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Tag: stb

  • Deal With Broadcom Brings Chumby's Widgets To HDTVs


    Widget company chumby’s media Internet platform is to start appearing on HDTVs, set-top-boxes and Blu-ray players thanks to a deal struck with Broadcom Corporation.

    The tie-up will see chumby’s interactive multimedia widgets integrated into Broadcom’s latest system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions.

    For consumers, the companies say the collaboration will deliver "cost effective, high quality and personalized user experiences to Internet-connected TVs".

    Effectively, it will enable viewers to use widgets to access chumby’s vast library of Internet content, as well as its offering of Internet radio streams and podcasts.

    Users will be able to customize channels of streaming Internet and view their own digital content on devices enabled by Broadcom solutions – across multiple connected screens in the home.

    Chumby’s content currently consists of over 1,000 widgets in 30 different categories ranging from news and entertainment to videos, music, and sports.

    Media partners include CBS, MTV Networks, The New York Times, Pandora, The Weather Channel Interactive, AOL’s SHOUTcast and Scripps Networks.

    The two companies say the move is to satisfy increasing demand for Internet-based streaming video, music and other media content on household televisions.

    For consumer electronics manufacturers deploying chumby platform support on Internet-connected TVs, set-top boxes and Blu-ray Disc players shouldn’t involve additional cost, external components or expensive PC hardware, according to chumby.

  • 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.

  • HDTV-enabled receivers boost Pace's STB shipments

    “HD is the flavour for just about everyone…there is a big trend upwards towards HDTV”

    Pace CEO Neil Gaydon


    UK set-top box specialist Pace saw box shipments rise 55 per cent in the first half of this year with HDTV-enabled receivers with built-in hard drives fuelling the growth.

    Volumes rose from 1.8 million in the half-year to December 1 2007 to 2.8 million units to June 30. The additional shipments helped push revenues forward 22 per cent to £231m (£190m to Dec 1 2007).

    They also signalled a reversal of fortune at its French operation, which in the half-year moved from an anticipated loss, to profit of £2.1m.

    Despite the inevitable squeezes on factory-gate prices Pace’s operating margins were up marginally from 20.7 to 21 per cent.

    The performance helped profits (before tax and exceptionals) rise from £10.6m (half-year to Dec 1 2007) to £11.2m this year.

    The company says it is now working with 17 of the world’s top 25 pay-TV operators, and reported a CAGR of its HD-PVR shipments up 49%.

    Pace CEO Neil Gaydon said the company had made strong progress in the first half, building on the performance momentum it has created over the last three years.

    “We launched ten new high definition products with customers around the world and improved the overall performance across the group,” he said.

    “The business is in good shape to capitalise on growth in our core set-top box business, new markets and new technologies as the world embraces the wide range of digital TV solutions.”

  • Glorious HDTV – no strings attached

    Belkin announces wireless HD transmitter that gives 1080p resolution to any HDTV in the home

    It seems such a shame to have a wonderful sleek new HDTV only to be restricted in where you can place – or suffer an unsightly trail of cable and clutter.

    Now Belkin have come up with a solution – albeit at a price – that wirelessly connects devices such as Blu-ray players, receivers, video-game consoles, and set-top boxes to HDTVs and projectors, transmitting a high-definition 1080p True Cinema picture resolution.

    The FlyWire wireless HDMI hub, which uses the 5GHz band to output a full 1080p signal, cost US$999.99 for the full version, which can broadcast around a typical home.

    There’s also a smaller single-room alternative – the FlyWire R1 – which comes in at US$699.99.
    Hanoz Gandhi, VP of Products for Belkin, said the device the limitations as to where HDTVs can be placed and a room littered with cables.

    The company says that as FlyWire does not compress video, it transmits content without lag – definitely a must for gaming.
    FlyWire’s SD card slot also allows for upgrade and expansion options.

    Inputs include three HDMI, two component and one composite. There is also an HDMI output.
    It automatically finds a clear channel to operate on, so minimising interference with other wireless devices.
    FlyWire will be available this October, with the R1 expected in early 2009. UK availability and pricing is still to be announced.

  • Cable operators will continue to shoulder the cost of STBs unless testing is adopted to ensure all devices work in all cable systems.


    A retail market for tru2way compliant set-top boxes (STBs) in the US will never emerge unless they are portable across cable systems.
    That’s the conclusion of Steve Wilson, principal analyst with ABI Research, who expects the biggest challenge to tru2way to be interoperability.
    The 1996 Telecommunications Act required cable operators to open up their specifications to create a more competitive market in the United States.
    The result was OCAP, the Open Cable Applications Platform, recently rebranded “tru2way”.
    Any device with a tru2way compliant receiver can receive premium cable TV programming on any operator’s network with the appropriate CableCARD.
    This means any STB vendor can build a tru2way-compliant device and compete for cable operators’ business, and CE manufacturers can embed them in TV’s or other devices for retail.
    In his research brief, “The Outlook for tru2way”, Wilson describes it as a “double-edged sword” for operators.
    “On one hand, cable operators want to ‘own’ the customer’s entire user experience and they aren’t ready to allow others to start loading applications into the STB,” he said.
    “On the other, an open cable standard will reduce the tremendous cost burden custom systems and STBs place on the entire cable business.”
    Wilson says operators are finally starting to deploy tru2way STBs and estimates that in 2013 about half of all US cable subscribers will have a tru2way STB.
    But he goes on to warn that to achieve this many industry-political obstacles and interoperability challenges must be overcome along the way.
    “There’s no real interoperability testing, and no industry group focused on making sure that all the devices brought to market will work in all cable systems,” he said.
    “If applications and devices aren’t portable across cable systems, a retail market will never appear and operators will continue to carry the burden of STBs.”