Panasonic officially announced the world’s first portable Blu-ray player today. Called the DMP-B15, it’s a full fledge Blu-ray disc player with all the bells and whistle founds on its larger counterparts. Features at a glance include an 8.9-inch WSVGA LCD, 2.5-hour rechargeable battery, BD-live functionality, VIERA CAST Internet accessibility and an SD card slot. The B15 is designed to operate as a stand alone player or can be plugged into an HDTV via an HDMI port for an at home movie experience. The built-in LAN port provides an Internet connection and allows access to VIERA CAST’s select set of websites, which includes: YouTube, Google Picasa Web Album, Bloomberg, and a weather channel. Amazon VOD will become available sometime in June. The B15 will ship later this month and cost $799.95.
Full release after the ‘leap’ …Continue reading: Panasonic Announces The DMP-B15, The World’s First Portable Blu-ray Player
The streaming set top box battle is most certainly heating up. Yesterday, Netflix announced that the Roku box is now compatible with Amazon’s Video on Demand service. Today, Zillion TV unveiled its set top box that provides streaming, on demand content in exchange for watching ads. But not just any ads. In fact, you select the ads you want to see. Don’t want ads? Then just drop some cash. I’ll go with ads, though.
Zillion TV has agreements in place with not only content creators (Disney, Universal, etc), but with ISPs, such as Comcast and Timewarner. Smart, because one of the inherent challenges that Netflix and those of the streaming type are sure to face is opposition from the ISPs who will cap and ultimately control how much bandwidth a subscriber receives, hence the whole Net Neutrality battle that has been going down.
So what is exactly Zillion TV? They’re essentially a VOD TV service. That means instead of tuning into 30 Rock (one of my favorite shows and big props to Lemon) you ‘demand it’. Simple, clean and easy. As mentioned, you’ll have to watch a preroll ad, or something to that affect, in exchange for the content. Sure, advertisers won’t get to hit you with ads every 7 minutes, but since you’ll select the ads types that you want to see they’ll be much more targeted and even better, at least for the ad companies, guaranteed to play – they’ll also be able to glean your watching habits into their ad targeting. Of note, the ISPs are now facilitating ‘ad skipping’ thanks to the millions of DVR boxes that have flooded the market so it only seems right politically savvy to offer a solution to the ‘fast forward’ button.
As for the technology behind the Zillion TV, you’re guess is good as mine. But, one very notable accessory included with the device is a motion sensing remote courtesy of Hillcrest Labs.
Currently, the Zillion TV VOD service (I think I’m coining it ‘TOD’ from here on out) boasts over 15,000 titles, which includes both movies and TV shows.
If you’d like to be notified of when the service is in your area just hit their site and sign up. I’ve got mixed feelings about the whole thing since signing onto this type of service might negate Netflix streaming. Then again, Netflix doesn’t offer live TV shows, so the Zillion TV service very well could be complimentary, assuming you exclude movies from the equation.
[ZillionTV via Newteevee]
A new Video on Demand service will be coming to the Wii console sometime in 2009, so says the folks at Nintendo. Both of the competing consoles, the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, have similar services but the Wii has the potential to trump them all with their staggering online statistic: 40% of the 35 million Wiis sold are connected to the internet. Let me emphasize, that’s 14 million potential subscribers to the online service, enough to power-up Superstar Mario into the intergalactic stratosphere of digital nirvana.
Along with this commitment, Nintendo needs to seriously address the storage situation. A measly 2GB SD card will simply not be enough to make it a viable media center. Let’s hope Nintendo addresses this issue and comes up with an elegant, intuitive, and efficient service.
Announcement in a nutshell according to Wired.com:
- Nintendo will partner with Japanese advertising giant Dentsu to create the service, which will offer videos through the Internet.
- Nintendo will start offering VOD in Japan in 2009 during a trial period at first, then it will expand to other countries.
- VOD options means it’s highly likely that a large storage accessory will be announced soon. Currently, the Wii offers 512 MB of internal flash memory storage, plus up to 2 GB-4 GB in an external SD card. That’s fine if you want to order up a few 23-minute TV shows, but something much larger will be needed for movies.
- The two companies will develop original programming for the Wii, which will be made available through the net. The company is considering developing videos for free but some (or many?) will be available for an as-yet-undisclosed fee.
[Wired.com]
