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Tag: set-top-box

  • Boxee and D-Link Unveil The Boxee Box

    At the Boxee Beta Unveiling event in Brooklyn, Boxee revealed that D-Link has been named first choice as the hardware partner to release a Boxee Box – Boxee branded set-top box.

    The device brings HDMI-support, WiFi, Ethernet, an SD card slot and two USB 2.0 ports. It also comes with optical audio, RCA audio and RF remote and plays any non-DRM media.

    According to the companies, the Boxee Box, which has already won a Best of Innovations award from the Computer Electronics Association, “reinterprets what TV should be, delivering all the movies, TV shows, music and photos from a user’s computer, home network and Internet to their HDTV with no PC needed.”

    The full product will be shown at CES 2010 and it is supposed to hit the store shelves in Q2 2010 for about $200.

    Boxee social media center, and its free, open source downloadable enables to stream content from websites like Netflix, MLB.TV, Comedy Central, Pandora, Last.fm, and flickr.

    Boxee is in public Alpha for Mac, Linux, and Windows. This Monday the company launched the Beta and plans to open it up to the public on Jan 7th (also at CES).

    The company say its eventual goal is to let users integrate Boxee into their existing devices (TVs, game consoles, STB, and DVD/Blu-Ray players) where possible or to buy a Boxee Box if their existing hardware can’t run it.

    After launching in June of 2008, boxee has nearly 700,000 Alpha testers. In addition, dozens of content providers have built applications for their content on Boxee and a 3rd party developer made boxee available for the Apple TV.

    In 2009, the company hopes to reach 1 million users across computers, AppleTVs, and other devices that can be connected to a television.

  • Motorola to Feature Blockbuster Movie Download Service in Next Generation Handsets

    Blockbuster, a provider of in-home movie and game entertainment, announced plans to feature the BLOCKBUSTER OnDemand movie download service in select Motorola phones. Through the agreement next generation Motorola phones will feature the OnDemand application, providing on-the-go download access to Blockbuster’s digital library of current movies.

    Earlier this year, Motorola announced it is to unveil Android powered handsets in the fourth quarter.

    Blockbuster launched a movie rental service via set-top boxes last year. It offered a STB made by 2Wire that plays downloaded movies. Renting a movie for online playback at Blockbuster generally costs between $1.99 and $3.99.

    In March this year, Blockbuster and TiVo announced that they are working to make Blockbuster’s service available on all TiVo Series2 and Series3 DVRs (including the HD and HD XL models) in the second half of 2009.

    The agreement with Motorola it’s a part of the company’s new digital strategy to provide its library of digital entertainment to mobile devices.

    "Motorola is a recognized global communications leader and extending the BLOCKBUSTER brand and our OnDemand service into their portfolio of innovative new phones is a natural extension of our digital strategy," said Kevin Lewis, Senior Vice President of Digital Entertainment for Blockbuster.

    "Mobile video entertainment is exploding, as consumers are demanding the widest selection of content: the movies they love in their living room and on their PC, now also available on their mobile phone, while on the go," added Christy Wyatt, Vice President of Software Platforms, Applications and Ecosystem of Motorola Mobile Devices.

    According to Blockbuster the agreement will also further the company’s multi-channel vision of eventually Blockbuster enabling customers to use OnDemand application with multiple consumer electronics and portable devices, such as PCs, PMPs, Blu-ray Disc players, PVRs, set-top boxes, mobile phones and Web-connected TVs, to search Blockbuster’s entire catalog of entertainment content and download available titles for rent or purchase, schedule movies for mail delivery through, or reserve titles for in-store pick-up.

  • Pace Secures Brazilian HD Set-Top Box Deal


    Pace is to provide an HD-capable set-top box to Latin America’s largest multi-service cable provider.

    Brazil’s cable operator NET Serviços de Comunicação is buying the UK firms’s new HD-capable set-top unit as part of its drive to establish a fully HD, digitised customer base.

    Márcio Carvalho, products and services director at NET said the Brazilian pay-TV market is developing rapidly.

    He said the provision of high-definition content is increasingly becoming a service expectation in the region as the market matures.

    "This new deployment will dramatically increase our HD content reach and provides us with a platform to introduce additional entertainment services for subscribers," he said.

    The low environmental impact (LEI) box uses Nagra and Open TV middleware to deliver content securely over the cable network.

    NET Serviços’ integrated services include Pay TV (NET), Digital Video (NET Digital), High Definition Digital Video (NET Digital HD), high definition DVR (NET Digital HD Max), bi-directional broadband internet access (NET Vírtua) and voice (NET Fone).

    Hervé Matthieu, vice president of sales at Pace said the deployment of its HD-capable set-top box is a step forward in driving HD penetration in the region.

  • Growth in HDTVs Driving Demand for HD STBs


    Shipments of set-top boxes are expected to peak this year, at least in mature markets, and then commence a gradual decline.

    However the rolling series of analog TV shutoffs in countries around the world, combined with the strong uptake of HDTV sets, mean that HD STBs will form a growing fraction of the total market, according to ABI Research.

    HD STBs are expected to account for about 30 per cent of all STB shipments as soon as 2010.

    Michael Inouye, ABI Research industry analyst, said this will be accompanied by a progressive movement from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 for content delivery.

    He said a growing affinity for HD boxes over SD is closely related to MPEG-4.

    "As more HDTVs find their way into homes, the demand for HD content grows in kind," he said.

    "Anticipating this demand, some countries and operators have elected to support the more efficient standard up front or to begin deployments of upgraded CPE."

    Inouye said the price points of boxes are converging.

    So much so that he said MPEG-4 and in some cases HD are getting sufficiently inexpensive that some operators will be providing them to their customers by default.

    While some STB vendors feel that demand for standard models will be around for a long time, reports from infrastructure vendors suggest a push towards MPEG-4 encoders, according to Inouye.

    So he said vendors will have to support MPEG-4.

    In markets primarily served by digital terrestrial broadcasts where most sales of STBs are retail, especially those with a large MPEG-2 installed base, this means that vendors will have to encourage consumers to switch by reducing the prices of upgraded boxes.

  • Amazon Video On Demand Brings New-Release Movies To Roku


    Roku has agreed a deal that will give its set-top box users access to Amazon’s video on demand (VOD) content.

    The agreement means owners of Roku digital video players will be able to instantly purchase, rent and watch digital movies and TV episodes from the Amazon service.

    Currently the Roku player only supports Netflix.

    Amazon’s VOD service has more than 40,000 commercial-free movies and television shows, including instant access to new release movie titles.

    Rental prices range from USD $0.99 to $3.99 per view.

    The deal with Amazon, which will kick in during Q1 2009, is part of an effort by Roku to widen its content offering.

    Tim Twerdahl, Roku’s vice president of consumer products, said Roku owners should expect more content to become available in the first half of 2009.

    “We’re looking to create an open platform for a number of different business models and content types,” he said.

    With Netflix providing a subscription-based model and Amazon a transactional one, Twerdahl said the company was now working hard to get ad-supported video on the Roku player.

  • Blockbuster Launches On-Demand Service


    Blockbuster is rising to the challenge posed by cable companies and Netflix by launching a movie rental service via set-top boxes.

    It is offering a STB made by 2Wire that plays movies downloaded over a broadband line.

    Available only in the US, Blockbuster is offering the MediaPoint digital media player for "free" if you pre-pay for 25 movies at the cost of USD $99.

    It claims the movies available will be "hot new releases".

    After the initial 25 rentals, films will be available from USD $1.99 each.

    Able to use either Wi-Fi or Ethernet, Blockbuster says the set-top box delivers DVD quality to your screen.

    Since it’s a download rather than streaming, users will get full quality even if slower internet connections mean downloads will take longer.

    It will be interesting to see how Blockbusters’ decision to avoid a monthly subscription works, especially with regard to the timing of new movie releases.

    Netflix’s service is both streaming and by subscription.

  • Set-top Box Capable of HD Content Over DVB-T2


    Pace plc, a developer of digital TV technologies, has made the first set-top box capable of receiving and displaying DVB-T2 HD content.

    The prototype consists of the world’s first DVB-T2 front-end (the silicon tuner TDA18211 and a prototype of the forthcoming demodulator TDA10055) from NXP Semiconductors and a Pace high definition terrestrial set-top box.

    It will receive a live MPEG-4 HD stream from an Enensys DVB-T2 Modulator based at the DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting) stand at the IBC 2008 show in Amsterdam, which begins on Friday.

    DVB-T2 brings efficiencies of between 30-50 per cent in its use of spectrum compared to DVB-T and is expected to be a key enabler to the roll out of high definition TV in the UK over Freeview.

    Earlier this month, the BBC succesfully received high def pictures compliant to the DVB-T2 standard using a real-time demodulator during test transmissions.

    As a set-top box developer, Pace has been involved in the creation of the DVB-T2 draft standard, focusing on key technical aspects that add to the improvement and robustness of the standard, which was only confirmed in June this year.

    Darren Fawcett, chief technologist for Wireless Systems at Pace plc said the take up of high definition services within mature TV markets was picking up speed.

    He said it was expected to grow substantially over the next five years. “But this HD content is currently in the cable and satellite domains,” he said.

    “To enable terrestrial services to compete effectively with the other platforms, DVB-T2 is an essential move.

    “As we saw with the shift to the DVB-S2 standard for satellite services, the extra efficiencies in the use of the spectrum will make the option of delivering HD via DTT viable.”

    With DVB-T2 the DVB Project offers broadcasters a means of using that spectrum in the most efficient ways possible using state of the art technology.

    The first country to deploy DVB-T2 is likely to be the UK, where ASO is already under way.

    The regulator there, Ofcom, has stated its intention to convert one nationwide multiplex to DVB-T2 with the first transmissions of multichannel HDTV set to begin at the end of 2009.

    Test transmissions began immediately after the approval of the standard in June 2008.