Webware

Amazon Video on Demand HD, as it appears on the Roku Digital Video Player

(Credit: Roku/Amazon)

It's been a long time in coming, but Amazon Video on Demand is finally available in high-def. Owners of TiVo HD/Series 3 DVRs, the Roku Digital Video Player, the Sony Bravia Internet Video Link, and Panasonic VieraCast TVs (and, presumably, VieraCast-enabled Blu-ray players) will be the first to enjoy Amazon's content in HD (software updates to enable HD viewing on those products should be available imminently). Likewise, Windows and Mac users will also get access to HD video content via Amazon's Web site.

As with competing services, HD movie rentals will cost $3.99 to $4.99, and TV episodes will be available for purchase for $2.99 each (HD movie purchases currently won't be available). More than 500 HD movies and TV shows will be available initially, encompassing content from most major studios, including Warner, Sony Pictures, MGM, Paramount, and Universal. TiVo is pledging that the "vast majority of titles" on its boxes will offer Dolby Digital 5.1 surround soundtracks.

CNET was able to get a sneak preview of the Amazon HD offerings on the Roku box last week. For existing users, it's a pretty seamless upgrade: new HD-specific filters for HD movies and TV shows are available, so there's no need to go hunting and pecking for high-def content.

Quality on the Roku box was very good--the 720p video is closer to that of a really good DVD, but it's definitely superior to the standard-definition content that's available. We didn't detect any major difference between the quality of Netflix and the Amazon HD offerings on the Roku, but the Amazon interface allows you to choose rentals or purchases directly from the onscreen interface, whereas Netflix requires you to manage your viewing queue via a PC.

Video delivery platform provider GridNetworks on Monday announced that it has launched its GridCast TV service, which allows content distributors to stream online video to a viewer's TV.

GridCast TV is currently capable of reaching 35 million homes across the United States, thanks to the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Internet-enabled high-definition TVs.

According to GridNetworks, the service doesn't require the use of a set-top box or any other additional hardware, but it is a CDN overlay technology that requires to two main components: software embedded into set-top boxes, as well as the installation of the Grid Network Control center on a publisher's hardware to manage videos.

So far, popular IPTV network Revision3 has started working with GridNetworks, along with IndieFlix and HavocTV.

"Our goal is to help video distributors capture more viewers, differentiate themselves from their competitors and, above all, make more money," GridNetworks CEO Tony Naughtin said in a statement. "What makes this new service different is that it combines the reach of TV with the high CPM rates associated with targeted Internet audiences."

Streaming online videos to the HDTV is the next major frontier in entertainment, but GridNetworks may be a little late. Apple has already made streaming IPTV shows to HDTVs simple, with the help of the Apple TV. That said, GridNetworks isn't tied to one product, and it wants to bring its service to other devices to expand its footprint in the market.

GridCast TV is operational now, but pricing is available only after contacting the company with inquiries.

YouTube and Picasa services are available right from the TV in Panasonic's flagship TH-PZ850U.

(Credit: Masa Fukata, Panasonic)

We detailed Panasonic's full plasma lineup earlier this year, but having just returned from a press event devoted to the flagship TH-PZ850U series, it feels incumbent to reiterate some of the cool new features of these expensive sets.

The coolest? A demo at the event proved that the 850Us can stream YouTube videos, right on the TV screen with no PC required. The TV's "Viera Cast" interface allows you to search YouTube by keyword, sort videos by popularity, or access your own list of favorite videos, for example. During the demo we were treated to a video of a laughing baby, the (no-surprise) current champ of the popularity list. According to Panasonic, the entire catalog of YouTube videos is available on the TV, although it may take a day or two for a new one on the site to appear on Viera Cast. The TV can also access Picasa, Google's photo sharing site, so you can view digital photos stored at your (or someone else's) Picasa account directly on the big screen.

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One of our biggest complaints with the Apple TV was the dearth of HD video content. The product is capable of streaming 720p high-definition video, but to date, all of the movies and TV shows at Apple's iTunes Store are encoded at a "near DVD" resolution of 480p. But HD content has finally arrived on iTunes--and it's free. The Washington Post announced today that its online HD video podcast--which is shot in 720p high-definition--will now be available through iTunes.

We downloaded the two most recent episodes of the podcast--Edwards Family Values as well as Contamination and a Crusade--to evaluate the video quality. Overall, it was a big step up from previous iTunes fare, but critical viewers will find it falls short of HD broadcasts and even most DVDs. When viewed on a 42-inch Panasonic plasma TV, the improved resolution was evident on the images of John Edwards speaking to an auditorium full of students, but false contouring and solarization artifacts were easy to pick out in the background (white walls were a prime culprit). Close-ups of Edwards' face also exhibited some swimming pixels. Likewise, the depth of field offered was good, but not comparable to what you'd find on an HD broadcast (let alone a Blu-ray or HD DVD movie).

The problem here isn't resolution but bitrate--4,061Kbps with a mono soundtrack. That's a big improvement over the 1,516Kbps encoding found on a purchased episode of The Office, but merely 40 percent of the 10Mb capacity found on a standard-definition DVD. (Apple TV maxes out at 5Mbps, or about 5,000Kbps.) Of course, the better video quality comes at the expense of file size: the Edwards video was a mere 8.5 minutes long, but the file was a rather meaty 250MB--the same size as the aforementioned 21-minute episode of The Office. In addition to the increased download time, the large file size and bitrate affects streaming performance as well. Live streaming from an 802.11g laptop to the Apple TV (via an 802.11n Belkin N1 router) did produce the occasional buffering hiccup--the source PC would need to be wired or upgraded to 11n wireless to guarantee smooth streaming--but once we synced to the Apple TV's hard drive, play was perfect.

Of course, iTunes and the Apple TV were always capable of HD streaming, but the big news here is that the HD content is available through the iTunes Store. (Previously, you needed to download the HD file--say, a high-definition trailer at Apple's Quicktime site--and then manually import it into iTunes.) Video podcasts are a nice first step, and the fact that they're free is always welcome. But we're hopeful this is a trial balloon that will signal the availability of high-definition movies and TV shows from the iTunes Store in the not too distant future.

Note: Since originally published, this blog post has been updated with hands-on analysis of the HD video performance on Apple TV.

Is it possible to have a positive Webware experience on something besides a PC? Cell phones and small handheld Internet devices don't cut it with their tiny screens and awful browsers (at least until the iPhone arrives). So what if you could use that nice bandwidth you get at home and combine it with that large HDTV sitting in your living room? That question has recently been answered with Nintendo and Sony's more recent gaming consoles: the Wii and the PS3, respectively. Microsoft's Xbox 360 doesn't have a browser, likely because of the company's failure with MSN TV several years ago. So which of these two rules the roost, and more importantly, is worth using over your three-year old PC?

The short answer is that the PS3 blows the Wii out of the water, and it offers a decent Web experience for casual browsing. Want more detail? Read on.

Before you do read more, though, note that my test setup was a 37-inch LCD HDTV that I fed with component cabling. Running either system on a standard-definition TV that's less than a 30-incher results in tiny, blurry text. And neither system comes with component cables--you must purchase them separately.

Test 1: Speed
Speed is a combination of application start-up time, page rendering, and text input.

The Wii's bookmark manager

(Credit: CNET Networks)

The PS3's browser starts up almost instantly, unlike the Wii's, which takes about 30 seconds to load up from the Wii home menu. Both browsers render pages at about the same speed, although from a user standpoint, I give a nod to the Wii's status bar, which is much more useful than the PS3's water-droplet status icon. Text input on the PS3 is cumbersome, no thanks to clumsy predictive text and a cell phone-like onscreen keypad. The saving grace is that you can use a USB or Bluetooth keyboard. The Wii has an onscreen QWERTY keyboard, which, compared to using a PS3 controller, is incredibly fast.

Winner: PS3. Waiting for a browser to load is so '90s. Nintendo missed the boat by not letting you plug a real keyboard into one of its USB ports.

Test 2: Browsing
Browsing is a combination of multiple window management, pop-up control, file format compatibility, and page navigation.

The PS3 is very nearly a tabbed browser (like Firefox and IE 7), thanks to its window mode where you can view thumbnails of all the open windows at once. The Wii has only a single-window browser, similar to Internet Explorer before version 7. What's worse, on the Wii, a rogue pop-up will take over the window, forcing you to hit the Back button, which takes you back to the page with the pop-up. This creates an endless loop that can make for controller-throwing frustration. Pop-ups on the PS3 browser show up as separate windows, which can easily be closed.

The PS3's 'window mode'

(Credit: Sony Computer Entertainment)

But as far as file formats go, the Wii has the edge. My test machine loaded up Flash 7 videos much faster than the PS3 did, but I found both to be choppy, which interfered with my enjoyment of YouTube. The Wii also displays RSS feeds, complete with pictures, whereas the PS3 just doesn't recognize them.

Navigation on the PS3 isn't as easy as it is on the Wii, but it's much more powerful. Its controller has more buttons, which makes doing several things at once much easier. And with the PS3, you can plug in a USB mouse and zip around the page as you would on your PC. However, the Wii's remote has a zoom feature and a laser pointer feel, which makes browsing from the couch easy.

Winner: PS3. It may not understand RSS feeds, but for most users, an actual RSS reader is more useful anyway. Since you can't install one, you can use a Web-based one, such as Google Reader.

Test 3: Advanced options
This category covers bookmarks, passwords, history, and settings management.

The Wii's bookmark manager is very limited. In fact, navigating to your bookmarks requires you to leave whatever page you're on just to bring up the menu. There are some neat icon previews of what each page looks like, but they take up space and force you to scroll down to find all your entries. The PS3 has a bookmarks menu that can be toggled by pressing the select button. This brings up an overlay to the page you're currently on, giving you a simple list of pages you've bookmarked. To bookmark the page you're currently on, you click the "Add page to bookmarks" option while in the bookmarks overlay.

Neither system saves usernames or passwords. This is a pain if you intend to use either browser extensively.

For a comparison chart, click here.

The PS3 has a history and settings manager that's about on a par with what you'd find on a mobile phone browser. It's not quite up to spec with a desktop-class browsing app, such as Firefox, but there are a ton of options on there. One of the most important ones is a browsing history, which the Wii doesn't even keep track of.

Winner: The PS3 wipes the floor with the Wii in this category. Most importantly, the Wii makes opening up a bookmarked page a lengthy process.

Conclusion: The PS3 wins in all three tests. But the Wii is half the price of a PS3, so if you're matching these two up dollar for dollar, it's an unfair fight. The Wii's Opera-based browser is also a trial version, which means there will definitely be a more full-featured iteration later on. In the meantime, your best bet is to use these consoles for what they were meant for, which is watching Blu-ray movies and swinging your arms around like an idiot. For real browsing, stick to your PC.