Looks like DivX has given up on Stage6 – it’s just too costly to operate… While they didn’t lay out exactly what those expenses are, in addition to the obvious bandwidth and hosting requirements of video, I assume policing content and the potential lawsuits (or costly licensing deals) were factors. […] the continued operation of … Read more
Demand for Hulu access was pretty high on my last post – and we managed to serve well over 50 beta invites. While I appreciate folks chipping in to help out fellow readers by giving away some of their invites, I figured it’d be more efficient to reach out directly to the Hulu team for … Read more
Apple has followed Amazon Unbox’s lead in offering weekly 99 movie rental specials. Call it a loss leader – these sales reinforce their respective movie rental service offerings. When we still had the bedroom 32″ SDTV, we often enjoyed Amazon’s discounted films via TiVo. (Though we haven’t enjoyed watching them on our HDTVs – letter … Read more
Quite a few seemed to think today would be the day Microsoft and Netflix jointly announce a (new) Xbox 360 video service at the Game Developers Conference. However, I wasn’t optomistic. And it didn’t happen. While I’d like to see a revitalized Live Marketplace and expect it’d be good for both companies, it’ll take some … Read more
Coming Soon: Apple TV v. Vudu v. Xbox 360
Yesterday’s other big news was the beta release of DVD Jon‘s DoubleTwist software – that aims to be the Swiss army knife of multimedia conversion, sharing, and syncing. The feature (rightfully) garnering the most attention is the behind-the-scenes conversion of DRM-ed iTunes into unprotected MP3s for playlist synchronization onto non-iPods. Though, being a video geek … Read more
If you happen to live near a Micro Center, swing by this month for a great deal on USB memory sticks. I picked up an 8GB model yesterday for $30, although they also have 4GB ($20, black) and 2GB ($14, blue) capacities available. These aren’t as sexy as some of the major brands and don’t … Read more
Vudu has thrown down the gauntlet… They contacted me yesterday to emphasize their “quality of HD video is better” than what Apple TV provides. The claim is based on Vudu’s resolution of up to 1080p versus Apple’s 720p. Of course, the pixel count doesn’t tell the whole story… How well are these movies compressed and … Read more