A periodic roundup of relevant news… from our friends at Last100:
WD HD Media Player just works
Sometimes a seemingly complex problem requires the simplest of solutions. Case in point is Western Digital’s WD HD Media Player, which provides a near fool-proof way of watching almost any video downloaded from the Internet on the TV. Simply connect it to the television and insert a USB thumb drive or any other mass storage USB device in which your content is stored and you’re good to go.
BBC iPlayer and the Creative Zen X-Fi
The Creative Zen X-Fi has the ability to ’side load’ content downloaded from the BBC’s TV catch-up service, iPlayer. That’s because the Zen supports Windows Media DRM, needed because of the way the BBC licenses content for download so that it will only be playable seven days after broadcast.
Vudu now offering Disney HD movies for purchase on same ‘day and date’ as Blu-ray
This is the first time that Disney has broadly licensed its content in HD for sale through an online video service, beyond one-off offerings or ‘rental-only’, says Vudu. Disney chose to work with Vudu, says the company, “in large part because of the [picture] quality” offered by the service.
YouTube relaunches TV-friendly version of the site
It’s not the first time that YouTube has rolled out a version of the video sharing site designed specifically for viewing on a television but the application’s been given a polish and a new name to boot. Now called ‘YouTube XL‘ the new version of the site features a ‘ten foot’ user interface designed for viewing on a TV or large screen monitor which has the look and feel of a ‘native application’.