22 in only 10 cities initially, and subscribers in those 10 cities can order the THR22 starting today. Subscribers in other cities will have to wait till sometime after the first of the year. DirecTV has not been specific on their full launch plan for the THR22 beyond saying, “The TiVo HD DVR from DirecTV will be available nationwide in early 2012,” which could mean just about anything with all of the delays that the release of the THR22 has encountered.
As for the THR22 itself, it is a TiVo and it runs the TiVo OS, but not a version of the latest release. Instead, it uses something that looks and acts very close to a slightly enhanced version of the TiVo interface that we saw in the last version of the older standard definition TiVo models in the 2.xx family. The receiver itself is built upon the DirecTV HR22 platform, but from our understanding these are new boxes, not recycled or used units with the TiVo software loaded on them. This news has already thrown a red flag up for some.
In addition, it lacks a number of the features found in the latest generation of DirecTV HD DVR offerings. For example, it lacks 3D support, DirecTV on-demand streaming, multi-room support, You Tube streaming, and those are just the major differences. It does not offer the additional services and streaming offerings found in the latest generation of TiVo.
The THR22 comes with only a 500GB hard drive, which is pretty much standard for DirecTV DVR models. It can support the add-on AM21 terrestrial HD tuner and can record from it. It supports recording of all DirecTV MPEG 4 encoded satellite streams. It offers two-tuner support with the ability to record two shows while watching a third show. It comes with the TiVo peanut remote, but it is DirecTV remote compatible only, so you can’t use the high-end TiVo slider remote with keyboard with it.
Despite all of this, if you still want the THR22 it is going to cost you $199 plus shipping and you have to agree to a 2-year commitment for it. In addition, as with DirecTV receivers the THR22 is leased, which makes the possibility of upgrading it tricky at best. The unit is subject to a TiVo/DVR fee, of course, as well as the monthly receiver fee.
Given all of this, there will still be many that want it and will gladly upgrade to it; while others believe that it is a release with a very short life span. as its feature set simply isn’t as good as what is offered by the latest DirecTV DVR units. Still, with the ability to upgrade the unit, should it become more popular than expected it is possible development and upgrades could be headed the THR22’s way, but it will have to become popular and DirecTV will have to move a lot of units before they will choose to do more with the TiVo platform. In its current release state, however, it may just be far too little and far too late.
Source is
http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/25153-new-directv-tivo-hd-dvr-finally-arrives
To start with, DirecTV has soft launched the THR22 in only 10 cities initially, and subscribers in those 10 cities can order the THR22 starting today. Subscribers in other cities will have to wait till sometime after the first of the year. DirecTV has not been specific on their full launch plan for the THR22 beyond saying, “The TiVo HD DVR from DirecTV will be available nationwide in early 2012,” which could mean just about anything with all of the delays that the release of the THR22 has encountered.
As for the THR22 itself, it is a TiVo and it runs the TiVo OS, but not a version of the latest release. Instead, it uses something that looks and acts very close to a slightly enhanced version of the TiVo interface that we saw in the last version of the older standard definition TiVo models in the 2.xx family. The receiver itself is built upon the DirecTV HR22 platform, but from our understanding these are new boxes, not recycled or used units with the TiVo software loaded on them. This news has already thrown a red flag up for some.
In addition, it lacks a number of the features found in the latest generation of DirecTV HD DVR offerings. For example, it lacks 3D support, DirecTV on-demand streaming, multi-room support, You Tube streaming, and those are just the major differences. It does not offer the additional services and streaming offerings found in the latest generation of TiVo.
The THR22 comes with only a 500GB hard drive, which is pretty much standard for DirecTV DVR models. It can support the add-on AM21 terrestrial HD tuner and can record from it. It supports recording of all DirecTV MPEG 4 encoded satellite streams. It offers two-tuner support with the ability to record two shows while watching a third show. It comes with the TiVo peanut remote, but it is DirecTV remote compatible only, so you can’t use the high-end TiVo slider remote with keyboard with it.
Despite all of this, if you still want the THR22 it is going to cost you $199 plus shipping and you have to agree to a 2-year commitment for it. In addition, as with DirecTV receivers the THR22 is leased, which makes the possibility of upgrading it tricky at best. The unit is subject to a TiVo/DVR fee, of course, as well as the monthly receiver fee.
Given all of this, there will still be many that want it and will gladly upgrade to it; while others believe that it is a release with a very short life span. as its feature set simply isn’t as good as what is offered by the latest DirecTV DVR units. Still, with the ability to upgrade the unit, should it become more popular than expected it is possible development and upgrades could be headed the THR22’s way, but it will have to become popular and DirecTV will have to move a lot of units before they will choose to do more with the TiVo platform. In its current release state, however, it may just be far too little and far too late.
Source is
http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/25153-new-directv-tivo-hd-dvr-finally-arrives
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
RapidShare nixes plans for movie download store
RapidShare soft-launched an experimental RapidMovies site at the end of 2009. Back then, the site only offered free-to-view movie trailers, but the launch was nonetheless remarkable because the service was able to win Warner Bros. as a partner. At the time, RapidShare hoped the Hollywood studio would also remain on board for its commercial launch.
However, two years later, it looks like that initial cooperation never went further. RapidShare’s spokesperson told me there are currently no further plans to work on RapidMovies. The company wants to concentrate instead on further developing its core hosting services.
Oddly enough, it looks like RapidShare’s competitor MegaUpload is now trying to fill the gap. Megamedia Limited, the company behind such ventures as MegaUpload and MegaVideo, plans to launch a site dubbed MegaMovies before the end of the year. From its site:
“Megamovie is coming in 2011. It’s our marketplace for Movies and TV series streamed in the highest quality for the lowest price. Megamovie will be available to all content creators and licensees, from Hollywood studios to independent film makers to TV production companies.”
Megamedia didn’t reply to a request for comment, but it looks like this would simply be a self-serve digital video store, meaning anyone could sell access to downloads — and given MegaUpload’s contentious history with rights holders, I’d bet none of the Hollywood heavyweights would come on board.
Source is
http://gigaom.com/video/rapidshare-rapidmovies-megaupload-megamovie/
Monday, December 5, 2011
Western Digital WD TV Live media streaming device
It also connects to the Internet, allowing the TV to screen services such as Facebook and Youtube.
It is about half the size of a paperback book and controlled by a TV-style remote control. There are two USB ports into which can be plugged a camera, a USB memory key, or hard disk, which is then made accessible by any computer on the network. There's an optical sound output for connecting to amplifier or speakers, and a network socket for a wired link to the household router, though it also supports wireless network connections. It can be connected by HDMI or composite cable to the TV, though the former is much better.
New to this model, which confusingly has the same name as its predecessors, is support for the £10-a-month Spotify online jukebox service which plays virtually any music track you are likely to want (the ad-sponsored free version is not supported).
The WDTV Live is also worth considering as a cheaper and more versatile alternative to an internet radio, as it can use the Tunein online service to receive stations. A big TV screen is a better way to navigate stations than the tiny screens on most internet radios.
The interface has been revamped: its response was crisp and the control screens well designed but they cannot alter the fact that a remote control and TV screen, viewed from across a room, are not the easiest way navigate the thousands of music and image files many people have on their hard disks. Nor are people likely to be able to post long messages to Facebook using the awkward on-screen keyboard or the remote-control keypad.
It can be controlled using a computer but only through an on-screen rendering of the remote control which means users cannot use their PC keyboards to enter login details for the various services, or messages, which is a missed opportunity.
Nevertheless, the new WD TV Live is a good media streamer.
Source is
http://www.computeractive.co.uk/ca/review/2122726/western-digital-wd-tv-live-media-streaming-device
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Fanhattan adds Crackle, PBS and Lifetime
The company has built an app for iOS devices that allows users to search for and discover videos from multiple content providers, rather than having to look in individual apps themselves. So a Modern Family fan, for instance, would be able to see which episodes might be available on ABC’s app as well as Hulu Plus all in one place.
Until now, though, Fanhattan’s video discovery app has been somewhat limited in its content sources, indexing videos from iTunes, Netflix, Hulu Plus, Vudu and ABC. The addition of videos from Crackle, PBS and Lifetime will help diversify that selection, with a wider range of new movies and some exclusive TV content.
Crackle is Sony’s online distribution engine, which includes content from its movie and TV divisions. While it has spent some time making web originals over the last few years, the main thrust of Crackle lately is creating an ad-supported distribution engine for some of its movies and TV shows. As a result, Fanhattan viewers will now have access to movies like Donnie Brasco or A Few Good Men, and TV shows like Seinfeld, Sanford and Son and All in the Family.
Lifetime adds another unique content source, as it brings titles like competitive reality show Project Accessory to the video discovery app, as well as some syndicated content like How I Met Your Mother or The New Adventures of Old Christine that Lifetime distributes through its iOS apps. And public broadcaster PBS has a wealth of exclusive programming available as well, including favorites like Antiques Roadshow and The American Experience.
Video discovery on apps is a big problem, which Fanhattan is hoping to solve. For it, the addition of new content sources makes it even more valuable to users, as they seek to browse and navigate videos available on their devices. And for its partners, being part of Fanhattan’s index makes it more likely that viewers can find their content, as users might not have known those shows or movies were available.
Source is
http://gigaom.com/video/fanhattan-crackle-pbs-lifetime/
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Will usage-based pricing kill the streaming video star?
comScore reported earlier this week that viewers watched a record-high 42.6 billion videos online in October, with YouTube leading the way. Viewers watched an average of 21 hours of online video a piece during the month, which is a far cry from the four or five hours a day that they watch of broadcast TV. But its a 50 percent increase from the 14.5 hours of video that online viewers averaged in December 2010.
Pay TV services finally on the decline?
As online viewership has increased, there’s evidence that it’s finally causing some viewers to avoid paying for cable. Credit Suisse analyst Stefan Anninger forecast in a research note this week that the multichannel video industry will lose 200,000 subscribers in 2012, which is a big about-face from the 250,000 new subscribers that he previously estimated cable, satellite and IPTV providers would gain next year. The reason? Economically driven “cord avoiders” who can’t afford cable or satellite TV, as well as “cord nevers” — young people who get their first homes but choose not to pay for TV, choosing to stream video over broadband instead.
That’s led to a new round of concerns about the future of the pay TV industry — and what cable companies might due to combat potential threats from streaming competitors. And it’s prompted more speculation that an increased focus on broadband could lead cable companies to institute usage-based pricing that links the amount of bandwidth users consume with the amount that they pay. The latest comes from Sanford Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett, who said in an interview with Bloomberg that at least one cable provider will institute that type of pricing model over the next year.
The specter of usage-based pricing
For years, usage-based pricing has loomed as a threat to the mostly unlimited broadband Internet plans that users subscribe to today. While cable companies like Comcast have long instituted caps to limit the amount of data some of its users consume, they’ve stopped short of charging more based upon customer usage. But now more than ever, it seems like operators are finally ready to pull the trigger on usage-based pricing.
One big reason is the ever-growing amount of video traffic popping up on their networks. Earlier this year, Sandvine reported that Netflix users, on average, stream about 40 GB a month, and that the streaming provider makes up about a third of all peak downstream Internet traffic.
Killing two birds with one pricing model
Not only do services like Netflix clog their pipes, but they’re also competing with traditional TV services. For that reason, usage-based pricing is being promoted as a way to kill two birds with one stone: By effectively raising rates that customers pay to access streaming services, the effect could be less competition with their video services, while also possibly decreasing the amount of traffic that goes over their pipes.
Services like Netflix and Hulu Plus are attractive in part because they’re cheap: At $7.99, both services are significantly less expensive than the $70 on average that cable subscribers pay. But if more streaming means higher broadband prices, those services don’t look as cheap.
There are other reasons for cable companies to pitch broadband services, of course. They have better margins than traditional video services, and that profitability isn’t threatened by content costs that continue to rise. It’s also a key differentiator from satellite competitors who can’t bundle their own Internet services with TV packages. But as streaming video continues to gain consumer adoption, carriers will be looking to slow that growth and make competing online options less attractive.
Source is
http://gigaom.com/video/will-usage-based-pricing-kill-the-streaming-video-star/
Verizon’s Xbox Live rollout lacks broadcast content
Verizon was one of the first TV operators to join Xbox Live, and its app is expected to become available when the next update of the service goes live on December 6. And, at least in the US, it’s the first to deliver live TV to the Xbox game console. Comcast, which will also have an app, is only giving its subscribers access to its video-on-demand service, not its live channels.
The operator announced Tuesday that its app will have 26 live TV channels available, which is a far cry from its entire channel lineup. Channels available at launch include BET, Boomerang (whatever that is), Cartoon Network, Cinemax, CNN, Comedy Central, DIY, ESPNews, Food Network, Hallmark Channel, HBO, HBO 2, HGTV, HLN, MTV, MTV2, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr, Spike, TBS, TCM, TNT, Travel Channel, truTV, TV Land and VH1. For those keeping track, that means Verizon has secured deals with Viacom, HBO, Scripps and Turner.
But the app won’t include broadcast networks ABC, CBS, Fox or NBC at launch. That means viewers who watch the most popular channels and shows will be left out in the cold. Also missing are some cable networks like AMC, USA and FX, which have come into their own with original scripted programming.
While it will only have 26 channels at launch, Verizon expects to add more content as time goes by. A Verizon spokesperson wrote via email that the company is working with content partners to make additional channels available on the Xbox. But the lack of some of the most popular programming underscores a common issue that is cropping up between content owners and distributors, as they negotiate rights for the next generation of TV screens.
As more and more content is available to stream via IP, cable, satellite and IPTV providers argue that when distributing live channels to a device like the Xbox or the iPad, the delivery method and the viewer’s device shouldn’t matter. But content owners are trying to get paid more for access on these new devices.
I have to side with the operators on this one: At the end of the day, how video gets to the consumer’s house — whether it be over the traditional cable plant or streamed over the Internet — won’t matter. Nor will the screen it’s watched on. It’ll all just be video. Which is why these skirmishes over rights for certain devices or delivery methods seem short-sighted.
Source is
http://gigaom.com/video/verizon-xbox-live/
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Apple TV or Roku Set-top Box: Which is Right for You?
Keen as some of us are about Apple and its products, the second-generation Apple TV ( Macworld rated 4 out of 5 mice ) is not the only set-top-streaming-media game in town.
For the same or less money than the Apple TV, you can still stream music and video to your television--and from many more places than the Apple TV. So which media streamer is right for you, the Apple TV or a less-expensive alternative like one of Roku's offerings ( Macworld rated 4 out of 5 mice )? Or, depending on your needs, you may want two--one of each.
Models
The Apple TV comes in a single $99 configuration. You get a small, black, streaming-only device (you can't store content on it because it has no hard drive). It carries HDMI, optical audio output, 10/100Base-T ethernet, and Micro-USB ports on the back. It additionally offers 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi networking, plays 720p HD video, and includes Apple's latest Apple Remote hardware.
Roku makes four Roku player models--the $50 Roku LT, $60 Roku 2 HD, $80 Roku 2 XD, and $100 Roku 2 XS. All models include 802.11b/g/n wireless networking, an HDMI port, a hardware remote control, and support at least 720p video. The Roku 2 XD and XS devices additionally support 1080p video from channels that offer it, and include a microSD card slot for storing extra games and channel settings. All Roku 2 models support games controlled by a Bluetooth remote control (it comes with the XS model, and Roku offers the Roku Game Remote as an add-on for the HD and XD models as well, as part of a $30 bundle that also includes a 2GB MicroSD card). The top-end XS model also includes both ethernet and USB ports.
Local Content
The Apple TV was designed with local and iTunes content in mind. When you fire up your Apple TV and associate it with your computer's iTunes library, you'll find the contents of that library sorted under Movies, TV Shows, and Music headings on the Apple TV. Choose some media and it streams from your computer through the Apple TV to your tethered TV. (This means that to access this content your computer and iTunes must be running.)
In regard to streaming local content, the Roku models don't do a terribly good job. They can't play content protected with Apple's DRM, and even setting up the devices to find the content stored on your computer can be a cumbersome process.
Internet Content
Conversely, the Apple TV is limited in what it can stream to you from the Internet. If all you want is content from the iTunes Store, the Apple TV serves admirably. It additionally streams Netflix, NHL, MLB, WSJ Live, NBA, YouTube, Vimeo, Flickr, and Internet radio content (some of which require additional subscriptions). But if you're looking for more from the Internet, the Apple TV isn't the best choice.
Roku 2Roku 2The Roku boxes can stream more than 300 channels of content including Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video, Pandora, Mog, Disney, Facebook, and TWiT.TV. You can additionally add "hidden" channels if you know the correct code. And Roku recently added support for HBO Go (although neither Comcast nor DirecTV allows its customers to stream HBO Go using a Roku device).
Purchased Content
As much free video content as there is floating around on the Internet, people still rent and purchase stuff. Each device allows you to buy or rent some media, but not all. With an Apple TV you can rent movies but not purchase them. (If you want to purchase movies, you must do so from your computer and then stream them to the Apple TV.) Conversely, you can purchase TV shows, but not rent them. When you purchase a TV show, it resides on Apple's servers, ready to stream to your Apple TV and iOS devices. If you want to download a copy, you do so within iTunes on your computer by clicking the iTunes Store link, clicking the Purchased link on the Store's main page, selecting the show you've purchased episodes for, and then download all or a selection of the show's episodes.
Amazon Instant Video is the closest thing for Roku owners. Using Amazon's channel you can rent as well as purchase movies. This content is stored on Amazon's servers and streamed to the Roku. Unlike with the iTunes Store, Mac users can't download video purchased from Amazon. Instead, they must stream this content to their Macs in a Web browser.
iOS Streaming
One huge advantage the Apple TV has over Roku set-top boxes is AirPlay. Using AirPlay you can stream media from your iOS device to your Apple TV. And on the iPad 2 or iPhone 4S, you can mirror the content of your device's screen on your TV via the Apple TV.
External Storage
Although the Apple TV bears a Micro-USB jack, Apple maintains that it be used for service purposes only. You can't use it to attach a USB drive full of media to your Apple TV. If you have a Roku 2 XS, however, you can connect a hard drive to its USB port and play supported media from that drive (MPEG-4 and H.264 video, AAC and MP3 audio, and JPEG and PNG images).
Where You Go From Here
Broadly speaking, which path you take will be determined by your desire for local or Internet media. If you have nearly all the media you want in your iTunes library or on an iOS device--and can make up for the media you don't have with Netflix streaming video--then the Apple TV is a good fit. If, however, you seek nearly everything the Internet offers in regard to streaming media, the Roku devices deliver exactly that.
Source is
http://www.pcworld.com/article/244861/apple_tv_or_roku_settop_box_which_is_right_for_you.html
For the same or less money than the Apple TV, you can still stream music and video to your television--and from many more places than the Apple TV. So which media streamer is right for you, the Apple TV or a less-expensive alternative like one of Roku's offerings ( Macworld rated 4 out of 5 mice )? Or, depending on your needs, you may want two--one of each.
Models
The Apple TV comes in a single $99 configuration. You get a small, black, streaming-only device (you can't store content on it because it has no hard drive). It carries HDMI, optical audio output, 10/100Base-T ethernet, and Micro-USB ports on the back. It additionally offers 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi networking, plays 720p HD video, and includes Apple's latest Apple Remote hardware.
Roku makes four Roku player models--the $50 Roku LT, $60 Roku 2 HD, $80 Roku 2 XD, and $100 Roku 2 XS. All models include 802.11b/g/n wireless networking, an HDMI port, a hardware remote control, and support at least 720p video. The Roku 2 XD and XS devices additionally support 1080p video from channels that offer it, and include a microSD card slot for storing extra games and channel settings. All Roku 2 models support games controlled by a Bluetooth remote control (it comes with the XS model, and Roku offers the Roku Game Remote as an add-on for the HD and XD models as well, as part of a $30 bundle that also includes a 2GB MicroSD card). The top-end XS model also includes both ethernet and USB ports.
Local Content
The Apple TV was designed with local and iTunes content in mind. When you fire up your Apple TV and associate it with your computer's iTunes library, you'll find the contents of that library sorted under Movies, TV Shows, and Music headings on the Apple TV. Choose some media and it streams from your computer through the Apple TV to your tethered TV. (This means that to access this content your computer and iTunes must be running.)
In regard to streaming local content, the Roku models don't do a terribly good job. They can't play content protected with Apple's DRM, and even setting up the devices to find the content stored on your computer can be a cumbersome process.
Internet Content
Conversely, the Apple TV is limited in what it can stream to you from the Internet. If all you want is content from the iTunes Store, the Apple TV serves admirably. It additionally streams Netflix, NHL, MLB, WSJ Live, NBA, YouTube, Vimeo, Flickr, and Internet radio content (some of which require additional subscriptions). But if you're looking for more from the Internet, the Apple TV isn't the best choice.
Roku 2Roku 2The Roku boxes can stream more than 300 channels of content including Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video, Pandora, Mog, Disney, Facebook, and TWiT.TV. You can additionally add "hidden" channels if you know the correct code. And Roku recently added support for HBO Go (although neither Comcast nor DirecTV allows its customers to stream HBO Go using a Roku device).
Purchased Content
As much free video content as there is floating around on the Internet, people still rent and purchase stuff. Each device allows you to buy or rent some media, but not all. With an Apple TV you can rent movies but not purchase them. (If you want to purchase movies, you must do so from your computer and then stream them to the Apple TV.) Conversely, you can purchase TV shows, but not rent them. When you purchase a TV show, it resides on Apple's servers, ready to stream to your Apple TV and iOS devices. If you want to download a copy, you do so within iTunes on your computer by clicking the iTunes Store link, clicking the Purchased link on the Store's main page, selecting the show you've purchased episodes for, and then download all or a selection of the show's episodes.
Amazon Instant Video is the closest thing for Roku owners. Using Amazon's channel you can rent as well as purchase movies. This content is stored on Amazon's servers and streamed to the Roku. Unlike with the iTunes Store, Mac users can't download video purchased from Amazon. Instead, they must stream this content to their Macs in a Web browser.
iOS Streaming
One huge advantage the Apple TV has over Roku set-top boxes is AirPlay. Using AirPlay you can stream media from your iOS device to your Apple TV. And on the iPad 2 or iPhone 4S, you can mirror the content of your device's screen on your TV via the Apple TV.
External Storage
Although the Apple TV bears a Micro-USB jack, Apple maintains that it be used for service purposes only. You can't use it to attach a USB drive full of media to your Apple TV. If you have a Roku 2 XS, however, you can connect a hard drive to its USB port and play supported media from that drive (MPEG-4 and H.264 video, AAC and MP3 audio, and JPEG and PNG images).
Where You Go From Here
Broadly speaking, which path you take will be determined by your desire for local or Internet media. If you have nearly all the media you want in your iTunes library or on an iOS device--and can make up for the media you don't have with Netflix streaming video--then the Apple TV is a good fit. If, however, you seek nearly everything the Internet offers in regard to streaming media, the Roku devices deliver exactly that.
Source is
http://www.pcworld.com/article/244861/apple_tv_or_roku_settop_box_which_is_right_for_you.html
Monday, November 28, 2011
US online video viewing hits all-time high
During the month of October, the total US internet audience viewed 42.6 billion videos, representing an all-time high.
184 million US Internet users watched online video content in October for an average of 21.1 hours per viewer, according to comScore. This equals to 86.2% of the total number of internet users in the country.
Google sites, driven primarily by video viewing at YouTube.com, ranked as the top online video content property in October with 161 million unique viewers and reached a record high of 20.9 billion videos viewed.
Facebook.com ranked second with 59.8 million viewers, followed by VEVO with 57 million, Microsoft sites with 49.1 million and Viacom Digital with 48.2 million.
More than 42 billion videos were viewed during the month, with the average viewer watching a record 21.1 hours. Google sites demonstrated the highest engagement with 7.1 hours per viewer.
The October 2011 YouTube partner data revealed that video music channels Vevo (54.2 million viewers) and Warner Music (30.4 million viewers) maintained the top two positions.
Gaming channel Machinima ranked third with 17.7 million viewers, followed by Schmooru with 9.9 million, Maker Studios with 9.4 million and Demand Media with 7.4 million.
Within the top 10 partners, Machinima demonstrated the highest engagement with 65.1 minutes per viewer on average, while accounting for the second highest number of videos viewed (277 million) after VEVO.
Other notable findings from October 2011 include: the duration of the average online content video was 5.5 minutes, while the average online video ad was 0.4 minutes. Video ads accounted for 14.9 percent of all videos viewed and 1.4 percent of all minutes spent viewing video online.
Source is
http://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2011/11/28/us-online-video-viewing-hits-all-time-high/
184 million US Internet users watched online video content in October for an average of 21.1 hours per viewer, according to comScore. This equals to 86.2% of the total number of internet users in the country.
Google sites, driven primarily by video viewing at YouTube.com, ranked as the top online video content property in October with 161 million unique viewers and reached a record high of 20.9 billion videos viewed.
Facebook.com ranked second with 59.8 million viewers, followed by VEVO with 57 million, Microsoft sites with 49.1 million and Viacom Digital with 48.2 million.
More than 42 billion videos were viewed during the month, with the average viewer watching a record 21.1 hours. Google sites demonstrated the highest engagement with 7.1 hours per viewer.
The October 2011 YouTube partner data revealed that video music channels Vevo (54.2 million viewers) and Warner Music (30.4 million viewers) maintained the top two positions.
Gaming channel Machinima ranked third with 17.7 million viewers, followed by Schmooru with 9.9 million, Maker Studios with 9.4 million and Demand Media with 7.4 million.
Within the top 10 partners, Machinima demonstrated the highest engagement with 65.1 minutes per viewer on average, while accounting for the second highest number of videos viewed (277 million) after VEVO.
Other notable findings from October 2011 include: the duration of the average online content video was 5.5 minutes, while the average online video ad was 0.4 minutes. Video ads accounted for 14.9 percent of all videos viewed and 1.4 percent of all minutes spent viewing video online.
Source is
http://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2011/11/28/us-online-video-viewing-hits-all-time-high/
Sunday, November 27, 2011
5 apps for finding your favorite TV shows
More than 60 percent of viewers watch TV with a computer in their
laps or a mobile device in their hands. So why not use those devices to
figure out what to watch next? A growing number of apps are being built
to provide recommendations for users trying to figure out what to watch
on TV and on their mobile devices. Here are five of our favorites:
BuddyTV got its start by building a TV news and community site, but has expanded to create mobile apps built for personalized recommendations
of TV shows. By taking into account which shows viewers have checked
into, as well as those they’ve rated, BuddyTV can suggest new TV shows
that are airing whenever they open the app. And since it tracks
viewership, it will surface shows users already have shown an affinity
for when those shows are on air.
Dijit’s mobile app was launched primarily to be used as a remote control for a wide range of devices. Paired with the Griffin Beacon IR controller,
Dijit can be used to control anything from your TV to your Blu-ray
player to your Roku streaming media box. But in addition to the channel
grid, which can be used to search and navigate what’s on TV at any given
time, Dijit has added a social layer on top, allowing viewers to check
in and comment on their favorite shows. It also provides social
recommendations based on Facebook integration, suggesting new shows for
users to watch.
While
it’s not necessarily used to find or watch shows on the TV, the
Fanhattan app provides a way to search for content within applications
from services like Netflix and Hulu Plus on a user’s iPad or iPhone.
With a universal search functionality, users can search TV shows and
movies without having to jump in and out of different apps for the
information they want. It also provides a wealth of cast and crew data,
ratings and multimedia assets related to the content users are searching
for.
While
most people are looking for the best content available when they turn
on the TV, some want to know when their favorite shows air. Enter Fav.tv.
The startup’s iOS and Android apps offer the ability to keep track of
when new episodes are airing and mark off episodes they have already
watched. The app also provides news about shows from around the web, as
well as the ability to share comments about shows with their friends
within the app.
Yap.tv
Yap.tv
has taken a decidedly social approach to aggregating TV listings,
showing its users which shows are most popular, while also letting them
set favorites and see what friends are watching. Its guide is also a lot
more visual than most other TV apps, highlighting cover art for each of
the shows represented. Once viewers choose a show, they can take polls,
see tweets from other viewers and participate in live chats as well.
Source is
http://gigaom.com/video/five-apps-for-finding-tv-shows/
BuddyTV
BuddyTV got its start by building a TV news and community site, but has expanded to create mobile apps built for personalized recommendations
of TV shows. By taking into account which shows viewers have checked
into, as well as those they’ve rated, BuddyTV can suggest new TV shows
that are airing whenever they open the app. And since it tracks
viewership, it will surface shows users already have shown an affinity
for when those shows are on air.Dijit
Dijit’s mobile app was launched primarily to be used as a remote control for a wide range of devices. Paired with the Griffin Beacon IR controller,
Dijit can be used to control anything from your TV to your Blu-ray
player to your Roku streaming media box. But in addition to the channel
grid, which can be used to search and navigate what’s on TV at any given
time, Dijit has added a social layer on top, allowing viewers to check
in and comment on their favorite shows. It also provides social
recommendations based on Facebook integration, suggesting new shows for
users to watch.Fanhattan
While
it’s not necessarily used to find or watch shows on the TV, the
Fanhattan app provides a way to search for content within applications
from services like Netflix and Hulu Plus on a user’s iPad or iPhone.
With a universal search functionality, users can search TV shows and
movies without having to jump in and out of different apps for the
information they want. It also provides a wealth of cast and crew data,
ratings and multimedia assets related to the content users are searching
for.Fav.tv
While
most people are looking for the best content available when they turn
on the TV, some want to know when their favorite shows air. Enter Fav.tv.
The startup’s iOS and Android apps offer the ability to keep track of
when new episodes are airing and mark off episodes they have already
watched. The app also provides news about shows from around the web, as
well as the ability to share comments about shows with their friends
within the app.Yap.tv
Yap.tv
has taken a decidedly social approach to aggregating TV listings,
showing its users which shows are most popular, while also letting them
set favorites and see what friends are watching. Its guide is also a lot
more visual than most other TV apps, highlighting cover art for each of
the shows represented. Once viewers choose a show, they can take polls,
see tweets from other viewers and participate in live chats as well.Source is
http://gigaom.com/video/five-apps-for-finding-tv-shows/
Thursday, November 24, 2011
TiVo records subs increase for first time in four years
Despite the fact that the company is ubiquitously known to the point
of becoming a verb like Hoover, TiVo has just recorded its first
increase in total subscriptions since 2007.
For its third quarter ended 32 October 31 2011, TiVo reported total net subscriptions of 2.04 million, with approximately 117,000 additions, a huge swing-around compared with the 33,000 subscription losses in the previous quarter.
For the third quarter, the digital video recorder (DVR) pioneer
posted service and technology revenues of $51.8 million, up 25%
year-over-year. The company had issued a guidance of $49 million to $51
million, $41.3 million for the same quarter in 2010 and $49.6 million in
Q2 2011.
However, TiVo reported a net loss of $24.5 million, compared to guidance of a net loss of $27-29 million and a net loss of $20.6 million in the same quarter last year.
The subs growth is largely attributable to major contract wins with operators over the last few months in particular with Virgin Media in the UK who deployed TiVo-based services to more than 220,000 subscribers; RCN expanding its TiVo product offering through the deployment of a whole-home solution; live implementations at Spanish operators ONO and Grande. Charter Communications will also begin initial deployments shortly and DirecTV intends to launch its TiVo offering in select markets in December with a nationwide rollout to follow early in 2012.
Commented TiVo President and CEO Tom Rogers: "Our efforts to get TiVo in more homes globally continues to accelerate…Our mass deployment efforts are proving successful and gaining momentum with pay-TV operators worldwide. These operators recognise the need to retain their position as the key providers of a video experience for consumers…We believe that penetration within our current distribution deals and potential new deployment deals along with stabilising our TiVo-Owned business, where churn has slowed and new subscriptions have come in at much higher subscription fees, is setting the foundation for the long-term growth.”
Going forward, TiVo says that it will focus on four key areas, namely executing on current distribution deals; signing new distribution deals; reducing R&D and litigation spend over time; protecting our intellectual property.
For its third quarter ended 32 October 31 2011, TiVo reported total net subscriptions of 2.04 million, with approximately 117,000 additions, a huge swing-around compared with the 33,000 subscription losses in the previous quarter.
However, TiVo reported a net loss of $24.5 million, compared to guidance of a net loss of $27-29 million and a net loss of $20.6 million in the same quarter last year.
The subs growth is largely attributable to major contract wins with operators over the last few months in particular with Virgin Media in the UK who deployed TiVo-based services to more than 220,000 subscribers; RCN expanding its TiVo product offering through the deployment of a whole-home solution; live implementations at Spanish operators ONO and Grande. Charter Communications will also begin initial deployments shortly and DirecTV intends to launch its TiVo offering in select markets in December with a nationwide rollout to follow early in 2012.
Commented TiVo President and CEO Tom Rogers: "Our efforts to get TiVo in more homes globally continues to accelerate…Our mass deployment efforts are proving successful and gaining momentum with pay-TV operators worldwide. These operators recognise the need to retain their position as the key providers of a video experience for consumers…We believe that penetration within our current distribution deals and potential new deployment deals along with stabilising our TiVo-Owned business, where churn has slowed and new subscriptions have come in at much higher subscription fees, is setting the foundation for the long-term growth.”
Going forward, TiVo says that it will focus on four key areas, namely executing on current distribution deals; signing new distribution deals; reducing R&D and litigation spend over time; protecting our intellectual property.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
TV’s ’48 Hours’ Brings Mystery to the iPad
Launched quietly last month, 48 Hours Mystery is the perfect companion to one of television’s most interesting and understated long-term series. In its freebie form, the app includes previews of upcoming shows and extra video clips not included in the on-air broadcast.
For $4.99 per year, however, the 48 Hours Mystery app transforms itself into something different, with on-demand access to full episodes from the current season. In addition, members are able to search and browse the archive of episodes dating back to 2005. Subscribers also get:
- View previews of upcoming shows
- Access written transcripts of each episode
- View photo galleries related to the crimes
- Video extras include footage, evidence and interviews not available on-air
- Post comments about the episode and see what other fans have posted
- Share your reactions to each episode with your friends and followers on Facebook, Twitter or via email.
While some may reject the app for its in-app purchase component, we think $4.99 per year is more than reasonable. For crime story buffs, the 48 Hours Mystery app is perhaps the must-have app of the year.
Source is
http://mashable.com/2011/11/22/48-hours-ipad-app/
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Why Microsoft bought VideoSurf for $70 million
Microsoft is aggressively adding new content sources to Xbox Live, bringing in video content from cable providers and TV networks such as Verizon, Comcast, HBO and Epix, among others. And it’s adding a universal search layer on top of those apps, enabling Xbox Live users to search for bits of content across multiple apps and choose between them. So a user searching for Harry Potter could be shown choices from Netflix, Comcast’s video-on-demand library, HBO and Microsoft’s own Zune marketplace.
Today, that search is being driven primarily by metadata given by the content provider. But technology from VideoSurf could provide more information to Xbox Live’s search capabilities. It does that through facial recognition and other techniques that will allow Xbox Live to identify actors and other key information within a scene.
That might not be as important when a user is searching for video from a TV or film content provider like Comcast or HBO, but it could come into play as Microsoft adds more independent video content. One of the newest partners for Microsoft’s Xbox Live platform will be YouTube, which typically doesn’t have as much data associated with videos as premium content providers. That makes searching and navigating the billions of videos on YouTube a bit more difficult unless you have smart search technology to do so.
While the primary plan is for VideoSurf to be embedded into Xbox Live, it could also give Microsoft hooks into other connected boxes. VideoSurf provides the backend search technology for the Boxee Box by D-Link, for instance. The acquisition could also help differentiate Microsoft’s broader search ambitions, by providing more info for its Bing video search engine.
VideoSurf was founded in 2006 and has raised $28 million since then, from investors like former Vice President Al Gore, Current Media CEO Joel Hyatt, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, SurveyMonkey CEO David Goldberg and others.
Source is
http://gigaom.com/video/microsoft-videosurf/
Monday, November 21, 2011
How to Enable the New YouTube Design Now
But if you’ve fired up your trusty Internet machine and the new YouTube hasn’t yet appeared for you, don’t fret. Our friends at The Verge have figured out an easy way (via Google+ user Mortiz Tolxdorff) to turn on the new features right the heck now.
At present, the trick only seems to work in Firefox and Chrome. Open up your browser’s development tools:
In Firefox: Ctrl + Shift + K (Win) | Cmd + Shift + K (Mac)
In Chrome: Ctrl + Shift + J (Win) | or Cmd + Alt + J (Mac)
Then add this string of delicious and nutritious code to the console:
document.cookie="VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE=ST1Ti53r4fU";
TiVo update adds iPlayer search, proper typing and iPad app
The update to Virgin Media's clever set-top telly recorder lets you search iPlayer, type more easily and record programmes with your iPad through a new TiVo iPad app.
When you get the update, you'll be able to search BBC iPlayer using TiVo's search, catch-up and On Demand menus.
Express Series Link let you record an entire series with one click from the guide, discovery bar or programme information. Recordings will now begin one minute before a show is scheduled to start, and won't stop until four minutes after it's finished.
New parental controls lock shows after the watershed, so crafty kids can't enter the PIN and watch contraband telly.
It's now easier to type on the TiVo remote with multi-tap text entry, so you can search TiVo by typing the same way you would text on a mobile phone keypad, instead of fiddly scrolling and picking out each individual letter.
You'll also start to see the first wave of red button-style interactive services, from BBC, ITV, Sky Sports and other partners. Music On Demand, YouTube and apps have also been improved, with YouTube now in high definition and apps including Spotify.
The update will happen at 2am one day this week. You won't know which night it'll happen, so leave your TiVo box on standby overnight between now and 24 November. The update can take up to an hour, during which time you'd best not use the box.
Are you a TiVo addict? Tell us your thoughts on the new features in the comments, on our Facebook page, or at Google+.
Source is
http://crave.cnet.co.uk/televisions/tivo-update-adds-iplayer-search-proper-typing-and-ipad-app-50006128/
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Flixster hands out iTunes codes to unhappy UltraViolet users
UltraViolet was meant to improve the user experience for movie buyers, by allowing them to purchase a title once and watch it on multiple devices afterward. But the initial implementation of UltraViolet, which relies on Warner Bros.’ Flixster app to stream and download movies online that consumers bought in Blu-ray or DVD format, has been getting panned in customer reviews.
We’ve already covered customer dissatisfaction with the Flixster app in the first two UltraViolet releases, Horrible Bosses and The Green Lantern, and that dissatisfaction continues with the latest Harry Potter title. Of the more than 400 reviews for the Blu-ray version of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 on Amazon, more than half are 1-star reviews, and most of those are focused on the poor user experience for UltraViolet. That’s bad news for Warner Bros., which was hoping that a major franchise like Harry Potter could help introduce even more new users to the UltraViolet digital format.
It’s such bad news, in fact, that Flixster has sought to appease unhappy users by offering them the ability to download the movie for free from Apple’s iTunes instead. As pointed out by BTIG analyst Richard Greenfield, Flixster has begun issuing iTunes coupon codes to users who issue complaints at support.ultraviolet.flixster.com. Multiple reviewers claim to have gotten access to the iTunes version of the Harry Potter film, and Greenfield even got Flixster to comp him a copy without providing an actual UltraViolet code to prove he had purchased the film.
Before the launch of UltraViolet, iTunes was a popular way for some studios to offer a digital copy of a film to consumers when they purchased a physical copy of the disc. But since Flixster is the first application to officially support UltraViolet, that’s where the studios are placing their bets. To some, UltraViolet was even seen as an alternative to iTunes, which today holds about half of all digital movie sales online.
To further complicate matters, Apple and iTunes are not part of the DECE UltraViolet consortium. In fact, Apple and partner Disney are putting their efforts behind an alternative to UltraViolet called KeyChest.
For those reasons, it seems unlikely that sending dissatisfied is a long-term solution to UltraViolet’s ills. And for studios looking to tout the advantages of their new digital movie format, pushing users to iTunes seems ill-advised. Then again, if you can’t beat ‘em…
Source is
http://gigaom.com/video/flixster-itunes-ultraviolet/
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Netflix UK Signs Miramax Films
It’s not clear how much of Miramax’s back-catalog will be made available, nor how soon new releases will make their way to the service. Presumably, many if not all of the “hundreds” of Miramax films available through Netflix’s U.S. and Latin America services should be included.
In a statement, both companies mentioned that Pulp Fiction, Chicago, Cold Mountain, The English Patient, Good Will Hunting, The Aviator, Bad Santa, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Chocolat, Finding Neverland, Gangs of New York, The Hours, Kate & Leopold, Rounders, Sling Blade, The Talented Mr. Ripley, and several of the Scary Movie, Scream and Hellraiser films would be made available.
In recent weeks, both Lionsgate and MGM have agreed to bring an exclusive set of content to Netflix. Miramax’s deal is not exclusive, however; it already markets its own set of streaming content to users in the UK (and elsewhere) via a Facebook app called the Miramax eXperience.
Source is
http://mashable.com/2011/11/16/miramax-netflix-uk-ireland/
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Sony proposes over-the-top TV service
Sony could be the latest company to try taking on the cable industry with an over-the-top video service. According to The Wall Street Journal, the consumer electronics manufacturer is in talks with media companies about launching a TV-like service that would be delivered to its PlayStation 3 game console and other connected devices.
Sony has approached multiple media companies about the proposal, which would create a bundle of TV channels that would be streamed into consumers’ homes. The idea is to create an Internet-based alternative to pay TV services offered up by existing cable and satellite companies, with potentially lower prices and more flexibility for consumers.
In some ways, the offer would make sense: Sony already has a huge potential customer base, as it would offer the service through various devices such as its Internet-connected TVs, Blu-ray players and the PlayStation 3. The PS3, in particular, is particularly interesting: The device has sold more than 18 million units in the U.S., and already has a huge number of users streaming videos from services like Netflix and Hulu Plus.
Cable, satellite and IPTV providers are already under pressure due to increasing prices and a weak economy. The number of new subscribers in the U.S. has largely been flat over the last few years, as consumers have bought fewer new homes and have been forced to think twice about discretionary spending.
At the same time, over-the-top video services are growing dramatically. Despite a loss of subscribers due to a pricing change earlier this year, Netflix still had 40 percent more subscribers at the end of the third quarter than a year ago. And services like Hulu Plus and Amazon Prime Videos also seem to be taking off.
If history is any guide, however, Sony is unlikely to succeed in its efforts to propose an over-the-top alternative to cable. Multiple device makers over the last few years have attempted to build TV-like bundles of content to be distributed over the Internet, including both Microsoft and Apple. Despite having large numbers of rabid customers, both were unable to convince big media companies to get on board.
The main issue for media companies is the potential of alienating their existing distributors and reducing viewership through traditional distribution models. Digital distribution is providing some incremental dollars to media companies for library or long-tail content, but they’re afraid over-the-top services could cannibalize their existing viewership and revenues. So while Sony — like Microsoft and Apple before it — is most likely interested in a streaming linear TV offering, it wouldn’t be surprising to see it roll out a subscription video-on-demand service like Netflix or Amazon Prime Videos instead.
Sony has approached multiple media companies about the proposal, which would create a bundle of TV channels that would be streamed into consumers’ homes. The idea is to create an Internet-based alternative to pay TV services offered up by existing cable and satellite companies, with potentially lower prices and more flexibility for consumers.
In some ways, the offer would make sense: Sony already has a huge potential customer base, as it would offer the service through various devices such as its Internet-connected TVs, Blu-ray players and the PlayStation 3. The PS3, in particular, is particularly interesting: The device has sold more than 18 million units in the U.S., and already has a huge number of users streaming videos from services like Netflix and Hulu Plus.
Cable, satellite and IPTV providers are already under pressure due to increasing prices and a weak economy. The number of new subscribers in the U.S. has largely been flat over the last few years, as consumers have bought fewer new homes and have been forced to think twice about discretionary spending.
At the same time, over-the-top video services are growing dramatically. Despite a loss of subscribers due to a pricing change earlier this year, Netflix still had 40 percent more subscribers at the end of the third quarter than a year ago. And services like Hulu Plus and Amazon Prime Videos also seem to be taking off.
If history is any guide, however, Sony is unlikely to succeed in its efforts to propose an over-the-top alternative to cable. Multiple device makers over the last few years have attempted to build TV-like bundles of content to be distributed over the Internet, including both Microsoft and Apple. Despite having large numbers of rabid customers, both were unable to convince big media companies to get on board.
The main issue for media companies is the potential of alienating their existing distributors and reducing viewership through traditional distribution models. Digital distribution is providing some incremental dollars to media companies for library or long-tail content, but they’re afraid over-the-top services could cannibalize their existing viewership and revenues. So while Sony — like Microsoft and Apple before it — is most likely interested in a streaming linear TV offering, it wouldn’t be surprising to see it roll out a subscription video-on-demand service like Netflix or Amazon Prime Videos instead.
Monday, November 14, 2011
The Battle of digital TV Content Services
The three major players in the content streaming arena are Amazon, Hulu, and Netflix. All are battling to get exclusive rights to certain studios' movies or certain networks' TV shows. They hope that exclusive content will entice users to join or stick with their service.
For consumers, exclusive content is not a particularly welcome development, since it means that they may have to subscribe to a number of services, each with its own fees, to gain access to the best movies and TV shows available.
Tech Giants Battle to Control Your Living RoomAmazon's Prime Instant Video service is basically an entertaining add-on to the online retailer's $79-per-year fast shipping service. Prime Instant Videos work on computers and on nearly 200 models of set-top boxes, Internet connected TVs, and Blu-ray players, including the Roku box and Google TV devices.
Netflix charges $8 per month to let you stream advertising-free movies and TV shows on consoles (including the Wii, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360), as well as online, on iOS and some Android devices, and on the Apple TV, Roku, and TiVo boxes. Hulu Plus also charges $8 per month and works on as many devices as Netflix does, excluding Apple TV.
Yet in their current form, these streaming services aren't yet ready to replace your cable provider. For one thing, many new movies are unavailable for streaming for at least one month after they're released on DVD. And TV series are often embargoed until a month after the last episode of a season has aired.
Tech Giants Battle to Control Your Living RoomBut if you like reruns and older TV shows, streaming services can be a great supplement to your TV subscription. Cases in point: Netflix and Amazon last week unveiled separate deals to expand their lineups of Disney and ABC series, including Alias and Switched at Birth, plus old episodes of Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives, and all episodes of Lost, Brothers & Sisters, and Ugly Betty.
If you don't want to pay increasingly pricey monthly fees for streaming TV and you don't mind watching ads, consider YouTube, which has some interesting plans to shift from its current reliance on user-generated kitten clips to high-quality video. The Google-owned site is set to unveil some 100 channels of original programming from partners such as the Wall Street Journal, Madonna, and Ashton Kutcher. These channels, for which YouTube is reportedly paying producers some $100 million in advance advertising revenue, are set to debut early next year.
Source is
http://www.pcworld.com/article/243360/tech_giants_battle_to_control_your_living_room.html
For consumers, exclusive content is not a particularly welcome development, since it means that they may have to subscribe to a number of services, each with its own fees, to gain access to the best movies and TV shows available.
Tech Giants Battle to Control Your Living RoomAmazon's Prime Instant Video service is basically an entertaining add-on to the online retailer's $79-per-year fast shipping service. Prime Instant Videos work on computers and on nearly 200 models of set-top boxes, Internet connected TVs, and Blu-ray players, including the Roku box and Google TV devices.
Netflix charges $8 per month to let you stream advertising-free movies and TV shows on consoles (including the Wii, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360), as well as online, on iOS and some Android devices, and on the Apple TV, Roku, and TiVo boxes. Hulu Plus also charges $8 per month and works on as many devices as Netflix does, excluding Apple TV.
Yet in their current form, these streaming services aren't yet ready to replace your cable provider. For one thing, many new movies are unavailable for streaming for at least one month after they're released on DVD. And TV series are often embargoed until a month after the last episode of a season has aired.
Tech Giants Battle to Control Your Living RoomBut if you like reruns and older TV shows, streaming services can be a great supplement to your TV subscription. Cases in point: Netflix and Amazon last week unveiled separate deals to expand their lineups of Disney and ABC series, including Alias and Switched at Birth, plus old episodes of Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives, and all episodes of Lost, Brothers & Sisters, and Ugly Betty.
If you don't want to pay increasingly pricey monthly fees for streaming TV and you don't mind watching ads, consider YouTube, which has some interesting plans to shift from its current reliance on user-generated kitten clips to high-quality video. The Google-owned site is set to unveil some 100 channels of original programming from partners such as the Wall Street Journal, Madonna, and Ashton Kutcher. These channels, for which YouTube is reportedly paying producers some $100 million in advance advertising revenue, are set to debut early next year.
Source is
http://www.pcworld.com/article/243360/tech_giants_battle_to_control_your_living_room.html
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Logitech’s Google TV failure: Too much, too soon
A mistake of implementation
While admitting that the Logitech Google TV was a mistake, De Luca was clear it wasn’t a mistake of intention or strategy, but one of implementation. In his comments, De Luca reiterated the belief that “Google TV or a child of Google TV or the grandchild of Google TV will happen,” and that “the integration of television and Internet is inevitable.” In other words, it wasn’t a question of whether or not the convergence of TV and the Internet will come to be, but how soon it would occur.
“The idea that it would happen overnight in Christmas 2010 was very misguided and that also cost us dearly,” he said.
Of course, Logitech isn’t the only company to suffer from being ahead of its time on a certain product or strategic initiative. Just think of Apple’s Newton tablet or the tablet PCs that Microsoft showed off long before the iPad changed the computing industry. Heck, the Logitech Revue and the first iteration of Google TV are far from the first failed efforts at interactive television: Fifteen years ago, WebTV launched to bring the Internet to TV.
For Logitech, the expectation that consumers were finally ready for this brand new experience was misguided. “It’s always the case people will tend to overestimate the short term and underestimate the long term,” De Luca said
Google TV not complete at launch
It’s not just that the timing wasn’t right, but also that the Google TV software wasn’t quite ready for primetime. De Luca stopped short of calling the initial Google TV operating system “beta software,” but acknowledged that it wasn’t complete and not “tuned to what the consumers want at the living room.”
One big failure was the way in which users interacted with the Google TV interface: a problem that wasn’t helped by the clunky input devices that CE manufacturers offered with products that supported the TV OS. In Logitech’s case, that was shipping the Revue with a keyboard and trackpad that made navigating the TV tricky. And Sony, which had its own line of Google TV products, shipped with a monstrosity of a remote that was more confusing than useful.
But the Internet-enabled content also wasn’t there at launch. While the introduction of a Flash-enabled web browser built into Google TV initially gave some users hope that they’d now be able to watch all the same online video content on their TV that they enjoyed on the desktop, the reality was that premium content owners quickly moved to block access to their videos on the device.
The price wasn’t right
Finally, Logitech overestimated the price consumers would be willing to pay for the Google TV experience. It wasn’t alone in this regard; Sony TV and Blu-ray units with Google TV were priced at a premium as well. However, asking consumers to pay $300 for an Internet-enabled set-top box when Apple TV and Roku sold for $99 was a non-starter. DeLuca said that heavily discounted units are selling now, but they’re also selling at a loss: Logitech’s cost of materials for the Revue is well above the $99 that it’s now asking for the device.
With a $100 million loss attributed mostly to its mistake with Google TV, Logitech is in no position to double down on the platform. While it hasn’t given up on supporting future versions of Google TV, De Luca said he’s optimistic that the operating system will catch on, but isn’t willing to bet the company on it. For now, that means running out inventory on its existing box and taking a wait-and-see approach going forward.
Source is
http://gigaom.com/video/logitech-google-tv-failure/
Thursday, November 10, 2011
DreamWorks Animation CTO: Bad 3-D movies can make you sick
However, Leonard admitted that some of Hollywood’s 3-D releases in recent months have been duds. “There’s been some stuff that has hit the market that has been less than great,” he said diplomatically. Unfortunately, 3-D is a much more sensual experience, which can include very physical side effects when you watch a bad movie. “With “3-D, you are really like: I don’t feel that good,” said Leonard.
He went on to say that he sees a big opportunity for 3-D in the home as well, particularly once the technology advances to displays that don’t require viewers to view glasses anymore. “Those kinds of technologies will really get us over the hump of consumer adoption,” he explained.
Leonard also gave a brief look behind the curtain of the technology involved in making movies like the current blockbuster Puss in Boots, explaining that that the amount of computing used to produce a movie doubles every times DreamWorks releases a sequel to an original title. He not only credited Moore’s law for this kind of progress, but said that the company actually had its own version of the popular prediction, named after DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg. So what’s Katzenberg’s law? Said Leonard: “We always want more and more.”
Source is
http://gigaom.com/2011/11/10/dreamworks-roadmap-2011/
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
ShortForm adds videos from Hulu, CollegeHumor
ShortForm VJs will now be able to choose videos from the entire library of Hulu and CollegeHumor content, in addition to existing content from YouTube and Vimeo. They can create RSS feeds that will alert them of new content that is added to the site, and can drag and drop videos from those sources directly into any new playlists they build.
ShortForm embeds Hulu and CollegeHumor video players into its playlists, keeping all of the ads that run against the videos and allowing its partners to monetize their content. But despite the different players, videos play seamlessly next to each other in VJ playlists, creating a continuous stream of content. Viewers can then share those videos through social networks like Facebook and Twitter.
ShortForm CEO Nader Ghaffari told us in a phone interview that the deals are an extension of the startup’s plan to add as many content sources as possible to its platform. “We want to sit on top of all the places videos exist,” Ghaffari said. “We’ll try to integrate with every source our VJs want.
The deals come as both Hulu and CollegeHumor make their videos more accessible to third parties, especially startups. Both recently partnered with social video discovery startup Shelby.tv, which allows viewers to see videos that their friends have shared or linked to on networks like Facebook and Twitter. And Hulu has expanded its network through deals to embed its videos on Frontier Communications’ TumTiki and Yahoo’s Screen video portals.
Partnering with platforms like ShortForm is one way that even premium content sources like Hulu and CollegeHumor can build greater awareness for their programming. While many other video discovery platforms today — such as Shelby.tv, VHX.tv and Showyou — rely on what contacts on social networks have shared to surface videos, Ghaffari argues that there’s value in the type of human, editorial curation that happens through the ShortForm platform. “Channels perform best when people are telling their own stories,” he believes.
Source is
http://gigaom.com/video/shortform-hulu-collegehumor/
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
SyncTV: building TV apps for almost every device
Enter SyncTV, which aims to deliver third-party video applications for multiple platforms without going through the process of reinventing the wheel each time a publisher wants to reach a new device. The company delivers video experiences to the PC and Mac, as well as mobile frameworks like Android and iOS. But the real key is in reaching TV screens, with apps built for connected TVs and Blu-ray players.
SyncTV builds apps for connected TVs and other devices from a wide range of major CE manufacturers, such as Sony, Samsung, LG, Vizio, Philips and Panasonic. Its apps are also available on Roku and Boxee Box streaming devices, and it’s also working on applications for the upcoming launch of Microsoft’s new Xbox Live user interface.
Being available on such a wide range of devices is becoming increasingly important for video publishers. When you think about Netflix, for instance, one of that company’s main advantages over competitors has been its relative ubiquity on connected devices. However, that ubiquity comes with a price: Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has admitted to paying an “innovation tax” for being in all of those places. But not everyone has the resources that Netflix does, which are necessary to build all those apps.
With SyncTV, however, video publishers don’t necessarily need to create apps for every device. Because it’s already built the user interface and has the back end necessary for ingest, encoding, digital rights management, ad insertion, reporting and billing, it can simplify the process of rolling out to new devices. It can also reuse a lot of the same code and infrastructure.
For video publishers, that reduces a ton of complexity associated with being everywhere that consumers want them to be. There are already a number of publishers taking advantage of that offer: SyncTV’s named clients include NBC Universal in the UK, French broadcaster M6, U.S.-based VOD provider Avail-TVN, German TV station Wider.TV and South Asian content provider Bollywood Nirvana.
SyncTV is being spun out of DRM provider Intertrust, and it is going independent. The company, which currently has more than 30 employees, is based in Sunnyvale, Calif., and also has offices in France, Spain, the UK, the Netherlands, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and China.
Source is
http://gigaom.com/video/synctv/
Monday, November 7, 2011
Google TV porn powered by HTML5, not native apps
This summary is not available. Please
click here to view the post.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
ShortForm shows the full potential of Google TV’s new channels
Last week, Google launched a new version of its Google TV software for streaming set-top boxes and smart TVs. Among the new features is the addition of new channels (a.k.a. web apps) of content from a variety of different media partners, such as NHL, Vevo, New York Times and Crackle.
But not all Google TV channels are created by media companies. For instance, ShortForm is actually a social network that lets users (called Video Jockeys or VJs) create and curate their own channels of content using video clips from YouTube, Vimeo and others — sort of like having your own version of Comedy Central’s Tosh.0.
The most popular VJ channels on ShortForm are then featured on the company’s Google TV channel.
“We designed the ShortForm Google TV web app for the 10-foot experience,” said ShortForm CEO Nader Ghaffari in an interview with VentureBeat. And by “10-foot experience” he means an experience that’s comparable to how you’d watch a regular television channel from a cable or satellite provider.
VJ channels are essentially just playlists of video clips. You don’t have to click the play button for each video to begin either, as the channel is intended to remain streaming until you direct it to stop. The interface is pretty simple and you can easily navigate between different videos and VJ channels with a basic remote control. If you don’t have a Google TV enabled set-top box or smart TV, you can check out ShortForm’s channel via Google’s Chrome web browser. You’ll need to substitute the arrows on your keyboard for the remote control.
One thing you won’t get through the Google TV web app are the social features available on ShortForm’s website. In August, the startup added the ability to let users watch channels concurrently as they’re curated by the VJ. Users can also communicate with each other via a chat room on the website. Ghaffari said these social feature’s aren’t available through the Google TV web app because it would take away from the 10-foot experience. You can, however, invite friends over to your house to watch the VJ channel on a big screen, which is a pretty fair trade-off.
The Google TV integration is part of ShortForm’s push to make the service available across multiple platforms. The company also recently launched a new features that allows anyone to embed VJ channel’s on a Facebook fan page or website. It’s actually pretty useful, especially if you have a YouTube channel full of original content that rarely sees traffic beyond the confines of YouTube itself or individual blog posts.
ShortForm has over a million monthly visits and more than 3,000 active VJ channels since launching to the public in 2010, according to Ghaffari. The San Francisco-based startup has raised a total of $1.3 million in funding from NetService Ventures, Individuals’ Venture Funds, Seraph Group and others.
Source is
http://venturebeat.com/2011/11/04/shortform-google-tv-channel/
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Apple Lossless Audio Codec is now open source
The Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC) is an audio codec developed by
Apple and supported on iPhone, iPad, most iPods, Mac and iTunes. ALAC
is a data compression method which reduces the size of audio files with
no loss of information. A decoded ALAC stream is bit-for-bit identical
to the original uncompressed audio file.
The Apple Lossless Audio Codec project contains the sources for the ALAC encoder and decoder. Also included is an example command line utility, called alacconvert, to read and write audio data to/from Core Audio Format (CAF) and WAVE files. A description of a 'magic cookie' for use with files based on the ISO base media file format (e.g. MP4 and M4A) is included as well.
The Apple Lossless Audio Codec sources are available under the Apache license. Details can be found here http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0.
Source is
http://alac.macosforge.org/
The Apple Lossless Audio Codec project contains the sources for the ALAC encoder and decoder. Also included is an example command line utility, called alacconvert, to read and write audio data to/from Core Audio Format (CAF) and WAVE files. A description of a 'magic cookie' for use with files based on the ISO base media file format (e.g. MP4 and M4A) is included as well.
The Apple Lossless Audio Codec sources are available under the Apache license. Details can be found here http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0.
Source is
http://alac.macosforge.org/
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
New Protocol HLS Carries Plenty of Old Baggage
Is old technology holding us back when it comes to searching for the promised land of efficient HTTP streaming?
While the current hype surrounds HTTP delivery as being less costly—and by assumption, more efficient—than traditional streaming, the question is one that the industry should consider, in light of the advances in both HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) and fragmented MPEG-4 (fMP4) that have been announced recently.
The more mature (or long-in-the-tooth, depending on your perspective) technology on the market is MPEG-2 Transport Stream (M2TS), which makes up the packaging protocol for content delivery in HLS.
HLS has gained huge popularity, in no small part because it’s the only way to stream to the iOS devices. Let me be the first to say that MPEG-2 Transport Stream is a tried-and-true technology that has been used extensively for broadcast transmission over the past decade. Yet its age makes it a bit of a millstone that seems to be holding back advances in the over-all HTTP streaming marketplace.
Because M2TS is a technology that has been in use for more than 10 years, based on a specification that was around almost 5 years prior, it uses the now-outdated ATM packet delivery protocol.
ATM was used in the days before pure IP networks and required 4-bytes header information in each 188-byte packet. While 4 bytes doesn’t sound like much, consider that an hourlong video stream at a single bandwidth of 1.5 megabits per second could require more than one ATM packet per second, with almost 32Kbps being taken up by the header information.
At the end of the hour, a total of 115,000 kilobits of header information would be passed. The majority of content today is sent across either pure IP networks or Ethernet metro networks, and these newer network protocols have to work to unpackage the ATM cells, adding a bit of processing time to the router in addition to the significant overhead noted above.
M2TS works great for a variety of solutions for which it was originally intended, such as simultaneously broadcasting a number of cable channels, each with either one or multiple channels of alternate audio. To properly synchronize the video stream (known as an elementary stream) with the one or multiple audio streams, a process known as multiplexing (or muxing) was employed. An example of muxing would be a single video stream that could be viewed with either English or Spanish audio: All three streams—one video and two audio—are sent at the same time, and the television or set-top box chooses between the audio channels to decode the one most appropriate to the viewer.
The problem with extrapolating M2TS into the world of streaming is this: If it makes little sense to have all the additional overhead of 4 bytes per ATM packet, it makes no sense at all to send multiple audio channels to a single streaming viewer.
At any given time, the viewer is only going to choose one audio stream to listen to, meaning that a selection within the video playback application of Spanish could trigger a request for a Spanish audio stream, while a later request for English audio could signal the Spanish audio stream to end and the English audio stream to begin. Without the need to multiplex multiple elementary audio streams, the benefit of MPEG-2 Transport Stream rapidly disappears.
This article first ran in the October/November 2011 issue of Streaming Media under the title, "No Country for Old Technologies?"
Add to this the fact that HLS extends M2TS delivery functionality beyond what is typically carried in an M2TS payload—think DRM or encryption—and it’s easy to see that HLS is not your father’s MPEG-2 Transport Stream.
If broadcasters are going to have to rebuild their MPEG-2 Transport Stream solutions to accommodate the extensions to M2TS that the HLS spec requires, isn’t it time to start looking for a better-fitting solution, rather than relying on old technology that was created years before the tablet devices the streams are being delivered to?
Source is
http://www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/Editorial/Featured-Articles/New-Protocol-HLS-Carries-Plenty-of-Old-Baggage-78046.aspx
While the current hype surrounds HTTP delivery as being less costly—and by assumption, more efficient—than traditional streaming, the question is one that the industry should consider, in light of the advances in both HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) and fragmented MPEG-4 (fMP4) that have been announced recently.
The more mature (or long-in-the-tooth, depending on your perspective) technology on the market is MPEG-2 Transport Stream (M2TS), which makes up the packaging protocol for content delivery in HLS.
HLS has gained huge popularity, in no small part because it’s the only way to stream to the iOS devices. Let me be the first to say that MPEG-2 Transport Stream is a tried-and-true technology that has been used extensively for broadcast transmission over the past decade. Yet its age makes it a bit of a millstone that seems to be holding back advances in the over-all HTTP streaming marketplace.
Because M2TS is a technology that has been in use for more than 10 years, based on a specification that was around almost 5 years prior, it uses the now-outdated ATM packet delivery protocol.
ATM was used in the days before pure IP networks and required 4-bytes header information in each 188-byte packet. While 4 bytes doesn’t sound like much, consider that an hourlong video stream at a single bandwidth of 1.5 megabits per second could require more than one ATM packet per second, with almost 32Kbps being taken up by the header information.
At the end of the hour, a total of 115,000 kilobits of header information would be passed. The majority of content today is sent across either pure IP networks or Ethernet metro networks, and these newer network protocols have to work to unpackage the ATM cells, adding a bit of processing time to the router in addition to the significant overhead noted above.
M2TS works great for a variety of solutions for which it was originally intended, such as simultaneously broadcasting a number of cable channels, each with either one or multiple channels of alternate audio. To properly synchronize the video stream (known as an elementary stream) with the one or multiple audio streams, a process known as multiplexing (or muxing) was employed. An example of muxing would be a single video stream that could be viewed with either English or Spanish audio: All three streams—one video and two audio—are sent at the same time, and the television or set-top box chooses between the audio channels to decode the one most appropriate to the viewer.
The problem with extrapolating M2TS into the world of streaming is this: If it makes little sense to have all the additional overhead of 4 bytes per ATM packet, it makes no sense at all to send multiple audio channels to a single streaming viewer.
At any given time, the viewer is only going to choose one audio stream to listen to, meaning that a selection within the video playback application of Spanish could trigger a request for a Spanish audio stream, while a later request for English audio could signal the Spanish audio stream to end and the English audio stream to begin. Without the need to multiplex multiple elementary audio streams, the benefit of MPEG-2 Transport Stream rapidly disappears.
This article first ran in the October/November 2011 issue of Streaming Media under the title, "No Country for Old Technologies?"
Add to this the fact that HLS extends M2TS delivery functionality beyond what is typically carried in an M2TS payload—think DRM or encryption—and it’s easy to see that HLS is not your father’s MPEG-2 Transport Stream.
If broadcasters are going to have to rebuild their MPEG-2 Transport Stream solutions to accommodate the extensions to M2TS that the HLS spec requires, isn’t it time to start looking for a better-fitting solution, rather than relying on old technology that was created years before the tablet devices the streams are being delivered to?
Source is
http://www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/Editorial/Featured-Articles/New-Protocol-HLS-Carries-Plenty-of-Old-Baggage-78046.aspx
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Plex releases new mobile and desktop clients, gets Flash and Silverlight support to go with a fancy new UI
Source is
http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/01/plex-turns-2-0-gets-flash-and-silverlight-support-to-go-with-a/
Cord Cutters: A first look at Google TV 2.0
Google TV has been revamped with a new user interface, a bunch of new
apps and access to the Android Market. Google TV Product Lead Rishi
Chandra gave us a tour of the new version in this episode of Cord
Cutters:
Show notes for this episode:
Source is
http://gigaom.com/video/new-google-tv-first-look/
Show notes for this episode:
- Google TV updates will start rolling out for Sony’s Google TV devices Sunday evening and should be available to all Sony Google TV owners by mid-week, according to Google. Updates for the Logitech Revue will follow soon after.
- Logitech’s Revue currently only costs $99, which is a pretty good price.
- Google TV is optimized to work with pay TV subscriptions, and Google execs have said in the past that the device isn’t made to cut the cord.
Source is
http://gigaom.com/video/new-google-tv-first-look/
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Google TV 2.0 Brings Android Honeycomb With Apps To The Sofa
Google TV is still meant to function as a supplement to your usual cable subscription, but they’ve expanded the scope to include more goods. For instance, you will notice that Google TV runs on the tablet-friendly Honeycomb Android operating system. This cleans up the UI and makes it a little more familiar. This also lets it run a whole whack of applications.
To be fair, most of the apps aren’t going to play friendly on your TV, but they have about 20 or so right now that have the proper resolution and formatting. This makes it easier for content providers like Pandora and Netflix to get to you through the Google TV framework. Google plans on creating a sub-section in Android Market for Google TV apps.
One thing that I think is pretty cool is that when you look up a TV show, it won’t just show you when it’ll be airing next on regular TV; it also gives you the other options to watch that show, including YouTube rentals and Amazon purchases. That’s flexibility. It’s also cool how YouTube automatically plays a related video when your chosen video ends, instead of just sitting there blankly waiting for you to choose the next clip.
The Google TV 2.0 update is set to hit compatible Sony devices on Sunday with the Logitech Revue update following “shortly after.”
Source is
http://www.mobilemag.com/2011/10/30/google-tv-2-0-brings-android-honeycomb-with-apps-to-the-sofa/
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Logitech Revue on sale promising 'new & improved' Google TV with Android 3.1, Market
Update: As a few commenters have pointed out, a support rep on Logitech's forums indicates these boxes have been updated with a sticker only. You'll still have to wait Google to deliver the goods along with everyone else.
Update 2: Logitech reached out to us with the following statement:
We'd like to clarify that these products do not include the next version of Google TV software. The boxes were prematurely updated with the stickers in anticipation of the next release of the Google TV software, which, once available, will be a free and automatic update pushed to all Logitech Revue boxes that are installed and connected to the Internet.Source is
http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/27/logitech-revue-on-sale-promising-new-and-improved-google-tv-with/
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Logitech admits Google TV is epic failure, drops price of Revue to $99
Logitech, makers of the Google TV-based "Revue" set-top box, lost $30 million in the Q1, following a disastrous $34 million loss thanks to the Revue and its accessories based on the device.
The Revue debuted last October for $250 and was instantly met with criticism for the price and the fact that Google TV was buggy. Additionally, the media companies put a death knell in the service when they began blocking free streaming content from their own sites, like Fox.com or ABChd.com.
New CEO Guerrino De Luca, replacing recently fired Gerald Quindlen, said this of the set-top (eWeek):
We launched Revue with the expectation that it would generate significant sales growth in spite of a relatively high price point and the newness of both the smart TV category and the underlying platform. In hindsight, there are number of things we should have done differently.
Additionally, the Revue has now been priced down to $99:
With the price barrier removed, we believe Logitech Revue is the most compelling connected TV offering in the market, especially with the expected release of version 2 of Google TV later this summer. All new and existing Revue users will automatically receive this update, which is built on Android 3.1. Among other benefits, V2 will offer a simplified user experience and access to many more apps, made possible by the booming Android Market.Source is
http://www.afterdawn.com/news/article.cfm/2011/08/01/logitech_admits_google_tv_is_epic_failure_drops_price_of_revue_to_99
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Minerva Networks unveils next-gen IPTV software
Minerva Network builds software for operators that want to roll out
TV service over IP networks. That includes those that want to augment
traditional TV services with on-demand IP video, as well as ISPs who are
looking to build out greenfield video deployments without investing
heavily in traditional TV infrastructure.
The xTVFusion 5 platform is designed with that latter case in mind, and was created specifically to enable live and on-demand video services to be deployed over low- and high-bandwidth IP networks. Specifically that will enable new entrants to take advantage of their existing networks to roll out new services.
For customers with high-bandwidth connections, Minerva’s platform lets carriers deliver IPTV services including whole-home DVR, remote scheduling, and blended pay TV and over-the-top video capabilities. That lowers the requirement for ISPs to add new video service options to their customers.
More importantly, xTVFusion 5 can also be used for networks with as little bandwidth as 5Mbps, over which ISPs can still offer broadband TV services. That means ISPs offering DSL services — and even those running some high-powered LTE 4G mobile networks — should be able to launch streaming TV services over those networks, Minerva Networks CEO Mauro Bonomi told us in a phone interview.
Today, its average ISP partner can only reach about 20 percent of its customer base with IPTV services due to bandwidth constraints. But the new offering can expand that availability to up to 80 percent of its customers, Bonomi said.
The combination of IP connectivity and new managed networks could create interesting new business models for ISPs looking to boost sales and add new services. Take Sonic.net, for instance: the broadband provider has filed a video franchise application with the California Public Utilities Commission, and is expected to launch a low-cost streaming TV offering over its existing network. With technology like xTVFusion 5, more ISPs could follow suit.
Source is
http://gigaom.com/video/minerva-networks-xtvfusion-5/
The xTVFusion 5 platform is designed with that latter case in mind, and was created specifically to enable live and on-demand video services to be deployed over low- and high-bandwidth IP networks. Specifically that will enable new entrants to take advantage of their existing networks to roll out new services.
For customers with high-bandwidth connections, Minerva’s platform lets carriers deliver IPTV services including whole-home DVR, remote scheduling, and blended pay TV and over-the-top video capabilities. That lowers the requirement for ISPs to add new video service options to their customers.
More importantly, xTVFusion 5 can also be used for networks with as little bandwidth as 5Mbps, over which ISPs can still offer broadband TV services. That means ISPs offering DSL services — and even those running some high-powered LTE 4G mobile networks — should be able to launch streaming TV services over those networks, Minerva Networks CEO Mauro Bonomi told us in a phone interview.
Today, its average ISP partner can only reach about 20 percent of its customer base with IPTV services due to bandwidth constraints. But the new offering can expand that availability to up to 80 percent of its customers, Bonomi said.
The combination of IP connectivity and new managed networks could create interesting new business models for ISPs looking to boost sales and add new services. Take Sonic.net, for instance: the broadband provider has filed a video franchise application with the California Public Utilities Commission, and is expected to launch a low-cost streaming TV offering over its existing network. With technology like xTVFusion 5, more ISPs could follow suit.
Source is
http://gigaom.com/video/minerva-networks-xtvfusion-5/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)