As Apple adds more HD content to its iTunes Store line-up, questions are being asked over the quality of the content and the pricing structure.

High Definition Future

The world is shifting towards a high definition future, but that could be a problem for Web-based delivery systems due to the amount of data needed for content to display in HD.

Regardless of this, Apple is forging ahead with its plans to dominate the HD Web video world, and has just announced that all four major U.S. television networks are now offering prime time shows on iTunes.

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With HD becoming the present rather than the future, set-top box producers are going to have to keep up with the technology to stay in the game. Luckily, Vudu is doing just that.

Vudu is a set-top box enabling the purchase and rental of full-length movies to a television using an Internet connection and peer-to-peer technology.

From HD To HDX

As with its rival, Apple TV, Vudu has been offering HD movies for a few months now. But the quality of HD downloads is not generally the same quality of HD movies on the Blu-ray or the (now defunct) HD DVD formats. Until now.

This week saw Vudu unveil what it calls HDX, and it’s a new format which means that content downloaded from the Web will now be 1080p, near-Blu-ray quality for the first time ever.

What’s more, movies rented in the new format will cost exactly the same as normal HD movies: $5.99 for new releases, and $3.99 for catalogue titles.

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The last year has seen a bitter war raging between manufacturers, movie studios and retailers over what would become the high definition format of choice for the future of DVD.

But with Direct Downloads from the Internet growing at a massive rate over the same time period, is there actually a future for physical discs to be fought over in the first place?

Here, Gigi Sohn discusses how yet again Hollywood seems to be missing the bigger picture, and failing to grasp how new mediums are making the old guard obsolete.

Internet television is growing at a phenomenal rate, with services such as Joost, Hulu and Stage6 all providing more reasons than ever to turn to your PC or laptop rather than that square box sitting in your living room.

One of the biggest problems with watching television programmes, or movies online however, is the size of the screen you are being forced to watch it on. Unless you are rich, or an early adopter of future technologies, the chances are your PC or laptop screen just isn’t up to the job any more.

You do have an option though, and that is to hook your PC or laptop up to a projector, and have all your favourite video clips, and web episodes, in glorious full screen, home theater sized goodness. But, where’s the best place to begin?

Buying A Projector

First you’ll need a PC or laptop, and a home theater projector. There are plenty of places to find them, but I’d recommend reading through lots of projector reviews before you blindly purchase one which then doesn’t suit your needs.

Prices of projectors can vary wildly, but you’ll be looking to spend between $1,000 and $3,000 for reasonable quality and a good brand.

Be aware that there is a difference between a projector being HD Ready and actually outputting HD. HD Ready simply means it can accept a HD signal, but may output in standard definition so won’t look as crisp as you might expect.

If you want to make sure your new purchase is 100% HD then look at the output. An 800×600 output is not High Definition, whereas 1280×720 (720p) or 1920×1080 (1080i or 1080p) is.

Adobe has announced that its updated Flash Player 9.0 will support the H.264 video format, an MPEG 4 compression format that can sustain HD video.

Some reports have claimed this could be the catalyst for making high-resolution web video a reality – especially given Flash player is the technology that drives video playback on popular video sharing sites such as YouTube.

Moviestar – as the new version of Flash Player 9 is colloquially known – will be able to play 1080p HD video encoded in a variety of formats. It can also take advantage of hardware acceleration for improved performance – a great feature for smooth full screen playback.

Moviestar is still in beta release and can only be downloaded from the Adobe Labs site.

[Via Wired]

Amstrad has been working with Sky for a while now to deliver Sky+ set top boxes so it comes as little surprise that the two companies are beavering away on an exciting new toy.

Basically the new set top box will eradicate the necessity for multiple boxes for multiple TV’s. The new set top box will be able to connect to at least two TV’s (maybe more) to a single box and will be able to record two different programs on different stations simultaneously.

Sounds like a great idea and certainly cuts down on having various set top boxes scattered about your home. What is a worry is that according to the Telegraph the boxes will be connected via cables which, unless you are extremely patient and are willing to tack them all to the neatly to the walls, are going to be pretty unsightly in themselves.

We are crossing our fingers that some sort of wireless solution will be offered when the box hits retail. The new device will form an integral part of Sky’s plans to deliver television in future.

The number of Internet video players and aggregators is increasing, each of whch is promising to bring the latest movies, TV and podcasts to your PC.

Most of these however, rely on closed, proprietary technologies in which the viewers are passive viewers. But this isn’t the case with Miro, the newly re-branded Democracy player.

With a new look, a more cohesive website, some added features and a growing social community, Miro shows all of the signs of a good product that is going mainstream.

This is the reason behind the name change, for instance, which was decided on to remove the political connotations many had associated with the Democracy Player brand.

Miro still packs the same great features that made Democracy such a great tool:-

You can watch and store just about any video format in the player, subscribe to over 1800 online video channels, search and download movies from most of the major video publishing destinations and even download torrent files to watch them in the full-screen player.