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Boxee’s Web TV going beyond the D-Link box?

February 10th, 2010, 2:35 pm by

Boxee Box by D-LinkNoted: Web TV-ish service Boxee has a deal with Fountain Valley’s D-Link Systems to release the first piece of hardware with Boxee’s online video service. That won’t be out until next quarter. Now, NewTeeVee reports that Boxee isn’t limiting itself to D-Link’s hardware. Could there be a Boxee Blu-ray player in the works?

Boxee, a free web service allowing users to watch TV shows on the Web while socializing with online friends, told the news site that it wants another hardware device for consumers by the end of the year.

Interestingly, NewTeeVee writer Janko Roettgers also mentions the Hulu dilemma. Hulu owners like NBC don’t want the free Web TV shows to be accessed by the Boxee Box or other similar devices. Boxee said it plans to ask for a licensed application. Read the story:  Next Up For Boxee: A Blu-ray Player?

Recent Web TV news:

Posted in: Video & TV • • • • • • • | 3 Comments »

How much could Hulu charge? Prices emerge

February 4th, 2010, 11:06 am by

hulu.comSpotted: For those who want to watch all their favorite TV shows online for free, here are a few headlines that could affect that dream:

► Hulu.com will probably begin charging consumers for premium content but when? The Wall Street Journal reports nothing has been decided. Read: “Disney: “No Decisions Have Been Made” on Hulu Premium.”

► An analyst with Forrester Research believes Hulu will offer two prices: $4.99 for an ad-free Hulu or $14.99 a month for the full season and TV archive, reports USA Today. Currently, Hulu offers only the most recent five episodes of TV shows. Read: Free video site Hulu explores premium pricing.

► Good Morning America, Nightline, ABC World News with Diane Sawyer and other news shows are now available on Hulu.com, reports Broadcasting & Cable. Read: “ABC News Added To Hulu.”

► Another reason why Hulu may soon not be as free as it is today? NBC owns 32 percent of the free TV site, and NBC will soon be acquired by Comcast Corp. Comcast, in turn, is working with Time Warner Cable on a “TV Everywhere” effort to offer certain TV shows only to existing cable customers. Read: “NBC Officially Owns 32 Percent of Hulu (Until Comcast Acquires It).”

► At least the free TV shows on NBC.com will continue to be available to all consumers — not just paying cable customers, reports Broadcasting & Cable. This detail was noted during the U.S. House committee hearing on Comcast’s pending acquisition of NBC. Comcast promised that NBC.com’s content, which offers full episodes of its top shows, will still be available to all consumers.

► One man tells his story of giving up cable TV for two years in favor of Hulu and other free online TV only to return to cable this month. The main reason? His girlfriend needed access to fashion TV. Read: “Why I Caved, Bought Cable TV, And Gave Up On My ‘Hulu Household.’”

► Slate’s The Big Money has a guy who writes about Hulu and related trends at the Hulucination blog.

More recent Web TV news:

For more on TV services, see the following links:

* Time Warner Cable
* Cox Cable
* Verizon FiOS
* AT&T U-verse		 * DirecTV
* Dish Network
* Web TV
* All TV

Posted in: Video & TV • • • • • | 10 Comments »

Netflix movie rentals coming to Nintendo Wii

January 13th, 2010, 10:09 am by

Wii getting Netflix compatibility.Noted: Nintendo Wii owners can start downloading movie rentals to their TV this spring, thanks to an agreement between movie rental king Netflix and the game console.

Movie watchers don’t have to pay extra for the service but must have a Netflix plan of at least $8.99 per month.

That should take care of the bulk of U.S. gaming households, which can also use a Sony PlayStation 3 or Microsoft Xbox to watch Netflix rentals almost instantly.

Wii owners will need to run a special Netflix disc through the Wii console to prep the Wii for movie viewing. The disc is free and can be ordered at www.netflix.com/Wii. The discs will be mailed in the spring.

More on Web TV:

Posted in: Internet • Video & TV • • • • • | 3 Comments »

D-Link shows Boxee, touchscreen router, 3G doorbell

January 8th, 2010, 10:38 am by

dlinkimg_7660The Boxee Box from Fountain Valley’s D-Link Systems is getting a lot of attention at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show because it will make the free Web TV service available to more people everywhere who don’t want to hook up a PC to their TV or buy a game console.

Boxee Box by D-LinkThe surprisingly small box  – less than 5-square inches — runs the exact software as regular Boxee. For those unfamiliar with the product, Boxee offers an online library of 200 applications. Many are video providers, which allow consumers to watch TV shows, movies and other video inexpensively from the Web.

The draw is likely the Boxee service itself. It’s clean, user friendly and thorough. The service also will scan computers and devices attached to the home’s network in search of photos, home or recorded movies and music files. Boxee offers a menu to easily access all that content. Some images of what the service looks like on a TV: Read the rest of this entry »

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Choppy Web video gets smooth makeover from Netgear

January 7th, 2010, 6:17 am by

Netgear technology improves viewing of Internet videos.Watching video online can be a big letdown, especially if you have a slow Internet connection. The video spurts, sputters or freezes altogether. Not pleasant.

But choppy viewing could be an activity of the past with new technology that Netgear plans to add to future routers, servers and other networking products.

The video improvement was developed by another company called Zixi.  Netgear said that the technology “ensures an uninterrupted HD stream over a slow Internet connection.”

And in the demo, it certainly seemed to be the case.

Netgear streamed a high-definition nature video to two TVs side by side. On the left, the video was left untreated. On the right, the video was corrected by Zixi’s technology and streamed smoothly onto a big-screen TV. Here’s a short video demo — hopefully it won’t sputter on YouTube while you’re watching it. On a right screen, the video sputtered, spurted and played like, well, Internet video.

YouTube Preview Image

“We’ll improve it by three times,” said Drew Meyer, Netgear’s director of marketing for storage.

The technology will be added to all new multimedia products and possibly be offered as a download to customers of older products, Meyer said.

Consumer Electronics Show 2010 with The GadgetressFor more CES 2010 coverage, visit the Gadgetress CES page at gadgetress.freedomblogging.com/ces2010.
Most recent headlines:

Posted in: Video & TV • • • • • • • • • | 3 Comments »

Popbox turns your TV into a Web TV for $130

January 6th, 2010, 12:16 pm by

The Popbox web TV device.Another contender is jumping into the pretty crowded area of Web TV in a box. Popbox, from Fremont’s Syabas Technology, is a small black box that uses an Internet connection to stream videos and other content to a home’s TV.

This device — like the Roku, the Boxee Box, networked TVs…  — appears to have many of the same content partners as everyone else: Netflix, BlipTV and Revision 3. There are also a bunch of widgets available, including Twitter, WeatherBug.

Here is Popbox’s full list of content options. The box also can stream photos, videos and other media stored on computers in the home.

And possibly due to the fact that Syabas has facilities in China and Malaysia, its partner list includes CCTV “the largest media content and television programer (sic) in China,” and MalaysiaKini: Streaming video Malaysian news and views.

When asked if it had any content partners that no one else had, the company said it was too hard to say since everyone is getting new partners all the time.

I guess we’ll have to wait and see what is exactly in the Popbox when it becomes available at the end of March 2010. The box plus software is $130 with no subscription fee to maintain (other than separate fees charged by content partners). A box with Wi-Fi will be $149.

Consumer Electronics Show 2010 with The GadgetressFor more CES 2010 coverage, visit the Gadgetress CES page at gadgetress.freedomblogging.com/ces2010. Most recent headlines:

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D-Link boxes in Web TV’s Boxee

December 7th, 2009, 4:52 pm by

Corrected, 12/8/09: D-Link plans to launch the box in second quarter 2010 (not 2009)!
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D-Link Systems is jumping on the two hottest tech trends of social media and Web TV with … a box.

Not just any box. The Fountain Valley company is teaming with Boxee, an open-source software developer of free software that lets computer users watch favorite Web TV shows and videos on their home TV —  and share what they’re watching with friends online.

Here it is, the Boxee Box by D-Link:

Boxee Box by D-Link

Boxee Box by D-Link, backThis little black box — about 5 square inches — will let Boxee subscribers forgo connecting cables and laptop to a TV. Instead, the box sits next to the TV and pipes in Internet video to the TV. No need to remove it when done, as one would a laptop. Click photos on right to enlarge images.

A lot of geeks like Boxee because it lets them watch only the TV they want to watch via sites like Hulu.com, CBS.com, Netflix, etc.

Boxee adds a simple directory so it’s easier to browse what TV shows are available online. Also, since the box lives on the home computer network, Boxee can build a digital library of digital movies and music found on any computer connected to the same network. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Gadgets • Internet • Video & TV • Wi-Fi & networking • • • • • • • | 2 Comments »

Netflix users can start renting videos on PlayStation 3

November 10th, 2009, 11:08 am by

Netflix begins streaming movie rentals to PlayStation 3 owners.Update: As mentioned in my earlier story “TV shows, movies via Netflix coming to PlayStation 3,” Netflix said the service begins today!

The online movie-rental service allows Netflix members to download movies straight to the game console and watch them on a big TV.

Of course, it’s not free but it’s cheaper than any paid TV service out there. Members must pay a minimum of $8.99 per month. That fee gets viewers access to an unlimited number of movies and TV shows that are available on Netflix’s streaming service.

Netflix offers the video streaming service to certain electronic devices, including the Roku players, Microsoft Xbox, TiVos and a few TVs and Blu-ray players. But that means you have to buy a device in order to get access. Adding the PS3 opens the service up to 9 million PS3 owners.

In order to activate the service on a PS3, users must order a special DVD from Netflix and run it through the console. Here’s the link: www.netflix.com/NRD/PS3.

Earlier on web TV:

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