blu-ray

Due to the volume of news generated by last week's Consumer Electronics Show, and because the [itvt] editorial team is busy working on The TV of Tomorrow Show (March 3rd-4th in San Francisco), we are covering a number of stories in this issue in summary form:

A number of pieces of connected TV news came across [itvt]'s desk, Tuesday. Here is a brief--and by no means exhaustive--round-up (note: also see "Vudu Unveils Vudu Apps OTT Service," "ActiveVideo Networks in Deal to Provide Blockbuster with Cloud-Based User Interface," and "Showtime Networks, Betfair Launch Interactive TV Widgets"):

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week (Booth 10045), Burbank, Calif.-based Blu-ray technology provider, Dreamer, plans to demo an Internet connectivity solution which it says transforms Blu-ray players (and other CE devices) into HD set-top boxes for delivering unlimited content and interactive services to the TV.

Sonic Solutions, the digital media company that in 2008 acquired the pioneering broadband VOD service/platform, CinemaNow (it subsequently added "Roxio" to the service's name in order to make its branding consistent with its other products), announced Monday that it is launching version 2.0 of Roxio CinemaNow at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week. According to the company, the new version, which it will be demo'ing by invitation in the Renaissance Hotel's Chairman Room, offers new HD and 3D capabilities and various interactive capabilities.

Here is a round-up of some other interactive TV-related stories we didn't have room for in this issue:

Video rental company, Netflix, announced Tuesday that subscribers to its service can now instantly watch its streaming movie and TV show offerings on Sony Bravia connected HDTV's, on earlier Bravia models that are compatible with the company's Bravia Internet video link module, and on the Sony Network Blu-ray Disc Player.

[itvt] has just published an interview with Peter Low, president and CEO of interactive TV authoring solutions provider, Ensequence. Low, whose appointment as CEO was announced in September, discusses his new role at Ensequence, outlines the strategic trajectory of the company's flagship iTVManager platform, provides statistics and other information on the company's various deployments around the world, explains how the company is responding to the emergence of connected TV, and shares his thoughts on the implications for the company of the US cable industry's plans for template-driven interactive TV.

Korean MHP, tru2way and Blu-ray specialist, Alticast, will later this week announce that it has opened an engineering center in Wroclaw, Poland. The company says that the expansion is in response to "the steady growth of the European MHP/GEM interactive middleware and the imminent publishing of GEM 1.2 Hybrid Broadcast Broadband interactive middleware."

InteractiveTV Today [itvt], the first, best and most widely read news source on interactive and multiplatform television, is pleased to present the fourth annual

TV of Tomorrow Show,

Electronics retailer, Best Buy, and video rental company, Netflix, on Tuesday announced the availability of two new Blu-ray Disc Players, marketed under Best Buy's own Insignia brand, that allow Netflix members to instantly watch movies and TV episodes from that service over-the-top on their TV sets. The players--the Insignia Advanced Series Blu-ray Player (NS-WBRDVD) and the Insignia Connected Blu-ray Player (NS-BRDVD3)--are priced at $249.99 and $179.99 respectively and are available both in Best Buy's retail stores and on its Web site. According to Best Buy, the Advanced Series model uses built-in WiFi to connect to the Internet while the Connected model uses an Ethernet connection.

Here is a round-up of other interactive TV-related news stories we didn't have room for in this issue:

The [itvt] editorial team is currently traveling in the UK, and, because of time restraints, we are covering a number of this issue's news stories in round-up/summary form. We anticipate some additional interruption of our regular news publishing schedule in the coming days, so we apologize in advance for any inconvenience to our readers. Here is the round-up:

Samsung Electronics America announced last week that owners of its BD-P1600, BD-P3600 and BD-P4600 Blu-ray disc players can now access YouTube via a free firmware update. According to the company--which is demo'ing the new capability in its booth (925) at the CEDIA expo this week in Atlanta, Georgia--owners of the players can access YouTube from the main screen by pressing a button on their remote control. They can choose between watching the most popular or most highly rated YouTube videos, the company says, and can also search for videos via a "mobile phone-like" on-screen keypad. Samsung claims that the experience is "very similar to that on the Web site."

Panasonic announced Tuesday that Amazon Video On Demand is now available on its full line of 2009 Viera Cast-enabled Blu-ray disc players (note: the Viera Cast over-the-top platform, which has a built-in Ethernet interface, is accessed by pressing a special button on the remote control and entails no usage fees; it also offers access to YouTube, Picasa Web Albums, Bloomberg News and weather information). The company--which launched Amazon VOD on its Viera Cast-enabled plasma HDTV's back in April--says that current owners of its 2009 Blu-ray disc players automatically received a free software update Tuesday that will allow them to begin accessing Amazon VOD as soon as they register their device with the service.

Sonic Solutions, the digital media company that last year acquired the pioneering broadband VOD service, CinemaNow (it subsequently added "Roxio" to the service's name in order to make its branding consistent with its other products), announced Wednesday that it has developed a solution called CineVision Adaptive HD, which it bills as a "next-generation encoding, multiplexing, streaming and decoding system designed specifically to deliver the highest quality HD video possible to Internet-connected CE devices."