​Approximately 27 million U.S. households, more than one in five, have either an Internet-ready TV, game console, standalone Blu-ray player, and/or smart set-top box connected to their home network, according to ABI Research. Gaming consoles are the most popular devices, with a connection rate of over 80%, followed by Internet TVs (27%), standalone Blu-ray players (24%) and smart set-top boxes (13%). The research also indicated that a relatively large number of consumers have not connected some devices to their home network, most notably Internet-ready TVs. ABI predicts that the combined penetration rates of all of the devices will reach 60% by 2017. The firm notes that while not all of these devices will be connected to a network, there is room for growth, however, as only 48.5% of consumers with a home network currently have one of these devices connected to the Internet.

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Online movie streaming in the United States is expected to top both DVD and Blu-ray use for the first time ever in 2012, according to a study from IHS Screen Digest. The study suggests that in 2012, Americans will legally stream 3.4 billion movies online — twice the 1.4 billion streamed in 2011 — while DVD and Blu-ray movies watching this year will to 2.4 billion from 2.6 billion in 2011. Last year, the unlimited-streaming services offered by Netflix and Amazon Prime accounted for 94% of all paid online movie viewing in the U.S. Additionally, consumers paid an average of $0.51 for every movie streamed online, compared to $4.72 for DVD and Blu-ray discs. “We are looking at the beginning of the end of the age of movies on physical media like DVD and Blu-ray,” IHS analyst Dan Cryan said. “But the transition is likely to take time: almost nine years after the launch of the iTunes Store, CDs are still a vital part of the music business.”

[Via Bloomberg]

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Samsung has partnered with Blockbuster to stream thousands of movies to the company’s smartphones, tablets, ultrabooks, laptops, smart TVs and Blu-ray players, reports Smarthouse. The service will reportedly be rolled out in the United States and Europe in the first half of 2012, with an Australian scheduled to take place by early September. Samsung is also rumored to be developing a new global billing system that will allow users to easily log-in and pay for media content right from their devices. Blockbuster is the largest provider of rental movies in Australia, although in recent years the company has lost ground to both Netflix and Redbox. The deal is considered a win-win “for both Samsung, Blockbuster and Australian movie watchers,” according to Paul Uniacke the CEO of the Franchise Entertainment Group who has the rights to the Blockbuster brand in Australia.

[Via TheNextWeb]

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Samsung has developed a new universal remote control for its televisions and home theater accessories that ditches dozens of buttons in favor of Siri-like voice command support and a touch pad. As Apple reportedly readies an assault on the TV industry, established vendors such as Sony, LG and Samsung looked to cut the Cupertino-based firm off at the pass during this year’s Consumer Electronics Show. All the big names at this year’s show added voice controls and gesture support to their flagship HDTVs, and now Samsung has taken the wraps off its new voice-controlled universal remote, Nikkei’s Tech-On blog reports. The device allows users to speak commands in many cases rather than typing on a keyboard or pressing buttons, and it uses a combination of Bluetooth and infrared connectivity to improve reliability. While Samsung hasn’t yet stated exactly which devices will be compatible with its new remote, it did say TVs, set-top boxes, Blu-ray players and other accessories will be supported.

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Following parent company Coinstar’s third-quarter earnings report, Redbox announced that daily DVD rental fees have increased to $1.20 from $1. “The price change is based on an increase in operating costs, including higher debit card fees that went into effect October 1,” Redbox said in a statement on its website. “This is the first time in eight years Redbox has raised our daily DVD rental price.” Redbox will continue to charge $1 for the first day of each DVD rental during a promotional period from October 31st through November 30th, though additional days will be charged at the new rate of $1.20 per night. Rates for Blu-ray ($1.50 per day) rentals and video game rentals ($2 per day) are not affected by this change.

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Sony and LG have reached an agreement over a patent battle that involved several consumer electronics devices including televisions, the PlayStation 3 and phones, Reuters reported on Thursday. The two companies have agreed to enter a cross-licensing deal. “LG and Sony recently agreed to drop patent infringement lawsuits against each other,” an LG spokeswoman confirmed. Sony originally filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission in an attempt to block the sale of several LG phones, including the Rumor Touch. LG fired back and argued that Sony was using its patented Blu-ray technology inside the PlayStation 3.

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Following bankruptcy and an ensuing acquisition at auction, Blockbuster is now trying to lure back the hordes of customers it lost to competitors like Redbox and Netflix. A BGR reader sent us a letter that Blockbuster is circulating to recent defectors in an effort to win back their business in a post-Dish Network world. Among the carrots Blockbuster is currently dangling are a free 30-day Total Access trial and a “special rate,” though that special rate is not disclosed in the email. Blockbuster’s Total Access service was created as a direct response to Netflix, offering DVD rentals by mail just as Netflix does, though Blockbuster’s option is now more affordable following Netflix’s price hikes. Of course Total Access used to be a much more attractive option than it is in its current state, but the lower pricing and the quicker availability of new titles could be attractive benefits over rival Netflix. Blockbuster’s letter to former Total Access customers can be found below.

Dear [redacted],

Just 90 days ago I became the president of Blockbuster. In that time, our company has worked tirelessly to improve our product and regain your trust. We have reduced in-store DVD rental prices by as much as 38%, while other companies have raised prices by as much as 60%. Millions of customers have rewarded us by visiting our stores and experiencing our unmatched choice, convenience and value.

You’ve been part of the Blockbuster family before, and we want to earn your business again. For a limited time, we’re offering you a special rate and a free 30-day trial of Blockbuster Total Access.

Blockbuster Total Access is an outstanding alternative to other services. In addition to our everyday low pricing, you’ll get:

• Many of the newest movie releases 28 days before Netflix and Redbox.
• Games and Blu-ray at no extra charge
• Unlimited exchanges for free in-store movie rentals
• Improved availability, especially of our new release titles

We have more than 1,500 stores nationwide that will continue to provide excellent service and value and I invite you to take advantage of unlimited in-store exchanges. We hope you will agree that the Blockbuster experience is unmatched.

As a special offer to you, you’ll get a discounted rate if you sign up using the link in this email before September 15. Come say hello to the new Blockbuster — click here to start your 30-day free trial today.

Sincerely,
Michael Kelly
President, Blockbuster L.L.C.

As Netflix continues to barrel into living rooms across the country, the thriving company announced new agreements Tuesday that will enable one-click access to its streaming video services on compatible partner devices. The new deal will place a dedicated Netflix button, complete with the Netflix logo, on remote controls that ship with various consumer electronics including Watch Instantly-enabled televisions, Blu-ray players and set top boxes. Manufacturers on board include Panasonic, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, Toshiba, Dynex (Best Buy’s in-house brand), Haier, Memorex, Boxee, Iomega and Roku. The deal is big news for Netflix, and it stands to substantially increase brand visibility. Netflix claims that there are currently more than 250 devices on the market compatible with its streaming video service. Hit the break for Netflix’s full press release.

Streaming From Netflix Will Soon be Even More Convenient With Netflix One-Click Remotes Introduced by Major Consumer Electronics Makers

Members to Benefit with a Netflix One-Click Button on Remote Controls for New Internet Connected TVs, Blu-ray Disc Players and Other Devices that Stream from Netflix

LOS GATOS, Calif., Jan. 4, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Netflix, Inc. (Nasdaq: NFLX) today announced that streaming from Netflix on TVs will soon be as easy as one click of a remote control as a number of the world’s leading consumer electronics companies have joined in a development effort to place Netflix-branded one-click buttons on remotes that operate Internet connected TVs, Blu-ray disc players and other devices that connect the Internet to the TV.

Beginning this Spring, buttons that specify “Netflix” – including some featuring the iconic red Netflix logo – are planned to be situated prominently on remote controls that operate certain new Blu-ray disc players from a variety of companies including Best Buy’s in-house Dynex brand, Haier, Memorex, Panasonic, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, and Toshiba.  Sharp, Sony, and Toshiba also will place the Netflix one-click button on remote controls for select new Internet-connected TVs.  Remote controls for the Boxee, Iomega and Roku set-top boxes also will feature the Netflix one-click remote.

“For members who want even more convenience when instantly watching TV shows and movies streaming from Netflix, the answer is about to be right in their hands,” said Netflix Chief Product Officer Neil Hunt.  ”No more turning on the TV, going to a home screen and searching for the Netflix icon.  With the Netflix one-click remote, it’s simply a matter of pushing the Netflix button to instantly watch any of the vast selection of TV shows and movies available to stream from Netflix.”

The Netflix one-click remote is the latest in a series of rapid technological advancements by Netflix to enable Netflix members to instantly watch TV shows and movies streamed by Netflix over the Internet.  Today there are more than 250 Netflix ready devices on the market.

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Sony thinks their Google TV-enabled Internet TV product is the future of home television. We covered the announcement and played with the product a little bit at the press event, but there isn’t anything like getting up close and personal with something in your own environment. Your TV, your sofa, your own install and set up. Read on for our thoughts on Sony’s Internet TV Blu-ray player, and whether or not we think the future is here!

Set Up

Once we furiously ripped open the packaging that Sony lovingly messengered over to our apartment, we got to work. The Blu-ray player came with a power brick, power cord, remote, AA batteries, HDMI cable (looks to be 3 ft), and dual IR blaster cable. The way the video chain should work is, you’re effectively putting the Internet TV in the middle. That way, it can take the incoming video, do its dirty work and overlay menus, applications and more on top of the video content. So, video out of the DVR or cable box into the Internet TV, and then simply out of the Internet TV into the TV directly, or into your receiver if you have one.

Once that is done, you’ll most likely want to hook up the IR blaster so that the Internet TV remote will be able to control your DVR / cable box in addition to the Internet TV itself. If you’re in the advanced segment of the population and would like to make use of a custom remote set up (Crestron, Control4, Philips Pronto), it looks like it’s going to be a pretty challenging task for the time being.

After physically plugging in the unit, you’re ready for the software side of things.

During the set up, we were asked to define the size of our TV by pushing a black overlay to the edges of the screen. We were then asked to identify our cable provider, verify channel lineups, verify the IR blaster commands were working properly, and configure our Internet connection (we chose Wi-Fi). After we went through that process, our unit alerted us to a software update that would take around 10-15 minutes to download and install. Being the adventurous bunch we are, we decided to go ahead. After the software update was downloaded and installed, our unit rebooted. Unfortunately, our setup settings — that we had just went through which took around 10 minutes — were not saved. Kind of a bummer, and not exactly the best first impression. It’s also not the end of the world, though.

Usage

There are a couple main buttons to help you navigate Google TV. You have the home button, back button, and a 5-way directional pad. This is grossly, grossly oversimplifying the included Sony remote, but we’ll get into that a little bit later. After pressing the home button, you’re presented a cleanly-organized home menu. You have main categories on the left like Bookmarks, Applications, Most Visited, Queue, and more. After highlighting one of those, you are presented with either a thumbnail or a list view of the contents on the right.

But, you don’t have to visit the home menu much to be honest. This is Google we’re talking about… just search! Hitting the dedicated search button on the keyboard brings up a familiar search box. Just type whatever you’re looking for, local to the device or not, and you’ll get back search results almost instantly. Populated search results include upcoming TV programs matching the entered text, local items like apps, search results from YouTube and of course Google search. This lets you bounce around pretty quickly and it works very, very well.

In addition to the search bar, there is a window icon to the right. This holds all the open windows (pages, apps, whatever) and you can flip through all of them pretty effortlessly. Yes, this is a form of multitasking. What’s very cool is that you’re able to stream a song from your favorite station on Pandora while checking out a recipe on Foodnetwork.com while watching TV in Dual view mode (think Picture-in-picture for you oldies). It’s definitely intense, but it’s definitely up our alley.

Something that’s very frustrating about this first generation product though, is that unless you’re a DISH TV subscriber, Google TV doesn’t integrate fully with your DVR. For instance, we have a Verizon FIOS DVR, and Google TV can’t communicate with the box besides sending simple IR commands. This means that when we search for something in Google TV and find the program listing (which very slyly displays the upcoming time and date) we can’t set it to record. We have to manually set that up on the DVR. No season guides, no recording of current or future programs — nada. It’s a very half baked approach and makes the two different video devices feel very separate in this regard.

Browser

The browser is good enough to justify being here, but in all honesty, it’s just not fast enough to be useful for us. That’s not to say family or friends of ours wouldn’t enjoy using it, but it definitely lacks the polish and speed that we were hoping to see. Scrolling is choppy instead of being fluid, as it should be. And then, Hulu is blocked. Online content from ABC, NBC, as well as CBS is blocked as well. Scrolling the on-screen cursor below the cut off the display should scroll the page down with it in our opinion, but you have to use the physical down key to “scroll” (more like push pages around), and like we said, it’s not fluid. There’s no kinetic scrolling , and again, it’s just usable enough at this point to make it worth using. We’re not sure if it’s a hardware or software issue (we’d guess a bit of both, though hardware would make more sense).

Remote

The remote is oddly usable, but also annoying and complicated. There are 102 buttons on this thing and half of them don’t even need to be there. Seriously, it’s uber-confusing to use at first, and even once you get used to it, you still aren’t friends with the remote. Sony said they took inspiration from the Dual Shock PS3 controller, and while it shows, the simple fact is that the Dual Shock controller is infinitely more comfortable to hold and use.

The optical joystick on the right of the remote performs decently, though it’s not as sensitive or as quick as we’d like. It always feels like the system is processing the mouse’s movements and then catching up. It doesn’t feel slow per se — it just doesn’t feel very natural, quick, or what we’d expect in a 2010 device. Once you configure the keyboard settings, things get a little better though. But, what’s a little confusing is adjusting the keyboard settings adjusts the entire button settings for the remote, not just the keyboard or letters. For instance, key repeat delay and repeat rate. Normally things for just a keyboard right? Not in this case. After playing with some settings we found the directional arrows completely flipping out on us when we were controlling the program guide on FIOS. Paging through channels was erratic, and worse, would duplicate or even triplicate our commands. We dialed back the repeat rate and upped the delay a bit and things were fixed, but it’s just something you shouldn’t necessarily have to muck with or worry about.

There are even two triggers on the right and left of the remote to be used by your index fingers. Zoom and scroll. You hold them down while scrolling with the optical joystick and they perform the intended functions.

Some of the Blu-ray buttons on here really could have been sub-buttons to clean up the clutter, and the remote is really intimidating for people just wanting to lay back and watch some World Series while browsing www.mlbtraderumors.com.

All in all, if you have an Android handset, using the upcoming remote app will probably turn out to be a much more enjoyable and relaxing experience.

Conclusion

It’s hard to justify a $399 TV enhancement device in almost any scenario. Unfortunately, while most of the time we loved using Google TV on Sony’s Internet TV Blu-ray player, we can’t at this point think of much of a reason you’d want this. Again, it’s definitely cool and it definitely does help transform the TV viewing experience, but we’d be much more open to a Sony Internet TV with built-in Google TV. That’s a no-brainer and a separate device is pretty hard to swallow. Making matters worse, we already had a 3D Sony Blu-ray player and it is kind of disappointing that this box doesn’t play back 3D Blu-ray films. There is no way to justify having two Blu-ray players in the same room, and it’s a choice we had hoped we wouldn’t have to make. (Spoiler: we decided on the Internet TV Blu-ray player)

Our new Sony TV has most of what Google TV offers minus a browser. It has Netflix built in, Hulu Plus, Internet widgets like Twitter, stocks, news, and Wi-Fi out of the box.  Most new TVs have a lot of this functionality already, and a separate item at $399 isn’t that appealing. Would we prefer the Google TV experience to what Sony offers natively? Absolutely. And that’s a very, very good thing.

Another thing Google TV has against it is the target market for the product. For instance, we’re sitting here watching our TV with Google TV while typing this review on our MacBook Air with our iPhone 4 sitting next to us on the left, our BlackBerry 9700 to our right and our Motorola DROID X in our laptop bag. Are we the norm in this case? We’d like to think so, but sadly no. However, we do think many, many people will either have a laptop, smartphone, or iPad-like device with them all, most, or some of the time while watching TV. It’s these usage scenarios that complicate the usefulness of Google’s initiative in our mind. It’s great that there is a browser on my TV, but it’s kind of slow to scroll, a little slow to load, and well, I’m still not sure why we need it.

Once Google TV matures (typical Google, right), we have no doubt that this will be a major step forward for the Television industry and consumers. It will be second nature to have a browser everywhere you turn and the cost will be absorbed by the TV you purchase since it will be built in. You will get access to the entire world, all your information at your fingertips without lifting your lazy butt off of the sofa — and we think that’s magical.

Click on over to our Sony Internet TV Blu-ray player gallery!

We had a chance to get up close and personal with Sony’s latest TV set and sister Blu-ray player. Here are our first thoughts:

• We haven’t seen Logitech’s Revue Google TV device in person, but the Sony experience looks similar to it. Sony told us that the only Sony customization was a recommended channel area, so for you purists out there, it looks like this is a really clean Google offering.
• We caught some lag when hopping menu to menu and typing when using the remote sometimes took a second or two to catch up but all in all, the Intel Atom-powered TV seemed pretty zippy.
• Speaking of the remote, we’re completely torn about it. Andrew loves it, but I couldn’t care much for it. The size is definitely intriguing as it is way smaller in person than we expected it to be. Also, the feel is right — pretty light without feeling inexpensively cheap. However, the myriad of buttons sort of confuses us, especially when a bunch of them don’t serve a purpose 90% of the time in what we’d imagine would be your daily use. I’ll use my Android handset to control my Google TV device as opposed to a manufacturer remote, you can believe that. Last thing about the remote… no backlight! So sad.
• The picture in picture capability is practically the selling point here… if you’re a multitasker, you’re going to love with PIP on. It’s pretty amazing that you can have that picture window of the current TV show or recording you’re watching open on the screen and at the same time browse a website, check something on Google Maps, search for a program to record, and more.
• The range in sizes and price is pretty spectacular. At a cost of $1,399 for the 46″ edge-lit LED model is practically a steal — and the time to market is also delicious as the sets and Blu-ray player will be available this weekend.

All in all, this wasn’t something we didn’t expect, yet we’re incredibly excited for Sony to pioneer this new category of TV entertainment. Let’s see if they can knock it out of the park…

Click on over to our Sony Internet TV with Google TV gallery!

Back on the 13th of September, a mysterious post appeared on site pastebin.com; a post that contained number matrices reported to be the HDCP master keys. HDCP (High Definition Content Protection) is the encryption schema used by hardware manufacturers to encrypt data as it moves through an HDMI or DVI cable to your viewing medium. The encryption is meant to prevent signal eavesdropping by third-party devices that could be placed between, for example, your Blu-ray player and your HDTV, capturing the content in an unencrypted state. Yesterday, Intel — the company who created HDCP — confirmed that the published keys are in fact real. “We have tested this published material that was on the Web,” said Intel representative Tom Waldrop. “It does produce product keys… the net of that means that it is a circumvention of the code.” The nightmare scenario for those that rely on HDCP would be the creation of a third-party chip, with the master keys embedded, that could be used to decode Blu-ray DVDs and other protected materials. From there, said materials could be easily republished and shared, although… thanks to torrent sites like The Pirate Bay, they usually are anyway. No word on what, if anything, Intel plans to do.

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Plex, for those not familiar, is a software company whose former creed was to: “bridge the gap between your Mac and your home theater, doing so with a visually appealing user interface that provides instant access to your media.” Today, the company has announced that it will be partnering with electronics maker LG to “integrate the Plex platform into their 2011 lineup of Netcast connected TVs and Blu-ray devices.” In the company’s announcement, they quip that when it comes to connecting devices to your television, a Mac Mini is “too large,” a Boxee box is “too pointy,” and the new Apple TV is “too tiny.” The company is betting on this free, integrated software model to be the future of connected televisions. The announcement continues: “Early next year, when you buy an LG Netcast TV or Blu-ray player, you will have Plex functionality built-in. Specifically, it will connect to a cloud version of the Plex platform for online content, and, if you happen to have a Plex Media Server running anywhere in your house (after all, who doesn’t have a computer in their house?), you can access your local and online content, in a rich interface, with full metadata.” The concept of integrating mature, intuitive media software into a TV really does sound like a great idea; especially for LG, as TV manufacturers are always trying to differentiate themselves from the competition.

“There will be more content providers investing in writing Plex plug-ins, so your online content choices will grow. And next year, if you’re upgrading your TV, or or buying an LG Blu-ray player, you’ll have the ability to get Plex, built in, at no additional cost. Fully integrated into killer consumer electronics gear, exactly as it should be.”

Yes, that is the way it should be. Hit the read link for more info on Plex and their recently inked LG deal.

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Today, Panasonic announced that they will add Twitter to the list of built-in web entertainment technologies on their VIERA CAST enabled HDTVs and Blu-ray disc players. The company already offers Skype, Netflix, Pandora, Fox Sports, Amazon Video-On-Demand, YouTube, Picasa, Bloomberg, and weather services on VIERA televisions with the IPTV functionality built-in. Panasonic’s VP of corporate development had this to say:

Since we introduced Panasonic VIERA CAST IPTVs three years ago we have added more and more of the top entertainment and social networking sites in the world. The addition of Twitter to VIERA CAST further strengthens the interactive options Panasonic VIERA HDTV owners can now use to communicate with family and friends worldwide.   Consumers with VIERA CAST-enabled HDTVS can now tweet on Twitter, video chat via Skype, share videos on YouTube and digital photos via Google Picasa right from the comfort of their living rooms.”

Maybe the future of HDTV isn’t in 3D and ridiculous refresh rates… maybe it’s applications? We’ve got the full press release for you after the break. Let us know if functionality like this is something that interests you, or if you think it is just something that will get in the way of your television-viewing enjoyment.

PANASONIC LAUNCHES TWITTER ON VIERA CAST PLASMA HDTVs

Consumers Can Now Tweet – One of Many Ways to Communicate – On Their Panasonic VIERA® Plasma HDTV.

SECAUCUS, NJ (August 17, 2010) – Panasonic, a worldwide leader in High Definition technology and built-in TV web entertainment announced the activation of Twitter® on Panasonic VIERA CASTTM enabled HDTVs. Twitter will also be available on VIERA CAST-enabled Blu-ray Disc Players at a later date. The planned addition of Twitter, a real-time global information network, was announced in January at the International Consumer Electronics Show.

Twitter is the latest feature to be added to VIERA CAST, Panasonic’s proprietary IPTV function. Earlier this year, Panasonic added SkypeTM voice and video calling1, Netflix™, Pandora, and Fox Sports to an already robust list of popular entertainment and information sites including Amazon Video-on-Demand™, YouTube™, Google’s Picasa™ Web Album, Bloomberg and a weather service.

Twitter is an information network that enables its users to send and read other user messages called Tweets — text-based posts of up to 140 characters. Twitter has achieved enormous growth since its founding in 2006. Proof of that is evidenced by the fact that there are 70 million Tweets written per day by more than 145 million users worldwide.

For 2010 VIERA CAST-enabled HDTVs, Panasonic also introduced USB connectivity which enables the addition of a wireless LAN adaptor (802.11b or faster), a keyboard for more efficient site navigation and communication, and USB memory which supports AVCHD video and JPEG photos. VIERA CAST requires no external box or PC2 and is accessed via a single button on the television remote control. There is no fee to use the VIERA CAST functionality (some VIERA CAST services such as VOD have a separate fee structure).

“Since we introduced Panasonic VIERA CASTTM IPTVs three years ago we have added more and more of the top entertainment and social networking sites in the world,” said Merwan Mereby, Panasonic’s Vice President, Corporate Development. “The addition of Twitter® to VIERA CAST further strengthens the interactive options Panasonic VIERA HDTV owners can now use to communicate with family and friends worldwide. Consumers with VIERA CAST-enabled HDTVS can now tweet on Twitter, video chat via Skype, share videos on YouTube and digital photos via Google Picasa right from the comfort of their living rooms.”

Panasonic VIERA Plasma HDTV’s featuring VIERA CAST:
Ø VT25 and VT20 Series of Full HD 3D Plasmas:
Ø G25 Series:
Ø G20 Series:

Panasonic Blu-ray Disc Players featuring VIERA CAST (Twitter not yet available):
Ø DMP-BDT350 (Full HD 3D)
Ø DMP-BDT300 (Full HD 3D)
Ø DMP-BD85
Ø DMP-BD70V
Ø DMP-BD65
Ø DMP-B500 (Portable)

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Mick Hocking, Sony Computer Entertainment’s (SCE) senior director, had quite a bit of good news for those Play Station 3 owning 3D enthusiasts. At a London event dedicated the 3D speak, Mick was quoted as saying quite a bit:

Now, in June this year we did the 3D Firmware update. Every PlayStation 3 that’s connected online now has a new version of this Firmware. 

At the last count we’ve got 35.8 million PlayStation 3s out there – that means there’s an instant market of around 36 million 3D-ready PlayStation 3 consoles. The upgrade basically makes every PlayStation 3 HDMI 1.4 compatible – that’s the standard that governs 3D displays. 

What this means is that there is no setup at all required. If you have a PlayStation 3 and you buy a 3DTV, you simply connect via your HDMI cable and your PlayStation 3 will automatically recognise that you’ve got a 3D display attached.

In September this year, we’re launching another Firmware upgrade – and this one is going to upgrade the PS3 to support Blu-ray movies in 3D. Again, you won’t have to do anything – just connect your PS3. For the film market that’s a very significant event.

Then later in the year – we’re not going to date it yet – the PS3 is going to support 3D photos. Of course the popularity of 3D isn’t just going to come from movies and games. There’s 3D cameras on the market, there’s 3D camcorders coming on the market in the next 12 months as well, and 3D broadcasts.

So you’ll see 3D games in the next 12 months, you’ll see Blu-ray movies in 3D, and as soon as the broadcasts start through our PlayTV services, you’re going to watch 3D content [through that service].

YouTube will be supporting 3D content over the next 12 months as well – and you’ll be able to watch that on the PlayStation 3. And as you start taking 3D pictures of your family or 3D camcorder movies, you can play those back on PS3, too.

It’s a great purchase proposition and future proof.

All great news for Play Station 3 owners. Of course, not too many people have a 3DTV yet… but it is nice to know that if you were to shell out the cash for one, your PS3 would be ready to rumble.

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Announced earlier today after months of speculation, Hulu Plus has finally become official. For $9.99 per month, subscribers will be able to watch their favorite shows — including those from seasons past — on a multitude of internet-connected devices. Mobile devices are a go, with iOS devices including the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad, and iPod touch (3rd generation) being the main attraction at this point in time. The best part as far as mobile is concerned is that streaming will work on both Wi-Fi and 3G networks. Several internet-connected HDTVs and Blu-ray players from Samsung already have support for the streaming service, and later on in the year, both Sony and Vizio will introduce support in some of their sets ad Blu-ray players. The PlayStation 3 will support the service “soon”, while the Xbox 360 will play nice come 2011. Hulu Plus will officially launch is July, but if you’re lucky you might just be able snag a preview invite.

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