Telecom Italia Launches Hybrid DTT/OTT Set-Top Box, CuboVision

Telecom Italia on Wednesday unveiled a hybrid set-top box, dubbed CuboVision, that it says provides access to digital terrestrial TV channels, various Web-based video and information services (including YouTube and LA7.tv), and a library of on-demand pay-per-view films, and also allows users to organize personal content such as photos, videos and music.

According to Telecom Italia, the HD-enabled box, which is priced at EUR199, connects to a TV antenna and any type of ADSL line, and incorporates a 500GB hard drive for storing multimedia files from mobile phones, computers, digital cameras and MP3 readers. The company says that transferring files to the device can be accomplished via USB drive, SD card, WiFi or DLNA, and that the device allows viewers to browse through their digital albums in standard- or high-definition directly on their TV sets.

CuboVision's start page features a menu that offers a list of the main content types--TV, Web TV, Video-on-Demand, My Media--that can be accessed through the device, as well as links to Settings and Help options. A scrolling news bar offers access to a range of widgets from Telecom Italia's Virgilio portal, including real-time weather for a user-selected city, general and business news, and a daily horoscope. According to Telecom Italia, "net viewers" can hop between widgets and services, using an "ad hoc" EPG that appears over the program they are watching. In the near future, the company claims, CuboVision will run home automation and security applications, online payment apps and other services. "CuboVision is an innovative response to the needs of ever more well-informed broadband consumers," Telecom Italia CEO, Franco Bernabe, said in a prepared statement. "This new package is, to begin with, focusing on heavy Internet users. We want to involve them in a new experience, a new paradigm for accessing news and entertainment content by channeling content from the Web, broadcasters and viewers themselves--more than ever responsible for creating their own programming--via home TV's."

In other OTT news:

• Oregan Networks, a UK-based provider of media browser solutions for retail consumer electronics and carrier IPTV appliances, contacted [itvt] Wednesday to let us know that its Onyx browser for connected TV's and set-top boxes is powering the new Cello iViewer connected TV sets that we reported on in an article published on itvt.com, December 10th. "Based on deep consumer insights gathered through end-user focus groups, Onyx features an easy-to-use and rich graphical interface for family-style living room entertainment," Oregan says. "The mix of services available on Onyx caters for a variety of audiences and is a blend of mainstream catch-up TV programming such as BBC iPlayer, with user-generated content and social networking applications, such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. iViewer is using the UK version of Onyx, with US and other international versions also in development." More information (including a fairly detailed summary of the capabilities of the Onyx browser) is available here.
• STMicroelectronics on Wednesday launched the FLI7510, a full high-definition, H.264/MPEG system-on-chip (SoC) that it bills as designed for the "next generation of integrated broadcast and broadband-Internet digital TV's." More information is available here.
• According to an article in the Hollywood Reporter, video rental chain Blockbuster is developing a set-top box that will stream movies over-the-top and that is expected to be launched later this month. The article claims that the box "would be an offshoot of" Movielink, the studio-backed broadband VOD service that Blockbuster acquired last year.

And in related news: Sonic Solutions and DivX have announced a partnership that sees Sonic Solutions making its Roxio CinemaNow movies available for download in the DivX format via a dedicated site at: http//divx.cinemanow.com. "DivX technology is incorporated in more than 200 million DivX devices that have shipped into the market from major consumer electronics manufacturers, including DVD players, digital TV's, gaming consoles, Blu-ray Disc players, and portable DVD players," the companies state in a press release announcing their partnership. "Consumers are free to transfer their DivX movies via DVD's, USB drives, SD memory cards, and portable hard drives, or stream content over a home network for playback on their registered DivX Certified devices."