Blu-ray, DVD, HDTV, Video info and more at WesleyTech.com

Roku offers cheapest ever media player

Just in time for the holiday shopping season, Roku is offering a limited edition “Purple box” for only $49.99. The Roku LT offers the same features as the Roku 2 HD, except without Bluetooth nor expandable memory slot.

With more than 300 streaming channels including Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video, Pandora, EPIX, Crackle, Disney and HBO GO, Roku is considered one of the best choices for streaming video players. The Roku LT streams 720p high-definition video and features built-in wireless.



The Roku LT will be available from Roku.com, Amazon.com and in retail stores.

UltraViolet has arrived

The most promising content ownership solution from the owners of properties has finally arrived. On October 11, Warner Home Video released Horrible Bosses on Blu-ray Disc and DVD with UltraViolet enabled. Warner is committed to including UltraViolet on all upcoming releases, including Green Lantern, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, and Shameless: The Complete First Season.

Sony has also announced the upcoming releases of The Smurfs and Friends With Benefits will be UltraViolet enabled.

Every major studio except Disney is on board with the technology, and there is massive support on the hardware manufacturer side as well. The Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE) group of companies is hoping to challenge the streaming or renting concept we’ve all embraced for one of true content ownership.

Best Buy and Walmart are both interested in selling UltraViolet hardware.

How it works

UltraViolet logos will be located on compatible Blu-ray Discs and DVDs, and inside there will be a redemption code. The user will set up an account at UVVU.com and enter the codes. The content will then be available for use on up to ten devices (PCs, HDTVs, BD players, mobile devices, etc). Up to six people may be registered on each account with access to the content.

Eventually, UltraViolet content will be available for purchase as digital-only, but this may be burned to disc by the end user.

The caveat

Until UltraViolet-enabled hardware becomes available, owners of Horrible Bosses (and other future Warner Bros. UltraViolet content) will only be able to watch the digital copy at Flixster.com. Hardware support should follow in early 2012.

Why I cancelled my Hulu Plus account

I had concerns about what Hulu Plus would offer from the outset, and it was actually worse than I thought.

Hulu provided me with two months of free Hulu Plus to try it out. I signed up for it because I wanted to watch Hulu in high-definition on my TV, instead of on my laptop. What glorious times would be had!

After installing the app on my PlayStation 3, I logged in to my Hulu account and went to my subscription list. The subscription list shows all the TV shows I subscribe to and the settings I have for each of them. I went through show after show after show, and they all said “Web only” on them. There were a few shows I could watch on the TV, like Community, House and The Colbert Report. But the shows I enjoyed the most, like Louie, Chuck, and Suits, were not available on the TV or on mobile devices.

Meh. Well, I’ll live with some shows I guess. Right? Maybe if the shows actually worked.

I was watching The Daily Show with Jon Stewart one day, and the show kept freezing to buffer – again and again. Every few seconds. It was un-watchable. The commercials played fine, but the show would freeze up. I set the video to standard definition even thinking it was a bandwidth issue, and it still froze. Which had me pulling my laptop out again to watch the show, which of course was what I was trying to avoid with Hulu Plus.

And then I started looking through the collection of shows Hulu had. I found an old classic, Chappelle’s Show. I had good laughs again. But then there were the commercials. I’m expected to pay for this service at $7.99 per month when that’s what Netflix is charging me without commercials. I put Chappelle’s Show on my Netflix instant queue and watched it sans commercials.

Speaking of commercials, I went even further into the classics and found Macross Plus was on Hulu. Here was an anime series that doesn’t have commercial breaks being cut up into segments to insert Hulu’s commercials. Again, my Netflix instant queue solved that problem real quick. (Oh yeah, Macross Plus was also not allowed to stream to the TV with Hulu, but it did with Netflix.)

So before Hulu charged me a single month for their service, I had cancelled it. I couldn’t watch the shows I wanted on my TV. When they would play, they wouldn’t always work. And I was still bombarded with ads.

I know I railed against Netflix for their new pricing structure, but I guess it is true that they still offer more than anyone else for less.

Thanks, Hulu! Your free trial showed me your service just isn’t worth it!

Music by Google coming soon

On May 10, Google launched Music by Google, a cloud-based service which allows users to upload their music collection and stream it to computers and Android-based portable devices.

The description of the service sounds a lot like Android Cloud Drive. The web interface even looks similar. Google doesn’t have an MP3 store like Amazon, so you will have to purchase your music elsewhere (for now I assume).

However, Google does seem to integrate with the Android devices better. (Of course, they own Android.) The computer library, cloud library, and portable library are always in sync, including playlist selections. One feature that is cool is if your portable device were to go offline, the recently played songs are still available to listen to as they’re now stored on the local hard drive.

Google also has an instant playlist feature like iTune’s Genius Playlist.

Watch this video for more information:

Music by Google is in Beta now, and is only open by invitation. You can request an invitation at the website music.google.com

YouTube adds thousands of movies

YouTube has secured deals with three major Hollywood studios to deliver over 3,000 movies for rent on the popular video streaming website, with some movies to be available day-and-date with DVD. The studios include Sony Pictures, Warner Bros., and Universal.

This move highlights several market indicators, including the studios becoming much more comfortable with digital delivery, Google’s long-term problem to make YouTube profitable, and a closer relationship with Google and the studios who have long had legal battles over copyrighted content YouTube has allowed to stream. The studios have sued Google claiming YouTube became popular because of illegally obtained video owned by the studios.

One of the biggest objections to online movie streaming was selection. Netflix’s original streaming library was mostly older movies and B-movies. Things have changed. This deal will bring new releases to YouTube such as Oscar-winner The King’s Speech, not-Oscar-winning Due Date, Little Fockers, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1, and more.

New release rentals will be available for $3.99, and catalog titles (such as Goodfellas, Scarface and Taxi Driver) will be $2.99 each. Renters will have 30 days to begin the movie, and 24 hours to finish it. Some titles will be available free of charge.

YouTube will also include “YouTube Movie Extras” which will feature behind-the-scenes, interviews and more provided by MakingOf.

Google also announced these movies will be available on Android devices, such as smartphones and tablets. Mortorola Xoom owners will be getting updates immediately. Rented videos can be viewed on the TV, computer or portable device without extra fees. Say you rent a movie while on a WiFi enabled flight on your tablet, you will be able to finish it when you get home on your TV.

There are so many options in the market right now for streaming video. It seems the cable model may soon be a thing of the past.

Miramax signs deal with Netflix

Miramax has reached a multi-year deal with Netflix for online content delivery of their movie library.

Miramax was recently purchased from Walt Disney, and now they’re looking to strike out on their own, beginning with online video streaming. Netflix was clearly the first and best choice for them considering Netflix now accounts for the majority of online traffic in the USA.

Movies will begin to stream in June on multiple platforms, including Blu-ray Disc players, computers, tablets, smartphones, and TVs. Miramax owns titles such as Kill Bill, Shakespeare in Love, The English Patient and Good Will Hunting.

Test drive: Amazon Cloud Player

This really could be as big of a change in the music industry as iTunes, or even bigger! Amazon’s new Cloud Drive launched recently, beating both Apple and Google to the punch. Aside from uploading files for cloud storage, Amazon also added Cloud Player, which plays audio files from the cloud on personal computers and Android devices.

Amazon sells MP3s, often cheaper than the competition at Apple, and with this service it is automatically stored on the Cloud Drive (without using any of your allocated storage). But you can also upload your own files to the Cloud Drive to be played back with the Cloud Player. This is a service much like Lala, which Apple purchased and subsequently closed. Google was rumored to be working on a similar service to Amazon Cloud Drive, but Google did have a cloud storage system called GDrive, but it was also shelved because they “don’t think we need files anymore.”

The Cloud Player is very basic, but I decided to show you what it looks like, and give my impression of how it works.

Amazon Cloud Player

I began by uploading a few albums I happen to like a lot. The interface is easy enough to use, with dedicated folders for files, music, photos and video. You can add any folders or subfolders you would like, which I did for each artist. (Click images for larger view.)



The Cloud Player automatically retrieved meta data from each MP3 file, and arranged the songs into a list view, which can be sorted by song title, artist, album, or song length.



Amazon also retrieves the proper cover art for each album, and all albums can be sorted in the Album view.



In addition to these sorting options, you can create custom playlists.



Playing back the songs didn’t take long to buffer, hardly noticeable compared to Winamp, my PC based media player. The songs didn’t quite have the same punch, but this is probably due to the fact that Winamp has a built-in equalizer and Cloud Player does not.

On the bottom-left of the screen is a CR code which allows you to access your Cloud Player from an Android mobile device. I don’t have an Android device, so I was unable to test this feature.

Overall, I was quite satisfied with this service. I would recommend anyone with a music collection give it a try.

Featured artists include Defeater, Other Mountains, Avalanche City, Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s, and Lengsel.