Digital video player news - WD TV Live Hub. Roku and Netflix, VUDU and the Boxee Box

Last week was a busy week in the digital video player market, with product introductions or extensions made from Western Digital, Roku and NETGEAR, and the Boxee Box and VUDU.

• Western Digital introduced the WD TV® Live Hub™ media center a 1080p media player with a 1 terabyte (TB) built-in network hard drive that gives users the freedom to play all their personal media on any screen in the home. The WD TV Live Hub media center brings new experiences to the WD TV family, including instantly renting or purchasing the newest releases through the Blockbuster On Demand® service, the same day as DVD/Blu-ray release, as well as interacting with personal Facebook® communities.
• Roku announced that is was licensing its Streaming Media Player Platform, and further announced NETGEAR as its first OEM Partner. The NETGEAR Roku Player - priced at $89.99 - will provide access to more than 100,000 movies and TV shows, live sporting events, music, online content from providers such as Netflix, Amazon Video On Demand, Vimeo, Pandora, MP3tunes, SmugMug, Flickr, MLB.TV ,and UFC.
• VUDU will be available via Boxee, including the Boxee Box. VUDU will be available as a Boxee App on Windows and Mac computers, as well as the Boxee Box by D-Link this November
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Get your tent and your reading material - the Boxee Box is available on November 10

I don't suppose that it will attract the zaniness associated with the release of Apple products, but the Boxee Box will be available on November 10 (Boxee and D-Link had previously reported the November date), and there will be a launch event in New York City. Just in case you're there...

Boxee Box to Ship in November

D-Link and Boxee are getting ready to ship the Boxee Box in November, and Amazon.com is taking pre-orders. It is also preparing to ship in Europe. The box will be available in a number of European countries including Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Macedonia, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.

Intel is getting its connected CE groove on

Intel had a busy week at the Intel Developer Forum. The company showed off two smart TV-enabling products powered by the Intel® Atom™ processor CE4100 and Google TV that will come out this Fall. The Sony Internet TV and the Logitech Revue add-in box seamlessly combine access to the Internet with the TV viewing experience through the combination of Intel processors and the Google TV Android platform. The Boxee Box from D-Link was offered for pre-orders last Monday, Telecom Italia and several other companies are also expected to launch Intel® Atom™ processor CE4100-based devices soon.

In addition, Technicolor announced that it was collaborating with Intelon its latest system on a chip, the Intel® Atom™ processor CE4200, formerly code-named Groveland. The strategic collaboration will fuel Technicolor's plan to drive into the market a new generation of integrated broadcast and IP set-top boxes, enabling service providers to create exciting new multi-screen, 3D, games and online video user experiences in the home