The Roku Box, which started life as the Roku Netflix player before evolving to its current form, is getting some brothers in the shape of two new boxes. Roku is also promising new channels will be coming to the service soon. Which, with Netflix now headed for the PS3, is needed more than ever.

Roku and Netflix

Roku started out relying on Netflix’ ‘Watch Instantly’ streaming service as the be all and end all of its content offering to buyers of the $99 box. But since launching in May 2008, other content channels have been added, including Amazon Video-on-Demand and MLB TV.

Netflix soon moved on to a host of other set-top boxes and devices, including the Xbox 360, Internet-enabled televisions, and hybrid Blu-ray players. And it’s now adding a new one to its line-up in the shape of the Playstation 3.

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Hulu and Boxee are currently embroiled in a cat and mouse game of workaround followed by a fix that is likely to rumble on until the lawyers get involved. Surely common sense should prevail and Hulu should realize it is being unnecessarily harsh.

Boxee

Boxee is a free, open-source piece of software that allows PC users to access all their Web video from one central location. On top of this, it operates as a cross-platform media center that allows online video lovers to watch their favorite content on their televisions rather than their computers.

Boxee is still a work in progress but has become increasingly popular amongst people who want one solution that will enable them to watch a number of sources using one application. Mac and Linux versions of the software are now in open alpha, while a new Windows version is in closed beta.

Boxee offers a range of different content sources, from Apple movie trailers, YouTube, Blip.tv, CNN, CBS, MySpaceTV, Netflix, Revision3, MTV, Joost, and the BBC iPlayer. And until the middle of February, Hulu was also on that list.

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Boxee was already gaining great publicity and plaudits for being one of the most promising. But at the recent Consumer Electronics Show, the company behind the platform added new content providers to its line-up, making it an even more intriguing and useful prospect.

In case you haven’t heard of it by now, Boxee is a free, open-source piece of software that allows PC users to access all their Web video from one central location. It can also be used when your PC or Mac is connected to a TV, with all operations possible via a remote control.

Work In Progress

Boxee works as a cross-platform media center that pulls content from a number of sources and allows its users to view it all from one central location. It also has many social networking functions which allow content to be shared or recommended.

Boxee is still a work in progress but has moved from beta to open alpha for both Mac and Linux users. The Windows version of the software is still in closed, invite-only alpha but the invite-only prohibition should change early in 2009.

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Networking and engineering degrees have always been a good bet when it comes to ensuring a profitable career after college, but the shift to Web television could mean they’re more valuable than ever.

An Evolving Media

The media business as a whole is changing. Music is going digital, movies are available on more and more diverse formats, and television is now being streamed online more than ever.

The Internet is allowing all of these new forms of entertainment media to really excel. But to make content delivery via the Web possible, there needs to be engineers and technicians behind the scenes pulling the strings.

Revision3, the online video studio founded by Kevin Rose and home of the Diggnation video podcast amongst others, suffered a denial of service attack at the end of last week. While that’s pretty common, there was a bit more to it than your normal DOS.

The website’s servers suffered extensive outage over the memorial weekend, and the problem continued until Tuesday when the admins came back to work and solved the issue.

MediaDefender To Blame

After the problem had been rectified Jim Louderback, CEO of Revision3 posted a very detailed run-down of the issues surrounding the attack, and MediaDefender came out as the culprit.

MediaDefender, as many of you will be aware, is an organisation which gained notoriety last year after setting up a P2P distribution platform which is actually entrapment for illegal file sharers.

So why did MediaDefender target Revision3, a legitimate company that goes by the book, and isn’t trying to promote the distribution of illegal videos?

Social bookmarking has been around for a few years now, with Digg and Reddit probably the two biggest sites around.

Digg users can watch Kevin Rose and his chums discuss the latest stories doing the rounds on Diggnation but Reddit users haven’t had that opportunity. Until now.

Revision3, the online video company headed by Digg’s Kevin Rose has reportedly inked a series of new deals which will see its original series being distributed in a number of new places.

The company is best known for Diggnation, a series all about Digg, and the stories which make it on the social bookmarking site, hosted by Rose himself.

The show has always been available on Revision3’s own site, as well as YouTube and iTunes, but will now also be available on Hulu, Joost, TiVo, Revver and Break.com as well.