Digital Video Player News: Western Digital

Updates from Western Digital on its WD TV Live products:

Customers will now be able to connect with their friends and family through Facebook® - including uploading photos and videos, sharing their status, viewing their wall and getting the latest updates from their NewsFeed - among other entertainment choices, all from their HDTV. Meanwhile, WD TV Live Plus media player customers in the U.S. can now instantly rent or purchase the newest movie releases the same day they become available on DVD and Blu-ray Disc™ through the Blockbuster® OnDemand service.

In addition, new features for the WD TV Live and WD TV Live Plus media players include:

• Deezer™: a personalized on-demand music service for listening to 7 million tracks anytime, anywhere and one of the most popular Internet and mobile music offerings in Europe;
• Flingo®: free Internet television from leading studios, TV networks, and video websites;
• AccuWeather.com®: a worldwide weather forecasting service; and,
• USB wireless keyboard support: use any popular wireless keyboard with USB dongle to easily update Facebook status and conduct YouTube® searches.
  
  
  
  
  

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
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Apple's iTV rumor - a look at the numbers

Apple has invited the media to a music-themed event on September 1, leading to much speculation about what might be announced. Here are the potential announcements being kicked around:

• Revamp to the iPod lineup;
• TV show rentals for $0.99; and
• An "iTV" product that might be a stand-alone set-top box like the Apple TV or an integrated connected TV.

The big question regarding Apple is whether it will continue to pursue the development of a stand-alone set-top box or develop a fully-integrated connected TV. The market for the stand-alone boxes – what Parks Associates terms Digital Video Players – will hit ten million unit sales in 2014, with total worldwide household penetration of 50 million households. However, the connected TV market is significantly larger. Worldwide sales in 2014 are expected to exceed 120 million units, with total worldwide penetration of more than 250 million households. Apple will likely choose the stand-alone device path, as the integrated connected TV market is already dominated by large consumer electronics manufacturers willing to trade lower margins for higher volumes of shipments.