HDTV

Microsoft just announced Universal, and NBC Universal programming is coming to Xbox Live, delivering The Office, Monk, Battlestar Galactica, The Mummy, Bourne Supremacy and others to the service. Xbox Live Video Marketplace now claims over 10,000 movies and TV shows on the marketplace, which it says puts it as the number one HD provider. MGM and Constantin are pushing things forward in Europe, adding 700 new titles to the library starting today. Check out more details from the E3 keynote in the live blog.

Okay, so we don’t necessarily see the appeal of having a 19-inch LCD TV shaped like a basketball invade the swank minimalism of Engadget HQ, but we’re certain some of you need to furnish your basement rec rooms or something, and Hannspree’s got you covered with a new trio of sports-themed LCDs. For $279, you get your choice of basketball, soccer ball, or baseball (which, oddly, is black), each of which features the same middle-of-the-road 1280 x 1024 panel with 5ms response time and a 1000:1 contrast ratio. There’s also a $239 model called the “slamma,” which sports a different 1440 x 900 19-inch panel with a 700:1 contrast ratio. No word on availability, but Hannspree is calling this its “summer lineup,” so we’re guessing sometime soon. More pics after the break.

Read - Hannspree Basketball
Read - Hannspree Baseball
Read - Hannspree Soccer
Read - Hannspree Slamma

Looks like Movie Gallery finally got something for the assortment of PBS bandwidth and spare parts remaining from the now-defunct MovieBeam service. The new owner is Indian conglomerate The Valuable Group, headed by Sanjay Gaikwad who apparently thinks serving up a remarkably limited assortment of heavily compressed HD and SD movies on demand is an idea that deserves to fail all over the world, instead of just in the U.S. Since $100 million burned up by Disney and others wasn’t enough to make things work, he plans to invest a similar amount over the next two years to relaunch the service in North America, the U.K. and “other overseas markets”. Variety notes The Valuable Group already delivers movies digitally to India and South Asian theaters via satellite so maybe they know something we don’t about this business model, and with plans to roll out service in three markets with “new, cutting edge features” by year end we’ll get to find out soon.

We got a nice look at Kodak’s newest gear from this morning, and while it’s an uneven showing at best, there are certainly some gems. The real standout of the bunch is the Kodak Theatre HD Player, a teensy box with all the right ins and outs, a purtiful interface, and a glorious motion-sensing remote. We really haven’t had this much fun with a peripheral since the Wiimote came along, and Kodak has somehow managed to best that in the role of couch-based cursor positioning. Kodak was a bit coy about what exactly goes on inside the thing, and we’re even more curious as to whether somebody can produce a dongle to let it operate a PC, but it’s a marvel all the same. Next up — in importance, anyways — is Kodak’s new Zi6 HD pocket video camera, a transparent bid to cut in on those Pure Digital dollars. It’s a bit of a bulky beast, and the image quality is hardly an improvement over the competition, but it certainly works as advertised: it really couldn’t be simpler to turn it on, shoot a video, and upload that video to the internet. Perhaps our biggest gripe is that it looks like it was built by some second-tier consumer electronics company, and shares zero design language with Kodak’s other products — many of which have really matured in the looks department of late. The Z1015 IS we didn’t spend as much time with, but it seemed nice, light but not too light, and has a gorgeous screen. Finally, the new W820 and W1020 wireless photo frames were on display, with some prototype software showing off some add-ridden FrameChannel content (seriously Kodak, what were you thinking?) but loved just about everything else on the frames.

Many have tried to be that other box that sits under your TV. You know, the DVD player, the cable box, the TiVo, the consoles are all well and good, but somebody somehow needs to solve they mystery of getting web and PC content onto your TV, and Kodak might be on the cusp of cracking it. Kodak’s new Kodak Theatre HD Player is a simple, slick little box with multiple flash card slots, a USB port, and all the requisite home theater outputs like HDMI, component and all that. The unit can naturally shuffle through photos like there’s no tomorrow, and includes wireless access to pull stuff off of Flickr feeds or your PC’s hard drive, but there’s also 720p video playback, online radio and what have you. The real clincher is that you won’t be interacting with all this via a clunky d-pad remote, but instead there’s an amazingly great gyroscopic mouse that makes the whole thing a joy to use. The $300 price tag might turn some people off when this lands in September, especially with no built-in storage, but we still think Kodak might have a winner on its hands.

Sure, it might shoot 720p video, but you aren’t gonna catch indie filmmakers capturing the next low-budget masterpiece on Kodak’s new Zi6 HD pocket video camera. The camera is Kodak’s response to Pure Digital’s Flip and Creative’s Vado, complete with upright form factor, YouTube friendliness, simple as could be interface, a flip-out USB plug (with some surprising spring action), and, of course, totally shoddy video quality. The camera is powered by a pair of AA batteries, sports a 2.4-inch LCD, and can switch between VGA video, 30fps HD and 60fps HD. It’ll sell for $180 in September, in black or pink, but there’s only 128MB of memory on board — you’ll have to spring for an SD card if you want to do any substantial shooting.

The D-Link MediaLounge DSM-330 is finally shipping to U.S. media streaming heads fiending for its 1080p upconverting, Divx/Xvid streaming abilities, although our excitement is dimmed a bit by all the competition that’s popped up since we first laid eyes on the GejBox, and Stage6 falling by the wayside certainly doesn’t help. That said, DivX has been on an upswing as of late, so the launch of its first Connected hardware couldn’t come a moment to soon. Unfortunately MKV support isn’t part of the package yet, but for $299 it does handle quite a few formats. Interested U.S. buyers should be able to find out if it matches up to Popcorn Hour’s A-100 now, with Canadian distribution following shortly. Check after the break for the press release and the rest of the details.

D-LINK NOW SHIPPING FIRST DivX CONNECTEDHIGH-DEFINITION MEDIA PLAYER IN U.S.

FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif., July 09, 2008 -- D-Link, the end-to-end networking solutions provider for consumer and business, and DivX, Inc. (NASDAQ: DIVX), a digital media company, today announced the availability of the first DivX Connected™ media player  in the U.S., with distribution in Canadian markets soon to follow. The D-Link® MediaLounge® DSM-330 enables the seamless streaming of music, photos, Internet services and high definition video from PCs to the television. 	"As more and more people embrace the DivX platform, we recognize the growing demand for a media player that supports all the capabilities that the DivX interface has to offer," said Chris Wong, Director of Product Management, D-Link Systems, Inc. "There is increasing market demand for solutions that bridge the gap between the PC and television and we are proud to be the first to work with DivX in bringing Connected to North America."	"The DivX Connected platform enables an entirely new way to experience digital media and represents our continued mission to improve the way in which consumers engage their digital entertainment," said Patrice Lagrange, Senior Vice President, Products, DivX, Inc. "Connected offers a vibrant solution to the expansive gap between PC and living room entertainment, and DivX is pleased to work with D-Link in bringing this revolutionary platform to the U.S."DivX Connected is a powerful, open media platform that allows consumers to experience and control PC-based digital media on their television using a remote control and is capable of being embedded within many consumer electronics devices, including digital televisions, set-top boxes, Blu-ray DVD players, and more. The platform's easy-to-use SDKs allow users to customize the look and feel of their media experience and even create plug-ins to a world of internet services such as Google Maps, Last.fm, Facebook and many more.

Key Features of the DSM-330:·	Fast, intuitive remote-controlled TV interface·	Highly responsive, remote-control lets you access trick modes: skip forward 30 seconds, skip back 10 seconds and virtual chapter points·	Connects to television using HDMI (cable included), component (cable included), composite, S-Video or SCART·	Connects to home network via 802.11g Wi-Fi or Ethernet cable·	Supported Video Formats include DivX (including DivX VOD files), Xvid and WMV9 (transcoded on PC)·	Supported Image Formats include JPEG, JPEG 2000 and BMP (non-compressed)·	Supported Audio Formats include MP3, WMA (transcoded on PC), M3U, M3U8 and PLS·	WEP, WPA and WPA2 Wireless Security Supported

For more information on DivX Connected, see www.divx.com/connected. For more information on the D-Link DSM-330, see www.dlink.com/DSM-330. Price and AvailabilityThe D-Link DSM-330 is available through D-Link's network of retail outlets, value-added resellers, solution providers and distributors, or at the company's online store, www.dlinkshop.com, for the manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) of $299.99.

Engadget HD has gotten the latest on the highly anticipated update for Vista Media Center and it doesn’t look good. The first release candidate made it into testers hands recently and they weren’t happy to see that the most anticipated features — support for a DirecTV HD tuner and native H.264 support — got pushed to Windows 7. So head over to Engadget HD for more details (screen shots included).

Engadget HD managed to acquire one of JVC’s Everio HD40 camcorders — you know, that HD shooter with 120GB of onboard storage. If you’re interested in seeing it get unboxed and manhandled (along with comparison shots with Samsung’s delightful SC-HMX20C), click on over and enjoy. For those wanting some serious impressions, keep a check on this space — we’ll be forming some opinions and penning a review here shortly.

Buried under predictions that 2012 will bring dominance for Blu-ray over DVD and breaking news that the PS3 just may have had a hand in winning the format war the Entertainment Merchant’s Association 2008 Annual Report on the Home Entertainment Industry holds survey results showing 87% of PS3 owners reported they watch Blu-ray movies on their console. That’s a stark contrast to last year’s NPD survey indicating 60% of owners didn’t even know it played them. We don’t know what’s behind the jump, be it better marketing/consumer education, or something wrong with how one the surveys were conducted. You can mull that one over during the fast money round while also peeping results that say 22% of HDTV owners think they’re watching HD programming, but in fact are not — not like we haven’t heard that before.

[Via PS3 Fanboy]