One of the biggest challenges in the world of streaming media is available bandwidth. While most of that bandwidth is consumed by video, it does not lessen the importance of audio to create an immersive home theater experience. To help achieve that experience, Dolby announced enhancements to its Dolby Digital Plus surround sound codec....
Amazon Instant Video and its Prime streaming service are now available on the Sony Playstation3 (via Joystiq). Quite a surprise as the scuttlebutt was that Amazon Instant Video was due next on the Xbox (you can already stream downloaded Amazon video from your PC to the Xbox). The move shows that Amazon is serious about winning the ecosystem...
The video streaming comparison has been updated for the first quarter of 2012! The chart compares paid premium video streaming services including Amazon Instant Video (and Prime), Hulu Plus, iTunes, Netflix and VUDU. Besides contrasting the features and capabilities of the services, the matrix also shows how many movies and TV shows were available on each...
MG Siegler recently penned a piece called, “The New Apple TV Will Finish What The Mac Started: Killing Off Discs“. Not so fast MG! While the Apple TV is easy to use and provides a great overall user experience, there’s several barriers to it or any connected device or platform killing off Blu-ray. Yes, this...
This past weekend, Roku announced and pushed out a new firmware update, version 4.3 build 1057, to all Roku 2 and Roku LT boxes. The update primarily focused on the Netflix channel. Audio-video sync issues for Dolby Digital Plus titles were fixed. There were also performance enhancements to screen navigation and the time it takes...
While the new 2012 Panasonic DMP-BDT220 is an entry level 3D Blu-ray player, don’t lower your expectations. This model packs in an impressive set of features at a $150 suggested retail price ($135 at Amazon). It also shares the same internals for audio and video processing as the more expensive DMP-BDT320 and DMP-BDT500. However,...
What is the best Netflix device for the big screen in your house? With over 700 hundred different devices to chose from, shouldn’t it be easy to find the one offering the best Netflix experience? By the end of 2011, the Roku 2 XS had become my go-to-device for watching Netflix in the living...
Netflix has introduced a new user interface interface geared towards kids on the Sony Playstation 3. As first reported by Hacking Netflix, the new interface is now a choice when you start Netflix on the PS3. “Just for Kids” only shows selected movies and TV shows suitable for children. In another words, you won’t...
Apple appears to have included Ultraviolet-like functionality with the latest Apple TV upgrade. Not only did Apple introduce a new Apple TV today, it also rolled out an upgrade to the current Apple TV 2s. Both the existing and new Apple TVs will share the same upgraded interface. Besides the new look and feel,...
Apple announced the newest version of its Apple TV set-top box today. Wasting no time, the new Apple TV was announced at beginning of the iPad launch event. It looks like it simply keep the name “Apple TV”. As I speculated several weeks ago, it’s an incremental refresh. The new Apple TV sports a...
Netflix recently touted their progress in captioning TV shows and movies on their streaming service: In mid December, we reached our captioning goal for 2011, when more than 80% of the hours streamed in the US were of content with captions or subtitles available. Thanks to hard work from our captioning team, we made...
2012 CES Coverage