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VoD

vudu

Vudu Finally Gets Wireless Kit (Works Fine, Expensive by Competitive Measures)

So many products, including the $100 Roku Netflix box, come with wireless, so it was surprising that the $300 Vudu broadband video-on-demand box requires a hard Ethernet connection. Today Vudu announces an $80 Vudu-branded Ethernet-to-802.11g bridge kit built by Asus. I tried it over the weekend, and it worked great. More »

streaming media

TiVo Cheats on Amazon for Disney Content

While TiVo's offered Amazon Unbox downloads for some time, apparently TiVo isn't opposed to playing the field. The company just signed another video on demand partner, Cinemanow, to bring in Disney content. Their library is tiny with only 1,500 titles and we're not certain whether TiVo will only be accessing their Disney content. But there are two things we really like about this deal. More »

akimbo

Akimbo Execs Hit Eject, Shutter Company For Good

The polymorphous life of Akimbo came to an abrupt end this week, as the embattled video-on-demand turned white label video service was shut down for good. The surprising move went down just four months after Akimbo was given an additional $4 million to fund its video services venture. Now the extra cash will go towards former employees' severance packages. Let us reflect on the tumultuous past of Akimbo.
More »

home entertainment

Building B/Sezmi One True Set Top Box Aims to Kill TV as You Know It

Last week, we had a demo of the TV godbox we reported on last summer by Building B—now Sezmi. If anything, their claims have actually gotten bolder: They're promising the "first complete TV 2.0 solution" that rolls up traditional TV with movies, on-demand, DVR and internet video, all presented seamlessly to viewers. That's a tall order, and moreover, an extremely complicated one. More »

home entertainment

Warner Bros. to Release Movies for Apple TV and On Demand Same Day as DVD

The format war over, and Blu-ray safely enthroned as the victor, Warner can now turn its sights beyond—to downloads and the infinite format war. Time Warner's chief executive announced today that Warner Bros. will release movies for on-demand systems like Comcast's and Apple TV on the same day they are released on DVD from now on. More »

ps3

PS3 Movie and TV VOD Service Arriving... Sometime

Sony is preparing for the inevitable and will launch a movie and TV video-on-demand service for the PS3 to compete with the glut of other options already available, according to Sony's Peter Dille. He was thin on details, saying the only thing that we'd be getting "very soon" is more details on the service, which he claims will separate itself from the pack that we've already seen. Does that mean low-budget stag films? Exclusively movies/shows that feature Kareem Abdul-Jabaar? Only time will tell. [Kotaku]

me too vod

Comcast Would Like to Remind You It Does Same-Day VOD, Too

Not content to let Cablevision steal all of the same-day VOD thunder today, Comcast made an announcement reiterating they do same-day movies on-demand as well, but they don't send you a DVD. They've also got whole trilogies of movies! Ooooo. Sorry, like Randall said, there is but one trilogy. [Comcast] More »

vod on crack

Cablevision's Crazy New VOD Scheme: Send You the DVD Too

Same-day movies on demand isn't a new offering from cable providers. But Cablevision's new setup is entirely different, and just a little weird. You pay 10 or 16 or 20 bucks (depending on freshness) to watch the flick the same day it hits DVD, and then Cablevision sends the DVD to you in the mail. WTF? More »

1080p instantly

MatrixStream 1080p Instant HD Streamer Now Searching for Content

Gaze into the future with us, foreshadowed by a company called MatrixStream. These wizards teased us with their 1080p HD streaming box 18 months ago, bragging about how it lets you instantly watch 1080p videos over a broadband connection. Fast-forward to today, and now they're announcing the streaming of a grisly-sounding zombie movie from 2006 called Shadow: Dead Riot. Such is the business of walled-garden TV networking. So as the company waits for the content to catch up, their 1080p on-demand hardware and software sounds like it's enormously powerful. More »

veeohdee

Verizon FiOS TV's High-Def VOD Goes Live: Is It in Your Neighborhood Yet?

Are you on the list? Probably not! But lucky souls in Richmond, Virginia Beach, Tampa, Fort Wayne (IN) and Pittsburgh are—HD VOD is live for Verizon FiOS TV subscribers in those locales. The rest of you, fear not the rollout mystery, here's how it's going down: Washington DC, Massachusetts and Rhode Island will slip into HD VOD goodness before the ball drops in Times Square, while everyone else gets it next year. Right now they've got 75 flicks up—ballooning to 1,000 next year—including blockbuster king Michael Bay's Transformers. [Verizon]

the slow lane

PS3 HD Video on Demand Service Crashes Into Japan Next Year

The PS3's still got a long ways to go to catch up to the Xbox 360 in the online space, and their next step toward it with an HD VOD service seems kind of lackluster. It's launching next year in Japan only. And the launch content seems pretty anemic unless you're into cars and racing: "motor-racing vids" and a BBC car documentary. Sony's hoping it'll get people's motors running for Gran Turismo 5. Uh, vroom vroom? [Variety via Game|Life]

home entertainment

Blockbuster Wants to Bring the Joy of No Late Fees to Your Cellphone

After getting reamed by Q3 losses and basically conceding the online rental space to Netflix, Blockbuster looked to be refocusing on its B&M stores, ironically signified by its installation of in-store digital rental kiosks. So naturally its next move is cellphones. Yeah. Says CEO James Keyes:
We're talking with virtually all of the major manufacturers about the opportunity to provide greater mobility and convenience... The challenge is how do I make this convenient for everybody.
More »

appleflix

More Evidence Apple Readying iTunes Video Rentals

iPhone developer Pumpkin plugged "rental" into a string search of the iPhone's lockdown daemon file—which authorizes the iPhone for services—returning a curious set of hits:
pumpkin:~ pumpkin$ strings /usr/local/share/iphone-filesystem/usr/libexec/lockdownd | grep -i rental
trigger_rental_bag_verification: Could not retrieve FairPlayID
trigger_rental_bag_verification: Could not initialize FairPlay context
trigger_rental_bag_verification: Could not verify the rental bag response: %d
load_rental_bag_request: Could not retrieve FairPlayID
load_rental_bag_request: Could not initialize FairPlay context
load_rental_bag_request: Could not generate rental bag request
.....
There's some code there, so where's the goods? More »

video wars

TV on Your PC: Hulu, Joost and Miro Reviewed

The Writers Guild strike already stripped us of our Daily Show and Colbert Report, and now it may take away Heroes and House as well. Looking to escape Reality TV hell? We've painstakingly reviewed three free (and mostly legal) video services—Joost, Miro and Hulu—for your faux-TV enjoyment during these dark times. More »

huluhoop

Hulu Review: What It Is and What It Should Be (Good, and Better)


We've been playing around with News Corp. and NBC's answer to internet video, Hulu, for a couple of days, letting the low-traffic, buttery smooth launch day stretch out more into real time and real traffic conditions before we let loose with our judgment. Let's get this out of the way: YouTube killer it ain't. Same genus, different species. More »

rumoroo

Apple Pushing Networks to Cut iTunes TV Prices to 99 Cents a Show

Apparently, Apple's feeling pretty generous "aggressive" lately price-wise. Citing "three people familiar with the proposal," Variety's reporting that Apple's "mulling" chopping the price of TV shows down to 99 cents an episode. Naturally, the networks aren't exactly thrilled with the less-than-modest proposal. So why make it? More »

nyt pulpbite

Pogue Sees Eye-to-Eye With Vudu Video-on-Demand Box (Verdict: Mostly Great)

Pushing out his review a bit before the official embargo lifted last night, our favorite Times wonder-reporter put the video store in a box, Vudu, through its paces and walked away mostly happy with the experience. Brownie points for: picture quality, slick five-button remote, pay-per-flick, and truly instant viewing. Buts: More »

update

NBC Jumps Ship to Amazon Unbox

After the he said/she said BS between Apple and NBC over the last few days, we're kind of glad to see some kind of resolution: NBC's taking its business to Amazon Unbox, which will give NBC "greater flexibility in the pricing and packaging of video downloads." For the time being though, shows still seem to fetch $1.99 on Unbox. But there are a couple of other interesting tidbits in the Times article worth noting. More »