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YouTube looking to enter rental movies on demand business, says WSJ

by Ross Miller posted Sep 2nd 2009 at 6:02PM

Sounds like Google has found the best way to monetize YouTube yet, and it puts itself in a pretty competitive spot versus the likes of Netflix, Amazon VOD, and Apple's iTunes movie store. According to Wall Street Journal, the company's currently in talks with Lions Gate, Sony, and Warner Bros. studios over putting their content on YouTube for a rental fee, likely $3.99 -- the same price as Apple's SD movie rentals. Even more interesting is talk of getting some titles online day and date with the DVD releases. Some options could still be free with advertising, but as for paid content, Google's enticing studios over to their way of thinking with a proposed minimum fee of "just under $3 per title viewed." A three-month beta testing is apparently scheduled to begin soon among 10,000 Google employees, and after that? Well, here's hoping the G-Man manages to sign on some more studios and offer us the films in streaming HD.

1080p Android demo'd, set-top boxes prepare for a new master

by Richard Lawler posted Aug 28th 2009 at 4:05PM


It is done. MIPS Technologies has demonstrated its enhanced implementation of Android running in 1080p via extended libraries to support hardware graphics acceleration and decoding on Sigma Designs hardware, a portent of set-top boxes yet to come. Of course, without any video or pictures or video of the blessed event (ISB Corp's previous OMAP based effort is pictured above) it's hard to tell why Android coming to TV is such a great idea, if its cousin widgets are any indication, there's a chance of being high on pre-release hype but low on desirability once it reaches the market. Still, the Open Embedded Software Foundation pledges to continue on shoehorning Android into devices beyond the mobile handset, but if it's shut down by a band of torch wielding villagers demanding the monster be put down, don't say we didn't warn you.

[Via SlashGear & LinuxforDevices]

MIPS Technologies showing off Android with an HD facelift August 27

by Richard Lawler posted Aug 4th 2009 at 10:36AM


Sure, Google may see ChromeOS as its operating system of the future on PCs, but we just can't help ourselves every time Android makes a special appearance in an off-the-cellphone production, with its next performance scheduled for August 27 when MIPS Technologies will demo a version made for high definition displays. EE Times sees Sigma Designs as a hardware partner, mentioning it has already shown a Blu-ray player prototype running the OS. Of course, there's already options like the BLOBbox (in Europe) if an open software platform set-top is your desire -- and according to our poll results, it just might be -- but we'll see if an upgraded mobile OS has the chops to go in the living room later this month.

[Via Android Community]

Poll: Would you buy a TV running ChromeOS?

by Richard Lawler posted Jul 12th 2009 at 1:15PM


Forget widgets and ten-foot experiences. If someone's designing a lightweight, net-connected operating system, why not jam that into a flat panel and let us have our way with it? That's the idea we had after all the Google operating system news of the last week, although like an embedded Boxee solution or the long rumored AppleTV TV, we may be waiting a while whether its ChromeOS, Moblin or something else, although there's already least one Media Center Extender-packing display on the way from Toshiba. So, are we crazy or is this something that could sell? Let us know in the comments below.

Would you buy a HDTV running ChromeOS or something like it?

Google Media Server brings PC-based content to your TV

by Darren Murph posted Jul 2nd 2008 at 11:34AM


As Google continues to dabble in more and more areas, we suppose it's not too shocking to see it dipping its toes in the blossoming media streaming realm. Available now for Windows-based PCs (sorry, Mac / Linux users), Google Media Server "uses Google Desktop technology such as Desktop gadgets for the administration tool and Google Desktop Search to locate media files," after which it broadcasts said content onto your television via any UPnP-enabled device (you know, like a PlayStation 3). Once connected, users can easily access multimedia files stored on their PC, view Picasa web albums and play back YouTube videos. Give it a go and see how it stacks up.

[Via Yahoo / InformationWeek]

Google study finds online spots to be as effective as TV ads

by Darren Murph posted Apr 5th 2008 at 5:54PM


While we can't argue that HD spots are entirely more enjoyable to view than their SD counterparts, a new survey commissioned by Google takes a look at the viability of advertising in online programming. Given that content on the 'net is growing substantially and more and more users are turning to the web browser to get their TV fix, Google found that online video advertisements compared "very favorably with traditional TV commercials." The research honed in on 30-second spots shown on traditional TV, YouTube and embedded within an online viewer, and according to Marianne Foley, senior vice president of strategic initiatives at Harris Interactive (who collected the data), the end result is that "nothing is lost and much can be gained" by running commercials online. Of course, online ads have the advantage of being forced upon viewers, whereas DVR owners can skip around if they're okay with viewing timeshifted material. Peep the results in full in the read link below.

[Via NewTeeVee]

Comcast, Time Warner, Sprint, and Clearwire could join forces on WiMAX, help from Google and Intel possible

by Joshua Topolsky posted Mar 25th 2008 at 11:35PM


As unlikely as this sounds, rivals Time Warner Cable and Comcast are apparently in talks with Sprint and Clearwire over establishing a nationwide WiMAX network. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the companies are scrambling to get a deal wrapped up by CTIA -- which takes place at the beginning of April -- and could see an influx of cash from both Google and Intel in excess of $1 billion. It seems the odd-couple partners are keen to cut into heavyweights Verizon and AT&T's ever-expanding range of at-home and mobile services by offering their own take on a high-speed data and voice system to consumers. Clearly this combination would deflate AT&T and Verizon's big FCC bandwidth-nabs a little (and it explains why the cable players weren't interested in the 700MHz auction), but it's questionable whether this rag-tag team of wild card players would seriously court the public's eye. They say America loves an underdog -- even if it's a gigantic, super-rich, corporate underdog.

[Via mocoNews]

Charted: HD DVD vs. Blu-ray

by Matt Burns posted May 26th 2006 at 10:16AM


Charts. Oh how people love 'em. The DVD Wars have taken the time and effort to compare HD DVD and Blu-ray with the data off Amazon. They charted everything from the average selling price to the sales ranking of the titles. HD DVD does come out on top of almost all these categories, but then again, we are still 30 days away from Blu-rays launch.


Just for good measure, we wanted to compare HD DVD against Blu-ray Google style. Again, it seems HD DVD has taken the cake, but this time it is general searches and news articles.

Somethin' to crew on: www.googlehdtv.net

by Matt Burns posted Apr 4th 2006 at 1:10PM

Guess what? Google owns the rights to www.googleHDTV.net (.com is some fitness website). We wonder what in the heck they have planned for that domain. Could it be a HD IPTV site or just info about high-def? But there is more. They also own the rights to www.googleDVR.org & .net and also www.googleTV.com. ZDNet thinks that a Google DVR box would make sense, but we just don't think so. Google is a content company but that is going a little far.

What do you think?

CES: How the hell am I supposed to make this stuff work together?

by Richard Lawler posted Jan 9th 2006 at 1:11PM


CES logoConnecting.

It seems like companies had no problem doing that at CES. Everybody was in a partnership with everybody else and was in a hurry to tell people about it, I'm not even going  to make the lame high school compariso...oops.

But seriously, after all the talking is done, I still don't know what is going to work with what, or how. I can't even imagine what it's going to be like for the average consumer this year, because this stuff is gibberish to me. Let me run down a list just of the things I'm left with far more questions than answers about.

Intel:

  • Viiv: I still don't know what this is. I know that Intel has partnered with everyone and their mother. (Seriously, at this point I wouldn't be at all surprised if I visited home and found that I needed at the least a software upgrade before I could eat some DRM protected home cooking). The questions I need answered are, will I absolutely need to buy an Intel PC to take advantage of this content? How will I take advantage of it, can I build my own Viiv PC? And what does this mean anyway?
Microsoft:
  • Congratulations, the Xbox 360 is getting HD-DVD playback. How much, how will it connect to my 360 and my TV and when can we expect it, until you answer those questions I'm not excited in the least.
  • Is Wintel really dead? Viiv relies on Windows Media Center, but Microsoft is partnering with AMD on their competing AMD Live standard, (btw, everything I said about not knowing what Viiv is, goes double for AMD Live).
  • Now that Google is using DivX, is Microsoft going to add support for streaming to the Xbox 360 or am I going to have to wait for a mod chip?
Continue on for questions for Google, Sony, HANA or provide your own answers/questions.

Continue reading CES: How the hell am I supposed to make this stuff work together?





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