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ZillionTV shifting strategy

The online-based media service ZillionTV, with grand aspirations of changing the way we receive media from content providers (which is suspiciously the same way other companies have been doing it for a couple years now) is shifting their game plan slightly. Instead of a set top box supplied by an ISP, they are looking to another technology many other services have been using for over a year – embedding their service in television sets.

While claiming to be a leader, they’re just now catching on that the industry is changing faster than they can get their hardware to the market. Mitchell Berman, CEO of ZillionTV, says they’re “moving forward with efforts to embed the ZillionTV Service in an assortment of consumer electronics devices as industry statistics point to embedded services as the future of video on demand.” I guess that’s like Amazon Video on Demand in LG, Vizio, and Panasonic TVs; Netflix in LG, Samsung, and Sony Blu-ray Disc players.

Yet their bold claim is ZillionTV is “a first-of-its-kind personalized television service … providing instant, subscription-free access to an extensive entertainment library of new and classic TV shows, movies, sports, music and more – all on-demand and delivered directly to the television set via a common high-speed Internet connection.”

Sounds like they might have something going for them. Video content delivered from an internet connection directly to your television! What will they think of next? A phone that has a web browser?

Press Release

But seriously, I’m concerned with the way television is headed. With ad revenue drastically dropping on broadcast television, and revenue from online video less than half of that, how are these shows going to be funded? It’s true killer shows are coming out on smaller cable channels, but they are low budget affairs. SyFy doesn’t have the budget for Heroes. FX doesn’t have the budget for CSI. I guess we’ll have to live with product placement and shows revolving around finding a good insurance company.

Sony CEDIA booth tour

Home Theater Forum put together a brilliant booth tour video for Sony’s new products. Highlights include:

The new XBR10 line of BRAVIA LCD televisions with LED light engine for an ultra-thin design. It uses an outboard media box and delivers video to the display itself wireless.

A new Blu-ray Disc player, the BDP-N460, which includes streaming from Netflix and other sources. It has drivers for a Linksys wireless bridge installed so if you do need wireless connectivity it’s available, although the existing BDP-S560 has WiFi built in. It will sell for $249.

Finally a 400-disc Blu-ray mega-changer is available! The BDP-CX960 and BDP-CX7000ES both have BD-Live, DVD upscaling, and decoding for all high-res audio. They will automatically pull down metadata for discs loaded in the slots from Gracenote. The interface isn’t very user-friendly, but it’s steps above the older mega-changers.

Blu-ray Disc managed copy

Engadget has footage of managed copy working on a Pioneer Blu-ray Disc player at CEDIA Expo.

The video shows the Pioneer rep demonstrating copying a digital copy of Disney’s Bolt from a Blu-ray to the player’s hard drive, and playing it back. It also shows a series of other titles available for download or streaming by credit card purchase. The credit card information is on file and you enter a PIN to access the shopping cart. They didn’t mention what service the downloads were sourced from.

This proves it’s possible, so let’s hope next year the studios will all get on board and figure out a way to add this to all the titles released over the last three years.

See the video.

Microsoft and Tesco collaborate on virtual DVD

Digital delivery of movies have fallen short of the DVD experience due to a lack of added features. Microsoft and retail giant Tesco have teamed up to fix this disparity with what they are calling “virtual DVD.” The new delivery service is built on Microsoft Silverlight technology, adding interactive features to online video, including the bonus features included on the DVD.

Tesco, the second most profitable retailer behind Walmart, will allow customers in the United Kingdom, who purchase certain home video titles, to download a digital copy beginning in the autumn. The digital copy will feature exclusive content including online movie viewing parties with chat, MP3s, ring tones, and games.



There is no announcement for US customers, but Tesco is growing their presence Stateside, and I doubt this is a worldwide exclusive anyway so Microsoft can be working with other retailers to implement this program here.

Vudu now embedded in LG HDTVs

With online streaming services becoming more and more ubiquitous, Vudu’s set-top box was being left behind. Now a partnership with LG Electronics will expand their potential market and allow them to compete with the likes of Amazon Video On Demand, Netflix, and YouTube.

The LH50 series LCD flat panel televisions and PS80 series plasma displays receive a software upgrade allowing download of Vudu content in high-definition, including high bitrate 1080p/24fps video. These TVs are already compatible with Netflix, YouTube, Yahoo! Widgets, and Flickr.

While converging technologies is generally a good thing, I would rather see these streaming capabilities in an A/V receiver with NAS support. Another concern is with so many services provided, you’re on a hunt every time to find which service provides what titles – or you have an overabundance of the same title from many sources. One company feels this has a solution and I’ll write about it soon.

YouTube looking to add online movie rental on demand

Google’s YouTube is still struggling to turn a profit while ads are becoming more and more obtrusive. Movie studios are warming to online video streaming due to a weakening DVD market and a growth in streaming culture. Seems like both sides need each other. That’s what YouTube thought, so they’ve gone to several Hollywood studios to work on a streaming deal.

Studios in talks include Sony Pictures, Warner Bros., MGM, and Lionsgate. Each of these studios streams video through other channels, so it seems like they would approve of YouTube’s extremely large user base.

Video on demand rentals would be about $3.99 each, similar to iTunes pricing. 70% of this would go to the studio, and 30% to YouTube. We already have HD video from youTube, so I would expect a second tier pricing for high definition video.

With YouTube already embedded in many new HDTVs, many users would already have access to this new service which should start rolling out in the next several weeks.

First reported in Wall Street Journal.

THX confirms the obvious

It’s Labor Day weekend, so time for some levity. I received a press release from THX recently and there was something very important they wanted you to know:

The research also confirmed that larger screens consume more power.

Finally someone did the research to confirm larger screen flat panel displays consume more power! All this time I assumed they used the same or less as smaller TVs!

The press release mentioned the power savings achieved with properly calibrated televisions. The results were compared to the Vivid and Dynamic modes typically the default on most flat panel displays. Power savings ranged from 15-50 percent.