Archive for April, 2009
Disney joins Hulu | Los Angeles Times
Disney joins Hulu | Company Town | Los Angeles Times.
Recognizing that over-the-top video is gaining a bigger audience of new viewers, Disney is now offering full-length TV episodes on Hulu.com and also investing in the company.
Disney will offer full-length episodes of its most popular prime-time shows from its ABC network, including “Lost,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” and “Desperate Housewives,” as well as such cable offerings such as ABC Family’s “Secret Life of the American Teenager” and Disney Channel’s “Wizards of Waverly Place.” It will also provide older episodes from ABC’s library, such as “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” and “Dancing with the Stars.”
Viewers can now watch TV reruns from virtually all of the major networks on Hulu which is quickly gaining an audience both on the PC as well as on the TV via the Internet. With more HD video streaming through the home, the need for a MoCA home network becomes even more obvious.
MoCA Spotted at Best Buy – Internet Communications
MoCA at Best Buy
Went down to the Santana Row Best Buy in San Jose, CA and spotted the first MoCA networking kits in the computer section of the store along with the Slingbox, cable modems, and DSL modems. They hadn’t yet switched out all of the price tags so the description didn’t match the NETGEAR MCA1001 model number and price but it sure looked good on the shelf. To the left of the MoCA units are the Tivo wireless adapters so everything sort of fits together.
The Santana Row Best Buy is one of the more impressive Best Buys I’ve seen, 2 stories of electronics with all the extras even an Apple Store. If you’re looking for a pair of MoCA networking units and don’t want to wait for the UPS guy to show up, check out the Best Buy website and use Store Pickup from a local Best Buy that has them.
MoCA Now in Select Best Buy B&M Stores
NETGEAR – MoCA Ethernet Adapter Kit – MCAB1001-100NAS
MoCA networking gear is now available at select Best Buy brick-and-mortor stores across the US! The NETGEAR Coax-to-Ethernet adapter kit is being sold in flagship stores in major metros from Silicon Valley (Santana Row), San Diego (Mission Valley), Chicago (Evanston), Las Vegas, Brooklyn, Cincinnati, Dallas, Philadelphia, etc… Of course, you can also order online from BestBuy.com or punch your zip code into the site to check for a store in your area. Post a photo if you see in your local store.
“So you’d like to… Build a Multimedia Home Network” on amazon.com
Amazon.com has a “how-to” guide explaining how to use MoCA with your PS3 or other media player to download video using Vuze
“This guide is intended to help people build a Multimedia Home Network and stream HD video from the internet using Vuze on their PC, a digital media adaptor, and MoCA. This allows you to watch movies on a television while sitting on your couch rather than sitting in your home office using a laptop or desktop.
Amazon turns on HD video on demand for TiVo, Roku and others: SF Gate
Not suprisingly, Amazon just added HD videos to it’s already extensive library of TV and movie rentals that can be watched on PCs, TiVo, Media Center, and recently Roku set-top boxes. Combined with the Netflix service, this is a pretty compelling library of entertainment for even the most avid TV watchers. If the quality is anything like Netflix HD streaming, it probably won’t meet the standards for Bluray afficianados but will be good enough for day to day viewing on 720p capable HDTV sets. Inevitably, Amazon will be a service offered directly on connected HDTVs and Bluray Players so a MoCA network will make the viewing experience all the more enjoyable whatever connected device you’re using.
MoCA in a Nutshell – Netgear
Don’t understand what MoCA does? Here’s a fun and educational cartoon from Netgear that explains everything about MoCA, what is means, why you need it, and how it works. Titled “MoCA in a Nutshell”, the video takes us into a typical home where a family needs to use the home network whether it’s to watch a movie, download a file, or play video games. “MoCA in a Nutshell” shows how a MoCA network can handle all of those tasks at the same time, and even have a little more bandwidth to spare. If you’re convinced that MoCA is for your home, read more about Netgear’s MoCA products here.
MoCA Networking Making a Splash at Amazon.com
Amazon.com: Netgear MCAB1001 MoCA Coax-Ethernet Adapter Kit (Black): Electronics.
MoCA Coax-Ethernet adapters are beginning to make a splash at Amazon.com, showing why MoCA is the ideal choice for networking to the Home Theater and gaming consoles. Citing a simple set up, reliable HD streaming and low latency gaming, expect a lot more satisfied customers who are looking to add streaming digital entertainment to their homes. Both Netgear and Actiontec are now selling their MoCA products on Amazon with more products expected to come.
YouTube Announces Content Deals With Movie Studios – Internet Technology News Story – CNBC.com
As if you don’t already have enough ways to get your favorite TV shows and movies, YouTube is finally jumping into the fray. An agreement with some of the major studios now allows YouTube to legitimately show full length TV shows and movies in addition to it’s huge base of user generated content. With the growing number of High Quality and High Definition video clips already on YouTube, it was only a matter of time before the platform crossed over to mainstream media.
What does that mean for MoCA? Well, higher quality video streams require higher quality connections which bodes well for coax based networking. Whereas viewers of the classic short grainy videos didn’t really demand much in the way of quality, sitting through half hour and hours long movies and TV shows will be a different story.
D-Link DXN-221 HD MediaBridge Coax Network Starter Kit
D-Link DXN-221 HD MediaBridge Coax Network Starter Kit.
D-Link is releasing more info on their DXN-221 HD MediaBridge Coax products and even started taking orders on the D-Link Shop. For those of you just tuning in, D-Link showed their MoCA Ethernet-To-Coax adapters at the last CES but wasn’t very specific on release date. Now it looks like the product is being rolled out under the HD MediaBridge moniker to possibly complement the other streaming media products in their lineup. Along with Netgear and Actiontec, there will be quite a few choices for MoCA adapters available on the market.
Setting up a MoCA Network in your Home
How to Set Up a MoCA Home Entertainment Network
Xbox to Media Player Using MoCA
Here are a couple of HOW TO videos complements of the folks at ConnectMyStuff.org showing how you can connect your Tivo, Slingbox, and Xbox 360 together through a MoCA network. The Slingbox sends HD video to another room using the SlingCatcher and some updated software while the Tivo’s exchange recorded HD shows with each other through MoCA. The Xbox can play HD videos from a PC or NAS as well as through the Internet using Netflix. MoCA can handle up to 6 HD video streams simultaneously and requires a MoCA adapter (less than $99 each) for each of the rooms where you want a network connection. A lot easier and cheaper than running Ethernet CAT-5 through your walls and ceilings!
