LG Electronics announced they’d be bringing Netflix to their Blu-ray players just in time for CES 2008. That support shipped in the form of the BD300, announced in July and shipped in the fall. Now, just in time for CES 2009, LG is announcing their next additions – CinemaNow and YouTube. YouTube seems like an obvious move, it is showing up on just about every connected device out there. Pretty soon I think YouTube will just be a default feature on any networked device, which should make Google happy.

But the real interesting addition here is CinemaNow, and not so much that it is being added but how it is being added. CinemaNow will be streaming to the Blu-ray players. That’s very interesting – as far as I’m aware this is the first indication we’ve had that CinemaNow was adding streaming support to their content. To date CinemaNow has been all download-based, not streaming, including on TiVo. Right now on TiVo only Disney content is available from CinemaNow, but it has been stated that additional content would be added. Since TiVo supports streaming, as used by YouTube and Netflix, I have to wonder if CinemaNow content will also be available via streaming on TiVo.

In general we’re certainly going to be seeing more of this kind of thing, adding content sources to devices to make them multi-function. Just to support Blu-ray content and to comply with the BD-Live specification a Blu-ray player has to be capable of decoding MPEG-2, H.264, and VC-1 video in high definition, as well as handing a number of audio formats. The hardware used to do this is more than capable of handling most online video formats. BD-Live requires an Ethernet connection and 1GB of local storage, which is plenty to handle streaming buffers. And the BD-J programming environment allows for complex applications. It makes a lot of sense for Blu-ray players to pick up additional features like streaming video to make them more competitive and appealing to consumers.

Press release:

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TiVo has added yet another channel to TiVoCast, The Health Channel from AnswersTV.

Our new Health Channel is your comprehensive and trusted guide to everything health.

Broadcast exclusively in HD and available on demand, AnswersTV Health gives you hours of original programming that informs and enlightens through expert advice and compelling personal stories.

AnswersTV has an interesting mix of content, I wonder if we’ll be seeing more of their channels soon:

AnswersTV is the first High Definition Interactive Television Network comprised exclusively of originally produced, broadcast-quality interactive programming.

AnswersTV’s lifestyle programming currently includes Health, Food, Magic, Wine, Pet, Jewelry and Automotive programming. This broad line-up of clearly focused channels educates, informs, engages and entertains highly targeted audiences – on demand.

In addition to TiVoCast the AnswersTV content is available through partners such as Cablevision’s Video On Demand service, Stephens Media Newspaper websites and the Chicago Sun Times.

Subscribe online or on your TiVo via TiVo Central -> Video on Demand -> Browse free videos -> All -> AnswersTV Health

Amazon VOD is running some specials for your movie downloading pleasure over the holidays. First up there are four rentals available for just $0.99: Fred Claus, Love Actually, Night at the Museum, and Space Chimps. Also, Tropic Thunder is only $2.99.

They also have 64 movies on sale, to own not rent, for just $5.99. You can probably find something in that assortment that you’d like to own.

Another new selection has popped up on TiVoCast, Ocean Force, the second offering from truTV.

It’s real hard-driving action direct from some of the world’s most beautiful, and sometimes most dangerous, beaches. Handling everything from drunken brawls to dangerous open water rescues, see why life’s a beach for the lifeguards who never stop working to make playtime safe.

Subscribe online or on your TiVo via TiVo Central -> Video on Demand -> Browse free videos -> All -> Ocean Force (also truTV -> Ocean Force)

And I found something else which may indicate a new channel soon to land. Over at The Real News Network this page states:

We also have a contract with TiVo that puts The Real News channel in one million households across the USA.

I don’t recognize The Real News channel as one of the existing TiVoCast channels, and that sure sounds like TiVoCast to me. So this may be a channel soon to land on TiVo.

I can’t believe an entire week passed since my last post, well, until the wave of posts I just made. After being offline for three days I was behind on everything, just as things got very busy with work. I’m running three beta programs for Sling, two of which end today (announcement pending) and the third is the BlackBerry beta – which you may have seen that we’re going to public beta on 12/30. It has been one thing after another and the next thing I knew a week had passed…

And during that week TiVo has added a bunch of content to TiVoCast. Let’s dive right in.

Beauty TV describes themselves as:

Welcome to Beauty TV®, the world’s only 24/7 Beauty TV Network and soon a daily syndicated TV show. In order to launch The Beauty TV Network (BTVN), the company has assembled a team with former professionals from the beauty, technology & film industry, Sony, “E!” and EXTRA.

Subscribe online or on your TiVo via TiVo Central -> Video on Demand -> Browse free videos -> All -> Beauty TV

Beyond the Trailer is from Indy Mogul, which has had its own TiVoCast channel since August, 2007. BTT’s blurb is:

First impressions are important – but they can also be deceiving! Nobody sells quite like Hollywood. That’s why it’s important to go “Beyond The Trailer”! Host Grace Randolph covers industry expectations, behind the scenes gossip, and audience reactions so you get the ultimate profile on the latest movies.

Subscribe online or on your TiVo via TiVo Central -> Video on Demand -> Browse free videos -> All -> Beyond the Trailer

KoldCast also joined the lineup, after the news broke earlier this month. KoldCast describes themselves, in part, thusly:

KoldCast is seriously selective about entertainment programming. While YouTube-style videos are often entertaining, and you’ll see some of the very best here, we are confident that you’ll also enjoy watching the very best shows, movies, extreme sports, comedy, music, and no-BS news, all produced at the next level.

KoldCast adds a number of channels to TiVoCast. KoldCast Action Sports currently has one channel. TiVo Central -> Video on Demand -> Browse free videos -> All -> KoldCast Action Sports

KoldCast Comedy has four sub-channels: duder, The In-Betweens of Holly Malone, Poor Paul, and The Sexually. Oddly, the entire KoldCast Comedy lineup seems to be missing from the TiVoCast web page, so you’ll have to sign up on the TiVo: TiVo Central -> Video on Demand -> Browse free videos -> All -> KoldCast Comedy

KoldCast Music currently has two sub-channels, Let It Be Heard and Gemini Rising. TiVo Central -> Video on Demand -> Browse free videos -> All -> KoldCast Music

KoldCast SciFi and Horror also has two sub-channels, TV Face and After Judgment. TiVo Central -> Video on Demand -> Browse free videos -> All -> KoldCast SciFi and Horror (BTW, TiVo has misspelled it as ‘After Judgement’ both online and on the TiVo interface.)

MommyCast is a departure from the above:

MommyCast.com is a unique online audio company by and for women immersed in the fullness of motherhood and life, “holding the world together, one child at a time.”©
MommyCast.com is first and foremost about moms and motherhood, and our shows offer great interviews with thought leaders on the subjects of:
• community
• health issues
• new products for the home
• travel
• food and nutrition
• technology and new music: MommyCast Music Show
• education
• helpful hints, shortcuts and diversions.

So very much not for me. I’m a single guy who doesn’t want kids, and isn’t a big fan of them in general in anything by small doses. But I have friends with kids and TiVo who may be interested.

Subscribe online or on your TiVo via TiVo Central -> Video on Demand -> Browse free videos -> All -> MommyCast

And that’s what has been added this week. Looking back at last week’s post I’ve watched the four available episodes of jPod -and I quite like it. I’m looking forward to more downloads. I looked it up, looks like it is a failed TV series out of Canada with 13 episodes total.

truTV is still limited to just REHAB for content, I wonder when we’ll start to see more content as promised.

I noticed the aspect ratio on some of the podcasts this week seemed to be improved, but I’m still seeing too much 16:9 content squished into 4:3 encodes. Like I said last week, I know full-screen 16:9 encodes are possible, some podcasts do it right, so let’s see more of it. All of the Revision3 shows are 16:9 and nicely encoded – but they’re completely windowboxed, full-screen would be nice.

Also, it looks like 3 Minute Ad Age was glitching again. For most of the week I got two of every episode, but at the end of the week it seemed to correct itself. Hopefully that will stick.

Sorry for the lack of posts the past few days. I live in Worcester, MA, specifically in the Greendale neighborhood, one of the areas hardest hit by the recent ice storm. I lost power around 02:00 Friday and got it back around 18:00 Sunday, so I’m still playing catch-up with work and things in general. Getting back into it now…

So anyway, sometime in the past few days it looks like TiVo has added some new content to TiVoCast. First up, ComplexVideo.com. This entry is actually a menu unto itself with five individual channels:

• Hot Complex
• Complex Individuals
• Complex Music
• Complex Shopping Network
• Complex Style

The site is described as:

Complex Video brings the pages of “The Ultimate Buyer’s Guide For Men” to life with unique programming that spans all aspects of the young man’s world.

* Intimate Moments With The Worlds Most Beautiful Women
* Hilarious Pop Culture Parodies
* Offbeat Skits With Rappers and Celebrities
* Insider Analysis Of Men’s Style, From Designer Profiles To Sneaker Tips

ComplexVideo.com is part of the Complex Media Network, which describes itself as:

COMPLEX MEDIA NETWORK is the premier online destination for the most influential 20-something male consumers. This discerning audience is driven by style, sports, music, games, gear and girls. The Complex Media Network reaches these style-makers and trend-spreaders through its uniquely credible and authentic viewpoint into all things Complex.

Subscribe online or on your TiVo via TiVo Central -> Video on Demand -> Browse free videos -> All -> ComplexVideo.com

Next up is MOTORZ, which self-describes as:

MOTORZ (pronounced “motors”) is the DIY show for automotive enthusiasts who love to work on their rides. Host Chris Duke shows you how to install aftermarket products step-by-step in layman’s terms, in a typical garage setting, using common tools.

I’m kind of disturbed that they felt their name needed a pronunciation guide. How else would you say it? Motor-Zee? (Or Motor-Zed for some of you.) Like Mazinger Z?

Subscribe online or on your TiVo via TiVo Central -> Video on Demand -> Browse free videos -> All -> MOTORZ

And, finally, TheWB.com has added another channel to their selection, jPod.

Based on Douglas Coupland’s bestseller, jPod follows Ethan Jarlewski and his video game programmer friends as they work in the bowels of Neotronic Arts, all while battling with new bosses, marijuana-farming parents, old exes and more.

This is a full-length episode series. There are four episodes up now and each is roughly 46 minutes long, about the same as the show content in an hour of broadcast television. I like to see this, I’d love to see more full-length content available via broadband subscriptions on TiVo. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to subscribe to a series on Hulu and have it download automatically to be waiting on your TiVo?

Subscribe online or on your TiVo via TiVo Central -> Video on Demand -> Browse free videos -> All -> TheWB.com -> jPod

While I’m talking about TiVoCast, I have a pet peeve. Some of the TiVoCasts have figured out full-screen 16:9 encoding very nicely. For example, Fast Lane Daily. It plays, as-is, full screen on my 16:9 HDTV. Some other TiVoCasts have gotten the 16:9 thing down, but don’t seem to know how to encode for full screen – pretty much everything from Revision3 is in this category. It is annoying, but it still looks pretty good.

But then there are some who are obviously shooting in 16:9, but are encoding in 4:3! So by default everything looks squished in from the sides. DL.TV does this. And, worst of all, TiVo’s own The Badoop Badoop Show does this! C’mon guys, this is your own system! It is clearly possibly to encode things well for the Series3 & TiVo HD users, Fast Lane Daily does it. TiVo’s own TiVoCast channels should be the reference quality standard. And, honestly, while I enjoy the content, they just don’t look very good. Not only is the aspect ratio wrong (yes, you can use ‘Full’ aspect on the TiVo to stretch it back out, but you shouldn’t have to) but the encoding looks like you’re literally using your YouTube encode on the TiVo.

I’d still like to see true HD TiVoCast content, but a nice first-step would be to encode 16:9 full screen – like FLD does.

It looks like TiVo has picked up another content partner for TiVoCast. Tubefilter News is reporting that KoldCast TV has partnered with TiVo to bring their original web series to TiVoCast. They claim that it’ll start with ten of their programs hitting by the end of next week. KoldCast TV is home to a number of original series such as The Midwest Teen Sex Show, Poor Paul and After Judgment. Nice to see more original content coming to TiVo.

Yeah, TiVomino’s is a neologism I just made up, deal with it. Anyway, this shouldn’t be a surprise. First it was announced that pizza ordering would be coming to Australian TiVos. And then Domino’s Pizza ordering was announced for the US. So if you can put 2+2 together, it should be obvious what I’m coming to – the pizza ordering in Australia will also be Domino’s. At least that’s what the Sydney Morning Herald is reporting Hybrid TV Services, the Australian distributor of TiVo, is now saying.

Blockbuster has teamed with Microsoft to bring digital video to mobile devices using Microsoft’s Live Mesh technology. It sounds like this will still be a download service and not streaming, based on the suggested use case of buying content from an airport kiosk to sync to a mobile device to use while traveling. Though you might think otherwise from this quote:

“Eventually, we’ll give customers instant access to any movie on any device with an internet connection and a screen,” vowed Blockbuster Chief Information Officer Keith Morrow in an interview with the Dallas Morning News.

When I read “instant access to any movie on any device with an Internet connection and a screen” my first thought is instant streaming access, not download to watch. But that’s marketing spin for you.

Picked up from MarketingVOX.

Blip.tv has partnered with TiVo to bring their web series to the TV screen. Blip.tv hosts a great deal of original content and makes it available through a variety of channels and in several formats. According to Advertising Age, Blip.tv will now be bringing their content to TiVo users via broadband connections. The deal will allow Blip.tv to rotate their top shows through the TiVo, letting them determine which of their shows perform best on TV. It sounds to me like the content will be delivered via TiVoCast.