Crave

Netflix's consumer survey has brought hope to PS3 owners with Netflix subscriptions.

(Credit: Engadget)

In recent days, rumors have been percolating about the PlayStation 3 getting Netflix streaming video support. Most of the rumors revolve around a survey that Netflix has out gauging user interest in adding its service to Sony's game console for a fee. No one seems to know whether Netflix or Sony commissioned the survey, but either way, it's certainly raised hopes with PS3 owners that they would get something that Xbox 360 owners have had for a while. (For what it's worth, nearly identical rumors of Netflix on the Wii have also been making the rounds.)

Interestingly, as the rumors make their way around the blogosphere, Sony's been trying to promote how robust its PlayStation Network Service (PSN) is and how great a media extender the PS3 is. A few weeks ago, a few of us from CNET spent some time visiting with Sony PR and marketing reps in a hotel suite going over what PSN had to offer, including Home, Sony's online virtual community that's hit 5 million registered users. And just yesterday, I got a voice mail from a PR rep encouraging me to do a story on what a great media extender the PS3 is.

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(Credit: Boxee)

Boxee is expanding its content and potential audience.

The free software that streams Web content directly to the TV has added ABC to its arsenal of content providers. Boxee already offers access to Hulu, Joost, YouTube, Netflix, and CBS (parent company of CNET publisher CBS Interactive).

The software is publicly available to Mac, Linux, and Apple TV users. Windows users can join too, but they have to ask for an invite, as that version is now a private alpha release.

Boxee says 200,000 Mac, Linux, and Apple TV users signed up as of early January.

Roku's November 13 note to customers asking them for help determining the cause of a dramatic decline in video quality.

(Credit: Roku)

The Netflix Player by Roku, which enables owners to watch streaming Web video on their TV sets, has received plenty of applause from pundits and owners since debuting last May. But the box now faces its first major challenge.

Customers from around the country have been "experiencing inexplicable loss of video-streaming quality," for at least three weeks according to Roku's engineers, who have posted comments at the company's Web forums. Device owners have posted complaints to the same forums about receiving less than half of the video quality they've had in the past. One user told CNET that the video stream is now "unwatchable."

Tim Twerdahl, vice president of consumer products at Roku, told CNET News on Monday that the company is still unsure about what exactly triggered the problem, but he said indications are it originated at Netflix. Twerdahl added that the problem likely affects Netflix's other boxes as well as Roku's player.

"All we know is Roku didn't make any changes," Twerdahl said. "This is not a box problem. We know from some reports that this seems to be correlated with a change in Netflix's content distribution network (CDN), and Netflix is trying to figure out what the issue is."

(Credit: DLNA)

Vudu, Amazon's Video on Demand, and Netflix's instant-streaming service--what do they all have in common? They're Internet-based video-streaming services, and they also charge a fee. But, what if you already own an extensive DVD or Blu-ray collection and don't want to "rebuy" them, but want the benefits of streaming, i.e. accessibility, potentially better picture quality, and physical ownership of your movie collection? In this post we'll compare those pay services versus a do-it-yourself streaming media solution.

The Participatory Culture Foundation's universal video player has finally left the development world with its first non-beta release, Miro 1.0 for Windows, Mac, and Linux. There are very few changes to distinguish this version from the previous beta versions that have come out in the past two months. Beside the fact that you can now delete a video while it's playing with impunity, all the changes are minor bug fixes to sort out stability concerns and other small tweaks.

The biggest crash issue that was fixed on the Windows version was a bug where video thumbnail regeneration was causing the app to die. Another problem, where the Avast antivirus program was incorrectly flagging the Miro beta as spyware, seems to have been resolved, too.

Poised to become the ultimate desktop video app, Miro handles every major video format we tried, including MPEG, Quicktime, AVI, H.264, Divx, Windows Media, Flash Video, 3GP, and others. It downloads torrents and has a wealth of settings geared for user customization: You can e-mail videos, auto-delete, auto-download, set favorites, organize your video collection, and more. Also, by arranging content feeds into "channels," Miro has shown that there's no need to reinvent television terminology when it's useful.

With most of the stability issues resolved, Miro has jumped from a good idea with unfortunate usage problems to one of the strongest desktop user experiences combining the influx of Web-based video content with an open-source sensibility.

Miro is a repository of free video programming, similar to Joost. It also might tell this fur seal where its bucket lies.

(Credit: Participatory Culture Foundation)

Don't look now, but the so-called clown company may get the last laugh.

Sure, Hulu.com is still saddled with a silly name. The video site started by NBC Universal and News Corp. also isn't packaged very well, and offers too few shows and too little to do outside of watching video.

But a review of a test version of Hulu, which launched Monday, reveals that Hulu nailed the basics. Fans of The Simpsons, Bionic Woman, or My Name is Earl can go to the site, click on a couple of links, and watch the TV shows in their entirety. The images are clear, free of any of the aggravations that sometimes plague streaming video, such as stalled pictures or pixilated images.

One thing is for sure: watching full-length episodes of Heroes and King of the Hill at Hulu is far superior viewing experience than watching grainy, five-minute clips at YouTube or other video-sharing sites.

I've heard all the reasons skeptics give on why Hulu is destined to fail. Big media companies simply don't get the Web. YouTube has all the users, most of whom aren't interested in watching long-form content online. The networks are better off allowing YouTube to promote their shows to a whole new generation. In the months leading up to Hulu's launch, critics and YouTube employees began calling the joint venture "the clown company."

Nonetheless, NBC and companies like Viacom have insisted on controlling their own material and distributing their shows online themselves.

Delivering high-quality images free of charge and providing simple site navigation is all mainstream TV fans need. They won't care that NBC decided last week to stop posting promotional clips on YouTube. They care about watching their favorite shows. They will go wherever they can do that; at Hulu.com or at any of the partner sites that have agreed to distribute Hulu's material, such as MSN, Yahoo, and AOL.

To be sure, Hulu needs work. The site featured a bare bones look, just a laundry list of show titles and thumbnails. Click on a link and a video player appears. Below the player are links to other recent episodes. Right off the bat, I felt myself wishing they offered shows from previous seasons. If you've never watched Heroes before, a show with lots of characters and subplots, good luck trying to get caught up on Hulu.com.

I also couldn't find any shows with commercials in them, and ads could go a long way toward spoiling the viewing experience if they're too intrusive. The good news for Hulu is that advertisers should love the service. They've been working with video for decades on broadcast TV. TV shows, not three-minute clips, are what advertisers understand.

The site could use some fan reviews or message boards, as well as a way to bone up on a show's plot and back story. Most importantly, Hulu need more shows. If the site is to become a true online video powerhouse, it has to offer content from CBS, ABC, and HBO.

Winning over those rivals won't be easy, but it could be vital to Hulu's success.

Compared to the iPod and iPhone, the Apple TV's gotten a tepid response.

(Credit: CNET)

It's been online for a few days now, but I just spotted (via PaidContent) Forbes' article titled The iFlop (subhead: "Steve Jobs tried to design--and dictate--the future of television. Here's how he failed.") Author Scott Woolley calls the Apple TV "a flat-out" failure, claiming that it's sold less than 250,000 units in six months. Among the supposed sins of the product: the lack of a built-in DVR and a "parochial and proprietary approach" to online video content. He also highlights a variety of on-demand video competitors, including Vudu, TiVo (via Amazon Unbox), and Xbox 360 (which offers rentals and sales of TV shows via the Xbox Live Marketplace)--while glossing over many of their shortcomings. Still, is he right? Is the Apple TV dead in the water?

Spears in happier times.

(Credit: Ellen von Unwerth/Jive Records 2007)

Rising up out of the chaos and career collapse that was Britney Spears' performance on Sunday are MTV's traffic numbers.

The cable channel's Video Music Awards were bad for Britney but a boon for Viacom, MTV's parent company. Users flocked to MTV.com to watch Spears' on-stage misadventures.

On Sunday, MTV.com saw 2.6 million visitors log on, a tally that smashed the site's previous record for daily Web site traffic. The site also delivered 7 million video streams on Monday as of 3:30 p.m. ET, which topped its previous best day of 6.7 million.

In a spectacle that will likely serve as an entertainment-industry cautionary tale, Spears kicked off the VMA awards with an underwhelming dance and song performance. The event was supposed to breath life back into the star's flagging career but likely fell far short of that goal.

The pudgy Spears, dressed in black bikini, flubbed her song-and-dance number by forgetting words to music she was only required to lip sync. She also lumbered across the stage with uninspired "dance" moves.

The Bravia Internet Video Link, available in June for $300, snaps onto the rear of compatible Sony TVs.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

We first reported on and picked apart Sony's Bravia Internet Link, or B.I.L., at CES 2007 in January, but the company took until now to officially divulge pricing and availability details. The module, which is compatible with the company's 2007 LCD rear-projection and flat-panel HDTVs also announced today, will retail for $300 and ship in June. The Link enables the TV to browse a closed garden of Sony-sanctioned delights (or a Pan's Labyrinth, depending on your point of view) that consists of "Internet video content, including high-definition programming, from providers like AOL, Yahoo! and Grouper, as well as Sony Pictures Entertainment and Sony BMG Music," according to the press release. As we mentioned at CES, it has some tough competition.