XBox Steps Up, Takes a Swipe at iTunes

XBox news roundup from E3:
A price cut and more storage and interface and functionality upgrades.
Netflix-on-360—finally.
Details:

_For now, Netflix will only stream in about-SD resolution.
_As Netflix transitions to HD, Microsoft said it stands to reason that streaming HD to the Xbox should be feasible.
_Netflix will be for Xbox Live Gold members only, so you’ll be paying that [...]

Filed under: AppleTV, Distribution, Interactive Video, XBOX, iTV, video

Roku Streaming Box to Go Beyond Netflix

Via NewTeeVee:
Roku, the maker of the $99 Netflix streaming set-top box, has told Forbes that it will be updating its software later this year to let the device stream video from other “big name” providers.

Filed under: Distribution, Interactive Video, iTV, video

Is The Set-top Box a Stop-gap Technology?

A thought-provoking piece from Joel Johnson (Heh…no relation.) at Boing Boing gadgets. It really is only a matter of time before “little computers” are actually built-into monitors.
In Appledom, iTunes is the future, not AppleTV. AppleTV and other PC-based media centers only exist because no television manufacturer has figured out how to make a passable, [...]

Filed under: AppleTV, Distribution, Interactive Video, Media Technology, iTV

Blockbuster Prepping a Set-top Box

Blockbuster is apparently looking to develop a set-top box to deliver streaming video rentals. While it would seem that such a device would have an advantage in the size of it’s content library, especially after purchasing Movielink, what really differentiates this (assumed proprietary) box from a “cable channel” that you need an additional piece of [...]

Filed under: Distribution, Film+Video, Interactive Video, Media Technology, iTV

Interactive Video + Blu-ray. Notes and Stuff.

Worthwhile: Saving the HDi platform for non-HD DVD media.
MS Don’t Kill HDi! An Open Letter from Format War Frontline
On a technical implementation level HD-DVD was farther along than Blu-ray, even at the time of its death. HDi comprised a powerful tool and a competitor that raised the stakes on its rival, especially because it was [...]

Filed under: Apple, AppleTV, Blu Ray, Distribution, Film+Video, Formats+Codecs, Interactive Video, Media Technology, iTV, iTunes

Miscellaneous

Apple Rumor: Some sort of event/announcement at the end of February.
Apple files a rather interesting-looking interactive video patent(s) regarding the Apple Remote and AppleTV. Widgets in yr video.
Perian has released a 1.1 update, including performance enhancements and support for DTS and AVCHD. It also improves compatibility with Quicktime 7.4 (Also updated with a bug and [...]

Filed under: Apple, AppleTV, Formats+Codecs, Interactive Video, Media Technology, iTV

TV of Tomorrow Show 2008

InteractiveTV Today [itvt], the first, best and most widely read news source on interactive and multiplatform television, is pleased to present the second annual TV of Tomorrow Show, March 11th-12th (Tuesday-Wednesday), 2008 in San Francisco, California at the famous Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

Filed under: Conferences, Interactive Video, iTV

Notes on H.264 in Flash

Snips+notes on Adobe’s implementation of H.264 video in Flash—
* This is a pretty big step in the direction of interoperability of digital video platforms—Web Video/Settops/IPTV/Digital TV/mobile “hardware acceleration” for Web video will be a boon to the adoption of HD-ish quality video via the Innertubes.
ISPs better step it up. Cable’s Bandwidth Shortage.
* Adobe has licensed [...]

Filed under: Distribution, Formats+Codecs, Interactive Video, Media Technology, iTV

Verizon FiOS to Give AppleTV a Run

Lost Remote points to Zat’s Not Funny’s pre/review of version 2 of Verizon’s FiOS interactive media guide/set-top box. Features include widgets (weather, etc…), streaming DVR content to remote boxes (an AppleTV-like setup, thought no HD, yet), an add-on option for PC media management software that allows photo and music streaming, and additional web content, all [...]

Filed under: Media Technology, iTV