Smart Home Blog

VUDU subscribers recently got possibility to control their STB, browse move catalog, rent or purchase desire movie directly from iPhone or iPod Touch. It seems that support of Apple smartphone became a standard de-facto. Many producers of home automation systems such Crestron, Lutron, Control4 and etc provide iPhone App to control their systems. The VUDU iPhone App is good addition to that list.

BTW I like the VUDU approach to use pear-to pear technology to transfer rented or purchased movie to the customers. It makes the process of downloading faster and loading of VUDU servers less.

[via eHomeUpgrade]

Sony recently announced its new 1080p TVs Z-series with support of Yahoo! Widget Engine to pull down Amazon Video on Demand, YouTube, Slacker and other web-based content directly to the TV. Thanks to Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) it’ll be possible to playback video files from PC or NAS via local network. Welcome to TV 2.0!

There will be following models available in two sets. The first will contains 52-inch KDL-52XBR9, 46-inch KDL-46XBR, 40-inch KDL-40XBR90 and 32-inch and the seconds one – KDL-32XBR9, 52-inch KDL-52Z5100, 46-inch KDL-46Z5100, and 40-inch KDL-40Z5100. All of therm sport 1080p panels, BRAVIA Sync, four HDMI inputs, an Ethernet jack and an Energy Star 3.0 sticker.

The new Z-Series of Sony HDTVs should be available this Spring. No any info regarding the price.

I already wrote about VUDU – VOD provider from US. It offers approximately five thousand movies, HD films, and TV shows via broadband Internet connection. The movies can be rented or bought.

Actually VUDU does similar thing as AppleTV. But VUDU uses original approach to deliver content to the custom’s box. It something similar to BitTorrent. Requested movie is retrieved not from the central server as it’s done in case of AppleTV. But from the other VUDU boxes where it was already stored. As result the movie will come to your box much faster and network won’t be overladen.

Good approach! VUDU has only one big disadvantage for people who live outside USA. It works in US only. But AppleTV is available everywhere in the world (where high speed broadband exists of course).

See also

• VUDU web site
• VUDU review
• Vudu Caters to Channel with IPTV Products, Strategies

UK retailer Evesham introduced iPlayer, an 80GB DVR that can not only pump out HD resolution pictures but can be connected to the internet ready for IPTV-based video-on-demand services. The set-top box incorporates an HDMI port, a pair of SCART connectors, a six-pin Firewire port, a 3.5mm earphone socket and a digital optical output. It’s also got a Freeview digital TV tuner on board.

It’s implied that the unit can talk to Media Center PCs to grab content, and it will be able to take it from online sources too.

[via Reg Hardware]