Wow. The rumor was true. Wal-mart is indeed acquiring Vudu. Given their prior failed attempt at digital media distribution and MediaMemo’s way-off financing stat, I had a difficult time buying it. But the deal is done – so congrats to the Vudu team.

Vudu’s story arc is interesting. From the beginning, and like many, I found the idea of a premium priced, dedicated movie box problematic. And suspected we had another Moviebeam on our hands as Vudu nearly folded late in 2008 when they discovered what most of us already knew. But after a few rounds of layoffs, a new strategy to port the Vudu experience to 3rd party hardware, a press relations agency upgrade, and additional financing, they quite successfully weathered the storm.

With Best Buy embracing TiVo and Napster it sort of makes sense Wal-mart would want a digital distribution partner of their own. Although the investors recouped their cash, consumers probably aren’t the big winner here. I fully expect Vudu’s AVN channel will be the first thing axed. And Dan Rayburn anticipates the whole enterprise, under Walmart’s stewardship, will fail.

I do hope the original stand-alone boxes see one more software upgrade to move them off P2P distribution and onto the CDN in use by all other Vudu devices. Rather than a complete shuttering. Also, in light of the acquisition, my plan to find a deal on a LG BD390 is on hold.

HBO Go finally made it out of beta this week. And like EpixHD, the online video service requires a television subscription in order to access their web-based content. And FiOS customers with HBO are up first. Both EngadgetHD and NewTeeVee have taken HBO Go for a spin and came away relatively pleased with the Flash video quality. However, the movie selection (as opposed to original television programming) appears lacking. However, I’d much rather have fewer good, current selections than tons of mediocre, older flicks. But there’s a reason why we don’t see much of that from services like Netflix instant streaming… $$$.

So while I doubt we’ll see a large library of all-you-can-eat blockbuster films anytime soon, what I’d like out of Netflix is a weekly feature. Just ONE tent pole flick a week added to their instant streaming package that we can schedule movie night around. Of course, they don’t necessarily need to stop there… and are hopefully considering several new releases as part of a premium streaming tier to take HBO (and my cable provider) out altogether. As I doubt HBO will embrace the new reality and allow purely web-based video subscriptions.

Having piloted their “personal TV service” in Los Angeles since November, Sezmi is formally launching into the LA market today via local Best Buy outposts.

Last month at CES, I finally got a look at their product… which pulls together local other-the-air (OTA) programming, premium programming (such as CNN and SyFy) simulcast OTA in select markets, and Internet-sourced content including CinemaNow VOD and YouTube. Their vision is solid, and more holistic than most, likely embodying the future of home entertainment by aggregating multiple content sources within a personalized presentation for each family member (or housemate).

But, based on several beta testimonials, Sezmi’s initial implementation appeared somewhat lacking — typical of many new products. Fortunately, as co-founder and president Phil Wiser shared with ZNF, “We learned a great deal from our pilot customers and rapidly incorporated a variety of changes as a result. We improved the performance of the user interface, included a full screen live TV guide and added in significant reception and signal quality improvements.” He also mentioned the great success of user self installation during the pilot, in terms of ease and efficiency. Something I can definitely get behind after a number of inefficient and frustrating CableCARD install experiences.

The Sezmi package, which consists of a media reciever/DVR, smart array antenna, and remote, runs $300. But a service subscription is also required. $5/month gets you guide data for the locals, access to online content, and the like. Whereas Sezmi Select Plus provides access to the OTA “cable” programming, along with the base service, for $20/mo. Obviously Los Angeles is the first market lit up with premium over-the-air content, via locally licensed spectrum. However, those living on the bleeding edge could possibly order Sezmi online from Best Buy now and activate the lower service tier anywhere else in the US. Until Sezmi officially rolls out nationwide late this spring.

Click to enlarge:

CNET got a look at Netflix’s 2010 roadmap… And we can expect both 5.1 surround sound and closed captioning from their streaming service in 2010. Depending upon who you are, these are both very meaningful developments. Which will hopefully complement better (newer, mainstream) movie content. Yes, I’m willing to pay more for premium content. Bring it. CNET’s original report also mentioned that video quality would be bumped from 720p to 1080p, but Netflix says that’s not in the cards this year.

CableLabs is holding its Winter Conference this week featuring, among other activities, an Innovation Showcase. To bring a little buzz to the event, CableLabs hosted a short media teleconference yesterday announcing the winner of Best Product Idea among the Showcase participants. Jinni got the nod from conference attendees for its “next-gen guide” including personalization features and an emotion-driven recommendation engine. (Test out the concept yourself at the Jinni.com website.) According to the Jinni execs on the teleconference, the company combines Web crawling with natural language processing and filters for more than 2,000 emotional attributes (witty, funny, etc.). The idea is to create a better VOD experience, and Jinni says it expects to announce operator deployments of an EBIF version of the app later this year. For back story, check out Davis’ post on the company back in January of 2009.

Beyond Jinni, Engadget HD also reported yesterday about RCDb’s Innovation entry, a technology solution that culls information from databases like IMDB and Gracenote and delivers it via tru2way to set-tops. Tru2way still hasn’t hit the retail market in any major way, but it is on the roadmap for, if not already deployed by, many of the major US cable systems.

Other companies in this year’s Innovation Showcase included Wowza Media Systems, SeaChange, Clearleap, and FourthWall Media (formerly BIAP). Separately, CableLabs also announced this week that it has completed the new EBIF I06 spec in conjunction with Canoe Ventures to support 3D technology development.

Click to zoom

While old school media types insist that content is king, when it comes to viewing said content, format and media player can make a big difference in the quality of the user experience. With new options seeming to crop up every day, let’s take a look at a few of the most popular software media players (and video destinations) to determine which one may be best for consumers. Individual results may vary, but here are the criteria I used to evaluate each:

Format Support
With so many different formats out there, it’s important that your top media player has robust support. Since consumers shouldn’t have to scour the web to add additional functionality, I didn’t include any plugins that consumers could use to expand support. Of all the players listed, the VLC clearly won this category. Whether you’re trying to watch Quicktime movies or play a VOB file, if VLC can’t handle the codec, you probably shouldn’t be trying to play it to begin with. The clear loser in this category was the Netflix Media player. While I have no complaints about the quality of their stream, the DRM restrictions and the requirement for downloading the Silverlight plugin, makes their web player pretty limited.

Ability to Stream Online
When digital movies first arrived, you’d have to wait a couple hours for the video  to download. With the introduction of streaming media, consumers rarely have to wait more than a few seconds in order to access to that content. While most video players are able to support this functionality, I feel that Netflix is the clear winner for this category. Not only do their video streams take into account your bandwidth to reduce buffering issues, but they also seem to have the highest video quality when streaming content. The clear loser in this category was the VLC player. While technically, there are ways to use it to stream torrent files while downloading, for the most part the VLC player is best suited for offline media. (more…)

A few days ago I hooked up with the fine folks at AVerMedia to learn a little more about their upcoming USB HD DVR ($199).  This device, like the Hauppauge HD-PVR (~$200), captures HD video (up to 1080i) via component input — therefore allowing you to utilize the “analog hole” for cable and satellite television recording. My interview with AVerMedia was with Stephen Dix, VP of Sales & Marketing and Dominic Wong from engineering.  I’m really glad I had the chance to talk one-on-one with these guys as it gave me good insight into where AVerMedia is and where they plan to be going forward. And the basic takeaway from my conversation is that AVerMedia is very serious about HTPC, working towards increasing their presence in the U.S. market.

Read the rest of this entry »