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Posts Tagged ‘blu ray players’

Warner Bros: New Program To Digitize Your DVDs

March 6th, 2012 03:12 admin View Comments

Cloud

shoutingloudly writes “Warner Brothers has just announced a new ‘Disc-to-Digital’ program to convert your DVDs into digital files that you can play on your internet-connected computers. As the helpful Public Knowledge graphics demonstrate, all you have to do is find a participating store, drive there, pay again for your movie, wait while it’s ripped for you, drive home, and hope it works. This will surely have tech-savvy movie fans saying, ‘Brilliant! I’ve been looking for an excuse to uninstall this free, 1-step DVD ripper that I can use in the comfort of my own home. This is much better than DMCA reform.’” In exchange for paying a bit more you might get a higher resolution copy (DRM encumbered and stored in “the cloud”). The launch process is absurdly cumbersome, but: “Later on, Internet retailers like Amazon.com will email customers to offer digital copies of DVDs they previously bought. Eventually, consumers will be able to put DVDs into PCs or certain Blu-ray players that will upload a copy, similar to the way people turn music CDs into MP3 files.” Will the video distributors ever offer DRM-free files that you own? The music industry doesn’t seem to be any worse off than they were when they insisted upon DRM.

Source: Warner Bros: New Program To Digitize Your DVDs

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Are Streaming Media Players a Passing Fad

May 25th, 2011 05:20 admin View Comments

The Internet

DeviceGuru writes “In-Stat is questioning whether dedicated streaming media players like the Roku player, Boxee Box, and Google TV boxes will be around for long. The reason, says In-Stat, is that IP-streamed video is becoming a standard feature of TVs and Blu-ray players. Passing fad? Not according to this blog post at DeviceGuru, which argues that we’re talking about a disruptive market, not a mature one, and that TVs and Blu-ray players can’t possibly provide the flexibility to serve as the platform for delivering rapidly evolving technologies to the early adopters who represent the testbed for all this innovation.”

Source: Are Streaming Media Players a Passing Fad

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Fearing iTunes-Like Domination, Hollywood Plots Netflix’s Downfall

March 8th, 2011 03:24 admin View Comments

Shocking news: Hollywood is not a fan of Netfix. Movie studios have started to become concerned with the company’s growing influence, and they’re determined to prevent it from becoming the next iTunes, so big and powerful that it can dictate terms. The solution? Turn Netflix into a “swap meet,” where users can only find low-quality movies, that is, not the top-of-the-crop Hollywood blockbusters that so many Americans seem to enjoy.

The deal, as explained by Cnet, is that Hollywood used to see Netflix as a harmless company providing a cute little service to a niche audience. (The Internet? Streaming? What am I, a nerd?) But then Netflix experienced an explosion in popularity, with the company seeing a 66 percent growth in subscribers in the year leading up to last December. And given Netflix’s ubiquity—you can find it on many Blu-ray players, the Xbox 360/PS3/Wii, etc.—it’s hard to imagine a scenario where people will all of a sudden stop using the service.

Unless, of course, Hollywood drains the life out of it.

Since Netflix is no longer seen as a harmless little company—the studios are complaining that it’s eating in airline movie sales, DVD sales, and that cable companies will no longer pay for movie rights because Netflix eliminates movie “scarcity”—Hollywood now sees itself in a prickly situation. Do you go with the flow, and try to figure out how to make Netflix “work” for you, or do you try to eliminate the threat while you still can?

I’m sure you know the answer to that one.

If Hollywood were to stop playing ball with Netflix, then the service goes away, right? Who’s going to keep paying $8 per month to have access to lame movies? (This assumes you don’t already think most of Hollywood’s movies are lame.) And once people stop paying for Netflix, the company goes out of business, then the studios can resume selling us shiny plastic discs.

That’s what they’re hoping will happen, at least.

Source: Fearing iTunes-Like Domination, Hollywood Plots Netflix’s Downfall

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Netflix (Finally) Finds its Way Onto Boxee

February 14th, 2011 02:54 admin View Comments

What’s an Internet TV device without support for streaming video subscription service Netflix these days? Not in the game, might be the answer there. After all, Netflix is available on a plethora of devices, from gaming consoles to streaming players to embedded Blu-ray players and TV sets.

Today, the Boxee Box has finally jumped aboard the Netflix bandwagon, at last putting it on equal footing with nearly every other Internet TV device out there.

“Netflix support was the most common request we had on our blog comments, forum posts, tweets, etc,” writes Boxee founder and CEO Avner Ronen. “We heard you loud and clear. We were bummed that we could not make it happen earlier, but are very excited to have it out today.”

Why is having Netflix on your device such a big deal? The company recently released its Q4 numbers from 2010 and announced that it had signed on more than 7 million new members in 2010, with more than 3 million of those in the last quarter alone. The launch of its streaming-only service in both Canada and the U.S. has proven to be a huge success. Well, all that and the simple fact that Boxee users can now watch streaming Netflix content using their Boxee Box.

According to Ronen, the service will be available as an update to Boxee software and will launch simultaneously in both Canada and the U.S. How do you get the update if you don’t want to wait?

To instantly watch movies streaming Netflix on your Boxee Box, you’ll need to update the software on your Box – it will update automatically to the new version (1.0.4.17443) within the next 24hrs or you can manually check for the update by going to Settings>System>Update.

Welcome to the party, Boxee!

Source: Netflix (Finally) Finds its Way Onto Boxee

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OnLive Aiming To Become Netflix of Games

February 2nd, 2011 02:49 admin View Comments

Cloud

donniebaseball23 writes “OnLive may have its long-term sights on entertainment besides games, especially with the hiring of Pandora executive Etienne Handman, but for now the cloud-based service is laser focused on taking a chunk of the games market. It has launched a Netflix-inspired all-you-can-eat plan for $9.99/month. ‘The meteoric growth of Netflix reflects the enormous consumer demand for flat-rate instant-play media,’ said Steve Perlman, OnLive Founder and CEO. ‘OnLive PlayPack is uniquely positioned to address this demand in the realm of high-performance video games, instantly delivering games … to TVs, PCs, Macs and iPad, and soon Android tablets, smartphones and Blu-ray players.’”

Source: OnLive Aiming To Become Netflix of Games

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OnLive To Be Built Into Vizio Devices

January 4th, 2011 01:27 admin View Comments

Gamasutra reports that cloud gaming service OnLive has reached an agreement with Vizio to integrate OnLive directly into the hardware manufacturer’s TVs and blu-ray players. “Vizio also announced that it will introduce … tablets and smartphones based on Google’s Android operating system that integrate the gaming service through its Via Plus ecosystem. OnLive is already publicly available for Apple’s iPad, but that app is exclusively for spectating other people who are playing Onlive through PCs or the MicroConsole. Perlman said Onlive is coming to Vizio’s mobile devices with playable games. … Perlman also said that thanks to the open nature of the Android platform, manufacturers are creating more traditional game controllers for Android tablets. Some resemble a gamepad cut in half, where one half snaps on either side of the table screen, Perlman said. Certain Android tablets will also potentially work with Onlive’s official controller, if the mobile device supports the appropriate RF interface.”

Source: OnLive To Be Built Into Vizio Devices

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12 Days of Christmas: Blu-Ray Player and a Redbox Subscription Giveaway

December 23rd, 2010 12:57 admin View Comments

Grab ringside seats to the death of optical media with one of three new Blu-ray players complete with 1 year Redbox subscriptions. The folks at Redbox, who are running some other kind of concurrent Blu-Ray promotion, want their business model to remain vaguely viable for at least the next few years so they want to ensure that you and yours are enjoying fine Blu-ray entertainment as streaming moves in to eat their lunch. To that end, we must insist that you read on to find out how to win.

Read more…

Source: 12 Days of Christmas: Blu-Ray Player and a Redbox Subscription Giveaway

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Hulu Shaves $2 Off The Monthly Price Of Hulu Plus, Will Refund Early Adopters

November 17th, 2010 11:23 admin View Comments

Hulu has formally launched its premium online video subscription service Hulu Plus after a preview period. Subscribers will be able to stream TV shows from ABC, FOX, NBC, and more to computers, internet-connected television sets and Blu-ray players, set-top boxes, mobile phones, and tablets.

Pleasant surprise for those who are interested: the monthly subscription price has dropped from $9.99 to $7.99, a 20 percent cut. Pleasant surprise for those who already signed up for Hulu Plus: early adopters will get a credit for the difference from the $9.99 preview price to be applied automatically to their next billing cycle.

Starting today, all new subscribers to Hulu Plus will also receive a 1-week free trial.

In addition, Hulu has announced that its premium streaming service will be available on more devices (the company claims that, combined, all supported devices boast an installed base of over 50 million in the U.S.).

Here’s the list, from the press release:

- Connected TV and Blu-Ray players: Samsung, Sony BRAVIA® HDTVs and connected Blu-ray Disc™ Players, and coming soon: LG Electronics, Panasonic, VIZIO
– Connected Set-top Boxes: Roku, Sony Network Media Player, and coming soon: TiVo Premiere DVRs, Western Digital’s WD TV Live Hub Media Center and WD TV Live Plus Network Media Player
- Gaming Consoles: PlayStation® 3, and coming soon: Xbox 360
- Mobile Devices: Apple iPad, iPhone, iPod touch
- Other network appliances: Sony Dash

HD-available programs will stream to users in 720p on capable devices.

Hulu says it will continue to announce additional supported devices and platforms (Android, anyone?) in the coming months, as well as grow its library with more content continuously.

Source: Hulu Shaves $2 Off The Monthly Price Of Hulu Plus, Will Refund Early Adopters

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Avatar Blu-Ray DRM Issues

April 30th, 2010 04:06 admin View Comments

geekd writes “Once again, DRM only hurts legit content purchasers: ‘An unusual glitch has angered some Avatar Blu-ray owners. For these unlucky people, since the disc won’t play on their Blu-ray players, their new Avatar DVD serves no real purpose other than to sit idly on the coffee table. … It appears the main culprit concerning playback issues with Avatar is, ironically, the disc’s DRM (digital rights management). … Even with updated firmware, a lot of Blu-ray players weren’t prepared for these security measures. Despite the security problems, bootleggers are having a field day. Pirated copies of Avatar, according to Los Angeles Times, were available as early as January.’”
Reader Murpster adds that this problem isn’t specific to the Blu-ray version: “Got a regular Avatar DVD and it won’t play on either of my DVD players. It will play on one computer DVD drive, if I want to watch it on a 12 inch screen.”

Source: Avatar Blu-Ray DRM Issues

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