Posts tagged ‘Samsung’
Re-United (and It Feels so Good): Cable and CE Go Back to the Alter
One of the (possibly) monumental announcements from CES 2011 came from the Samsung keynote address where leaders from Samsung, Comcast, and Time Warner demo-ed a Smart TV that connected directly to cable TV services through the Internet without a set-top box. That means that cable customers will be able to receive their HD channels on their tablet/iPad, smartphone and connected TV/Bluray using their home networks. Customers will also be able to access on demand movies and the content stored on their DVRs. Verizon also announced a similar service for their FiOS customers.
Anyone who has ever tried to install a CableCard might be skeptical about another Cable-CE partnership, but this time there might be more than lip service. With the explosion of connected devices and the number of tablet PCs shown at CES (estimated at 50), the cable companies are facing a “we better do it or somebody else will” scenario. Streaming video over the Internet is becoming such a commodity and CableCos have been losing customers, so this move seems to make sense as both a defensive strategy as well as an opportunity to increase subscription revenue. For MoCA, the connection to the Smart TV will likely be through the coax cable to both the broadband as well as DVRs so this would be a big boost. Wireless devices could also be supported using MoCA through MoCA-WiFi Access Points installed in rooms where a strong WiFi signal is needed. We’ll see in the next few months whether this is just CES PR or actually will result in some exciting new services for 2011.
Review: Netflix Watch Instantly
The folks over at CEPro have done a review of Netflix’s Watch Instantly service on four different devices: TiVOHD, Samsung Blu-Ray player, Roku Netflix player, and on Windows Media Center.
Continue Reading Review: Netflix Watch Instantly
Korean Firms Join to Develop New Chips
Normally bitter rivals, Samsung and LG join forces to create the next generation of semiconductor chips for televisions.
Samsung, the world’s largest maker of microchips for digital gadgets and second largest mobile phone producer, will work with LG Electronics to make global digital TV receiver chips, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said.
While SK Telecom, South Korea’s largest mobile carrier will be working on wireless chips with other chip makers.
Meanwhile SK Telecom, the country’s largest mobile carrier, will develop a wireless connectivity system-on-chip for smart phones with other chip makers, it said.
Blockbuster to Deliver its OnDemand Services to Samsung TVs
Blockbuster and Samsung have signed an agreement which will enable customers to gain access to Blockbuster’s ever growing library of digital content. Consumers will be able to access Blockbuster’s OnDemand service through Samsung HDTVs , home theater systems and Blu-ray players. If you want to connect these devices to your network/the internet, you will want to use MoCA.
via PR Newswire
Twitter (and maybe Netflix) On Your TV
More news about Samsung’s new widget enabled HDTVs that are coming out later this year with an additional twist.
Coming this summer: Two “premium” video on demand apps, which we think could be Netflix (NFLX) and either Amazon (AMZN) or Blockbuster (BBI). Samsung tells us its media player is capable of handling many popular video codecs and HD video.
This is certainly to be expected especially since the new Samsung Bluray DVD players have models with Netflix already a feature. That the TVs will be able to stream HD from the net over a MoCA link or some other home networking medium seems a logical extension.
Widgets, Connected TVs and MoCA
The Wall Street Journal did a review on the first Samsung HDTV to run the Yahoo Widget engine, one of the exciting new features for Ethernet connected TVs that will come out later this year. Widgets are mini-applications that you can run on your TV, much the same as your Electronic Program Guide, except you will eventually be able to choose the different applications you want to see:
The Yahoo Widget Engine comes preloaded on TVs with four basic widgets to start: Flickr (Yahoo’s photo service), Yahoo News, Weather and Finance. When prompted, these widgets appear in a horizontal dock along the bottom edge of the TV screen, along with Widget Gallery and Profile. (If you just want to watch TV, you can hide the widget dock easily.) Yahoo expects to offer 20 to 30 widgets within two months, and estimates that it will offer around 100 by the end of the year.
The article goes on to say that by the end of the year, Samsung will have 17 models with what they call Internet@TV:
The Samsung LED TV 7000 connects to the Web via a wired connection or by using a wireless USB device, which Samsung sells for $80. Currently, Samsung offers four models with built-in Web access, which it calls Internet@TV. By June, the company plans to offer a total of 17 models with Internet@TV. All TVs with the Widget Engine will have remote-control shortcut buttons to pull up widgets.
With all the Ethernet connected devices coming out in your living room, it’s going to be a lot more cost effective to buy one set of MoCA adapters rather than the $80 dongle for each of your gadgets. Let’s count them up HDTV + Bluray + Xbox + Sling + TiVo + ??? = A lot of wireless interference. Plus, at some time in the future these widgets will be streaming video which is when you’ll really need the speed and reliability of a wired connection.
