New At rAVe [Publications]: Streaming Heats Up As We Knew It Would

rAVe [Publications]: Streaming Heats Up As We Knew It Would

This is one of my favorite topics and I could probably expound on it all day, whether people like it or not.

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Netflix Roku Selling Like Hotcakes

Mercury News: Netflix boxes sell out

Netflix customers have snapped up all of its set-top boxes that stream movies from the Web to TVs, Chief Executive Reed Hastings said in an interview Monday.
Los Gatos-based Netflix, the largest U.S. mail-order movie service, is pressing supplier Roku to boost production, Hastings said. He wouldn't say how many of the players the company had sold. The $100 system lets customers order movies online and watch them on a television using WiFi technology.

And so it begins. A year from now, you're going to see a lot more VOD devices, and a lot fewer disc players.

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Blockbuster, Netflix Get Cracking On Digital Delivery

All kinds of interesting developments in the Digital Delivery space lately.

For a start, Blockbuster Video is gearing up downloadable video from it's website, as well as further developing the download kiosk concept.

InternetRetailer.com: Blockbuster lifts the curtain on its digital entertainment plan

Blockbuster in June will also roll out a new digital download service on Blockbuster.com using technology from its acquisition of Movielink LLC in August. “Our acquisition of Movielink provided both digital content and a distribution tool,” Keyes told analysts. “We have a new online service in beta testing now and we are planning to make it available to all customers in June. The extensive library of over 9,000 titles gives us one of the largest digital video on demand and day-date electronic sell-through libraries in the marketplace.”

At the same time, their bitter rival NetFlix has rolled up their Roku dowload box.

Crave: Look out, Apple TV: The $100 Netflix Player has arrived

With the release of the Netflix Player, subscribers need only have a wired or wireless broadband connection to access the entire Instant Viewing catalog through their TV. The full review--with hands-on video--is available at CNET Reviews. But for those who prefer to cut right to the chase, here's the short and sweet version:
We've been playing with the Netflix Player for about two weeks, and--for the most part--we found a lot to like. Setup is simple, and--if you've got a solid broadband connection--picture quality is acceptable and streaming performance was almost entirely lag-free

Baby steps, perhaps, but a good start! On a related note, I'm hearing whispers from the telecom industry that progress is being made on bridging the so-called "last mile" in residential broadband. More on that later.

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Netflix Dumps HD-DVD

No matter what I write about the format war, I get hate mail from people accusing me of being a paid anti-Blu-ray shill, and people accusing me of being a paid anti-HD-DVD shill. So make of the next item what you will:

CE Pro: Netflix to Drop HD DVD Discs, Will Only Rent Blu-ray

Netflix will stop stocking HD DVD discs by the end of the year, exclusively renting out Blu-ray movies, the company announced today. The move is a major decision for the leading online movie rental service, which until now had been promoting both formats. Netflix says that its decision is based on the fact that four of the six biggest movie studios publish on Blu-ray, arguing that the industry has picked a winner.

I for one can't wait to see how Toshiba spins this.

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