Posted 11/16/09 at 07:20:32 PM by Pulkit Chandna

The Zune entertainment brand is all set to traverse platforms and borders. Microsoft reckons its time for the Zune brand to go global. Beginning Tuesday, a new Zune-branded video service will replace the Xbox Live Video Marketplace in 18 countries, including the US, UK, France, Germany and Australia. The addition of streaming video content is what really separates the Zune-branded video store from its Xbox-branded predecessor. Microsoft wants its Zune brand to traverse platforms and this launch is clearly a step in that direction.

“The strategy and vision of Zune is to continue to build out that full entertainment experience. This is a very important step for us to introduce Zune to new consumers around the world,” Christine Heckart, general manager for TV, video and music marketing at Microsoft, told the Financial Times. Apart from rebranding the video service on the Xbox 360, the company will also be introducing direct access to social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

Read More

Posted 11/12/09 at 07:09:13 PM by Ryan Whitwam

Social media center Boxee has announced plans to move forward with hardware makers. This means that a dedicated Boxee Box will be arriving before too long. More details and mockups of the device will be available at an event on December 11th.

Boxee showed off their new software for Mac and Linux back at CES. While at CES, they began having discussions with hardware makers about the possibility of embedding Boxee in a standalone unit. Now that that’s happening, Boxee is talking more about the product as a platform.

Boxee’s goal is to make it easy for users to find the content they want. To do this they plan to give content owners and aggregators tools to develop a variety of business models (i.e. make cash money). Ultimately, Boxee would like to be on all your connected devices. Maybe someday Boxee, maybe someday…

Read More

Posted 11/03/09 at 12:05:00 PM by Paul Lilly

You spoke and Hulu listened - the online video streaming site has added a 'Coming Soon' section so you can keep up with your favorite shows without skipping a beat.

"Simply put, we've noticed that many of you are often wondering when new episodes will be available," Betna Chan-Martin, Product Manager, Hulu, wrote on  the company's blog. "After a lot of work with our content providers, our product and design team, and our content team, we decided to create a page that contains a schedule of what's to come for the week ahead."

To find the new page, you'll need to follow the 'Browse by Date' link at the top of Hulu and then click on the 'Coming Soon' tab. Once there, you'll see an episode guide outlining what ABC, Fox, and NBC have in store for the week. And if you're a registered user, you can sign up for email alerts for when a video has been added, or "on the rare occasion when that video is late in getting up on Hulu.com."

Read More

Posted 10/28/09 at 09:01:00 AM by Paul Lilly

Roku, makers of the popular Netflix streaming set-top box, has refreshed its lineup with a pair of new models, bringing the total number of set-top boxes to three.

On the lower end, Roku said it's "introducing a breakthrough price point" with its Roku SD player. Priced at $79, or $20 less than the company's original set-top box, the Roku SD unit connects to TVs using standard composite video and audio cables, but also includes both integrated WiFi (802.11 b/g) and an Ethernet port.

For HD buffs, the new HD-XR player takes things a step further by incorporating 802.11n dual-band.

"The Roku HD-XR is one of the first Netflix-streaming devices to embed next generation 802.11n dual-band wireless connectivity, making it easier and more reliable than ever to start enjoying movies, TV shows, sports, and the best online content available, all on the living room TV," said Anthony Wood, founder and CEO of Roku.

Roku says the HD-XR player not only works with legacy routers, but can actually boost the WiFi range inside the house.

Both the Roku SD ($79) and HD-XR ($129) are available now.

Read More

Posted 10/13/09 at 07:41:28 PM by Ryan Whitwam

Western Digital has announced the second iteration of its TV connected media player. The new WD TV Live HD takes all that was awesome about the old, and adds some new tricks. The box still has wide codec support for playing files from USB drives, but it now also streams content from Youtube, Pandora, and Flickr. Users can also connect network drives to the new version to view files.

The WD TV Live HD, as the name would suggest, outputs 1080P HD video via a HDMI 1.3 port. Composite and component are also available. If you need to get video off that USB drive and on to your TV, the WD TVs provide an attractive alternative to media center PCs. The new WD TV device has an MSRP of $149.99.

Read More

Posted 10/06/09 at 09:33:13 AM by Paul Lilly

Last.fm has officially left the confines of your computer and handheld gadgets and has hitched a ride in car radios. This doesn't come as a surprise, since parent company CBS announced last month that it planned on launching a new radio station called "Last.fm Discovers."

Powered entirely by the Last.fm weekly charts, Last.fm Discovers is kicks off in four major U.S. cities, including New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago.

CBS said programming would include "Last.fm Recommends with Bryan VanGelder", which is a program that plays a popular song on Last.fm followed by two related and recommended songs, "Last.fm Discovers with Sat Bisla", which focuses on weekly charts, and "Shouts", in which comments left on Last.fm about specific songs will be read aloud followed by playing the song the comment is about.

Read More

Posted 09/22/09 at 03:10:17 PM by Paul Lilly

In what turned out to be a heated code-battle right up until the end, Netflix on Monday awarded a seven-person team of statisticians, machine-learning experts, and computer engineers from the U.S., Austria, Canada, and Israel its $1 million prize. All the multinational team -- called BelKor Pragmatic Chaos -- had to do was put their programming mettle to the test and improve the online movie rental service's movie recommendation algorithm by 10 percent, then fend off the competition for 30 days during which time a last call was issued for other teams to submit their work.

Sounds like an easy way to earn a million smackers, right? Mabye not, but if you think you have what it takes to out-program number crunchers from all around the world, only you missed out the first time around, Netflix is again giving out some serious cash in a follow-up contest.

This time around, the award is cut in half from $1 million to $500,000, but there will be no specific accuracy target as there was before. Instead, contestants will be presented with demographic and behavioral data, and then expected to model indviduals' "taste profiles," Netflix said. The data set of more than 100 million entries will provide the renters' age, gender, ZIP codes, genre ratings, and previously chosen movies.

Read More

Posted 09/03/09 at 12:00:21 PM by Paul Lilly

It's too early to tell if a deal is in the making, but YouTube is at least talking to several major movie studios about the possibility of streaming feature films as rentals, CNet reports.

Studios said to be discussing licensing agreements with YouTube include Sony, Lions Gate Entertainment, and Warner Brothers. But at least one studio exec who claims to be familiar with the talks said no deals are imminent and that having these discussions isn't out of the ordinary.

"Why wouldn't the studios talk to YouTube," the exec said.

Why wouldn't they, indeed. With over 100 million viewers, streaming rentals has the potential to be a win-win proposition for both the Google-owned site and the movie studios. It would also be cause for concern for other streaming services, like Hulu.com and Crackle.com.

Read More