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LG Adds CinemaNow, YouTube to Blu-ray Players

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Posted: December 30, 2008

LG says it will add free videos from YouTube and pay-per-views from CinemaNow to its line of Blu-ray players, which already get streams from Netflix. Expect others to follow suit. Samsung already offers Netflix on some Blu-ray players.

Isn't there is irony in tacking on streaming to help sell Blu-ray? Internet video is one of the threats to Blu-ray, which is fighting for a foothold in living rooms. Maybe it's as simple as join 'em if you can't fight 'em. Or maybe the Blu-ray backers want to prove the superiority of their disks with easy, head-to-head comparisons.

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Once you develop the capability of streaming, isn't the next logical step to avoid the disks (and their storage issues) and just stream your purchased videos from a server-farm, or a couple of attached external terabyte drives. All to the good until you find out your broadband delivery service intentionally chokes the stream to "provide uniform service to everyone" (whether the bandwidth is being used or not). Unless, of course, you're willing to pay a premium service fee. So when your streamed movie stalls half way through you can get up and put another quarter in the set-top box for the broadband service provider.

Coryell of VA @ Dec 31, 2008 07:55:39 AM

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