Video On Demand Archive

  • If it could, the MPAA would push you right off the swingset and into the mud

    If it could, the MPAA would push you right off the swingset and into the mud

    You probably already hate, for whatever reason, the MPAA (and its music industry cousin, the RIAA), but here's another reason to do so. The group is asking, for like the zillionth time, for the FCC to approve something called selectable output control. In essence, this allows a video signal to be sent to your TV from, say, a video on-demand service, that prevents the use of certain, non-aproved audio/video outputs. In other words, if you want to watch Terrible Movie 2: Yes, It Has Contrived To Be Worse Than The First on Comcast On-Demand, you won't be able to record it using an old TiVo that connects via component cables.

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  • Amazon on Demand comes to ‘09 Panasonic Blu-ray players

    Amazon on Demand comes to ‘09 Panasonic Blu-ray players

    You gotta love automatic updates the bring new features to Blu-ray players. Panasonic is pushing out new firmware for its '09 Blu-ray lineup that adds Amazon on Demand to the already impressive extras of YouTube, Picasa, Bloomberg, and weather info. Oh, and that little portable Blu-ray player (BD15) also gains this ability along with the DMP-BD60, BD70V, and BD80. So once these players are graced with the update sometime today, users will have access to 45,000 SD titles and 1,000 HD titles. What's there not to love?

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  • Phonevision, the video on-demand service of yesteryear

    Phonevision, the video on-demand service of yesteryear

    So you're out and about with the Misses, enjoying a nice night on the town. Maybe doing some light shopping in the downtown area. You know, a date night. Anyway, you both decide that you wanna watch a movie when you get home. So instead of stopping at a video rental store, you just dial a number and the movie is ready when you two get home. The future starts now, in 1951, with Zenith's Phonevision.

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