May 13 - 2:15pm EDT   VUDU today signaled a partial change in direction with word that it will start offering ad-supported music and video through its service. Once limited to renting as well as selling movies and TV shows, the company is tapping Brightcove to provide ads for a free Sony music video service. It also plans to expand this to include other services but hasn't set out its plans to date, including whether or not it may extend this to TV and other long-form content. [full story]

May 12 - 4:20pm EDT   Researchers NPD Group today said that 88% of the money consumers spend on home entertainment goes towards purchasing and renting movies on DVD and Blu-ray discs. Of the $25 each US consumer spends on average in a given month, 63 percent was found to be spent on DVD purchases, 7 percent on Blu-ray discs, and 18% went towards renting DVD and Blu-ray movies. The remaining 12 percent was split between video on-demand (VOD) services (9 percent) and digital downloads and online streaming (3 percent). [full story]

April 21 - 6:25pm EDT   Roku on Tuesday announced that its Roku player supports new HD content from Amazon's Video on Demand service. Customers initially will have a choice between 500 TV shows and movies from studios and networks such as Warner Bros., Sony Pictures, Paramount, Universal and Showtime. Top movie titles include "Frost/Nixon," "Twilight" and "Yes Man," along with TV shows such as "Californication," "The Tudors," "Smallville" and "Gossip Girl." [full story]

March 30 - 3:50pm EDT   Rent-by-mail and online video rental company Netflix on Monday notified its subscribers that it would raise prices by nearly 20 percent for its Blu-ray library. Prices for standard-definition offerings on DVD will remain the same, with the new prices coming into effect on or after April 27th. Subscribers who do not wish to get their fees hiked need to disable the Blu-ray preference on their online accounts, Netflix says. [full story]

March 9 - 5:00pm EDT   According to several unnamed and unofficial sources, Amazon will soon add HD content via their Video On Demand store, though it seems that this will be offered on TiVo set-top boxes only. The unofficial sources also say the progressive downloads include surround sound information for a Blu-ray HD movie-like viewing experience. Last week, Amazon began offering its VOD library via the Roku Player, though no HD content is available. Mention of HD Amazon videos on TiVo has been kicking around since last year, when unused shortcuts to HD content in the TiVo menu were discovered. [full story]

March 4 - 4:40pm EST   A new device and matching service from a startup could offer serious competition in online video to larger rivals like Apple and Netflix. ZillionTV's self-titled service will give users a core networking device, known as the Z-bar, that would have no local video storage of its own and would instead stream movies and TV shows online. Rather than following the similarly network-based Roku's model of tying in existing services, however, ZillionTV will offer its own service and let users either buy or rent per title as well as download free, ad-subsidized versions. Viewers will also choose their preferences for ads to provide more relevant content. [full story]

March 3 - 11:55am EST   Roku today gave its Roku Player support for Amazon's Video on Demand service. The feature gives the networked media hub its first non-subscription video model and lets owners both rent movies on a title-by-title basis as well as buy them; as Amazon allows online streaming, movies and TV shows can be seen without needing permanent storage as on the Apple TV or VUDU Box. Roku's interface for Amazon also trumps the Netflix solution by letting owners browse and buy directly from the TV interface rather than require users add titles separately on a website. [full story]

February 6 - 7:20am EST   After previous announcements of Amazon collaborating with Roku to provide Video On Demand video service via the Roku Digital Video Player, the service has now entered a private beta, according to a statement by Roku itself. Expected to show in a 2.0 update, no confirmation has been given in regards to if the update will also include YouTube access, or if the VOD will also be offered in HD. Already streaming video from Netflix, Roku is continuing to expand its media and will offer more than 40,000 movies and TV shows through Amazon. [full story]

January 5 - 2:00pm EST   Amazon.com announced on Monday that it has teamed up with Roku to offer Amazon Video On Demand video service via the Roku Digital Video Player. Roku already streams movies from Netflix and will now give its users access to more than 40,000 movies, including new releases, and TV shows offered by Amazon.com. Other than via the Roku player, Amazon's VOD service can already sync with PCs and Macs, TiVo set-top boxes and Sony's BRAVIA Internet Video Link. [full story]

December 22 - 4:10pm EST   Roku announced on Monday that its Netflix Player will now be capable of streaming high-definition content from Netflix. All new Roku players sold will include the update, while existing players will be automatically updated with the software that includes support for advanced compression codecs for no fee over the next few weeks. [full story]

November 26 - 12:40pm EST   Streaming of high-definition Netflix movies should soon be added to a pair of Samsung Blu-ray players, the latter company has announced. The feature will be delivered in the form of a firmware update for the two Blu-ray drives, the BD-P2500 and BD-P2550, as of the first week of December. The players were enabled for streaming standard-definition Netflix content in late October. [full story]

November 25 - 1:15pm EST   As promised earlier this month, video and game rental giant Blockbuster on Tuesday announced it would begin selling the previously introduced 2Wire MediaPoint player, a hub that brings video-on-demand (VOD) movies over the Internet to users' TVs. The set-top box connects to the Internet via an Ethernet link or built-in Wi-Fi module and, unlike similar products from competitors, does not require a monthly subscription or minimum rental requirement. Blockbuster promises DVD quality movies with the ability to fast-forward, rewind and pause capabilities, as well as saving movies for viewing later. The player has an HDMI connection for connecting it to HDTVs. [full story]

November 10 - 1:10pm EST   Confirming earlier rumors, Blockbuster has announced plans to build a set-top box that will stream digital movies to TVs. The company's CEO, Jim Keyes, further notes that the the device will be associated with its Movielink rental and purchase service, but has not provided details on costs, capabilities or hardware specifications. A release is expected sometime during the holiday season; also in development is support for Blockbuster streaming through Intel chips inside IPTV hardware. [full story]

November 7 - 4:25pm EST   Holiday prices for older Blu-ray players may fall in the $150-200 range over the holiday season, representing a price drop in spite of the industry's forecasts and expectations, according to ABI Research. The analyst group believes Blu-ray manufacturers need to drop their prices in order to fend off competitive pressure from high-definition movie download services and the need for strong sales during the holiday season after the recent market troubles. [full story]

November 3 - 4:40pm EST   Roku representatives have responded to rumors on its online forum board regarding when it will launch streaming HD services and announced, earlier than they'd like, that it will team up with Netflix to bring HD content to its subscribers. Compared to the recently announced Xbox and Netflix tie-up that will also see streaming HD content to the Xbox, Roku will use different Advanced Profile encoding to deliver the HD content at significantly lower bit-rates. [full story]