At the Boxee Beta Unveiling event in Brooklyn, Boxee revealed that D-Link has been named first choice as the hardware partner to release a Boxee Box – Boxee branded set-top box.
The device brings HDMI-support, WiFi, Ethernet, an SD card slot and two USB 2.0 ports. It also comes with optical audio, RCA audio and RF remote and plays any non-DRM media.
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Blockbuster, a provider of in-home movie and game entertainment, announced plans to feature the BLOCKBUSTER OnDemand movie download service in select Motorola phones. Through the agreement next generation Motorola phones will feature the OnDemand application, providing on-the-go download access to Blockbuster’s digital library of current movies.
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Pace is to provide an HD-capable set-top box to Latin America’s largest multi-service cable provider.
Brazil’s cable operator NET Serviços de Comunicação is buying the UK firms’s new HD-capable set-top unit as part of its drive to establish a fully HD, digitised customer base.
Shipments of set-top boxes are expected to peak this year, at least in mature markets, and then commence a gradual decline.
However the rolling series of analog TV shutoffs in countries around the world, combined with the strong uptake of HDTV sets, mean that HD STBs will form a growing fraction of the total market, according to ABI Research.
Roku has agreed a deal that will give its set-top box users access to Amazon’s video on demand (VOD) content.
The agreement means owners of Roku digital video players will be able to instantly purchase, rent and watch digital movies and TV episodes from the Amazon service.
Blockbuster is rising to the challenge posed by cable companies and Netflix by launching a movie rental service via set-top boxes.
It is offering a STB made by 2Wire that plays movies downloaded over a broadband line.
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Pace plc, a developer of digital TV technologies, has made the first set-top box capable of receiving and displaying DVB-T2 HD content.
DVB-T2 brings efficiencies of between 30-50 per cent in its use of spectrum compared to DVB-T and is expected to be a key enabler to the roll out of high definition TV in the UK over Freeview.