LG is showing off the BH100, known as the "Super Multi Blue Player", at CES this year. The new player answers the war between the two competing high definition formats.

The player will cost $1,199 and is slated to his the shelves the first quarter of this year.

A spate of corporate acquisitions is redrawing the competitive landscape in the world of IPTV and telco TV, with far-reaching consequences for all members of the IP video ecosystem. The December 21, 2006 announcement that Motorola would acquire Tut Systems was just the latest in a similar series of moves that included Ericsson's acquisition of Redback Networks. According to ABI Research principal analyst Michael Arden, the pool of independent IPTV solutions vendors keeps on shrinking, creating a market gap which will affect smaller telecom operators.

Ruckus Wireless introduced the MediaFlex USB Dongle, designed to provide stable, wireless connectivity to in-home multimedia devices such as set-tops and media center systems. The company will demonstrate at CES the first of several integration efforts of this new technology with an IPTV set top box from Motorola.

Unlike other USB Wi-Fi adapters, the Ruckus MediaFlex USB Dongle is the only video-grade wireless USB adapter on the market to leverage patent-pending BeamFlex smart antenna technology.

Verizon president and chief operating officer Denny Strigl Sunday said the company is leading the way in the next revolution of television. "With the strength of our powerful wireless and fiber networks, we have transformed our business into one of the world's greatest content-delivery systems," he said.

To prove the point, Strigl raised the curtain on Verizon's next-generation FiOS TV and V CAST Mobile TV from Verizon Wireless.

The new FiOS will pull together content from a variety of sources - broadcast TV, the Internet and users' own private music and photo collections - into one media-management system. It also provides the company's growing base of FiOS TV customers with a new navigational tool and delivers a superior entertainment experience not available to users of competitors' broadband or cable services.

At the heart of the system is a new interactive media guide that makes watching FiOS TV easier and better than ever. With the new guide, customers can find, control and manage a vast array of digital content including television programming, movies, Internet video, games, music and photos. This lets a customer, for example, watch a movie about an action hero, play a video game about the same character and buy retail items associated with the character, all on the same home system.

Until now, you would have used a PC or mobile phone to receive television streams from your Slingbox, but that was all before the SlingCatcher. Sling Media is about to reveal the SlingCatcher, their new device that allows you to 1) receive video and files from your PC to your TV and 2) TV streams from your Slingbox and other connected devices either in your home or on the road.

There's a ton of buzz around this and they become rather confusing as they make it sound like the SlingCatcher actually sends content from your PC to TV. On the contrary, the SlingCatcher will be on the receiving end allowing you to display streams from your home-connected PC or Slingbox.

Speaking at the 2007 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Microsoft Entertainment and Devices Division President Robbie Bach showed how the company is delivering a new generation of connected experiences that are inspired by the universal desire to create community and share interests and passions with friends and family.

Gates and Bach announced several new products and services that include new Windows Vista-inspired PCs, never-before-seen Windows Vista features, an Internet Protocol Television (IPTV)-enabled Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system, and a new partnership with Ford Motor Co. that will extend digital experiences to the car. The company also unveiled Microsoft Windows Home Server, which provides a central place to help store, protect and access all the digital content in the home. Click here to see the full transcript.

In a move that will combine the power of Xbox 360 with Microsoft TV IPTV Edition, Bach provided an early look at a new service, IPTV on Xbox 360. The offering is expected to deliver world-class TV experiences such as digital video recording capabilities, with gaming, movie viewing, and even voice and video communications. Tapping into an expanded set of entertainment experiences, users will be able to watch their favorite sporting event live while chatting with their friends, for example, or participate in a match on Xbox Live while they record a TV program in the background. IPTV on Xbox 360 is expected to be available to consumers by holiday season 2007 and will be offered by providers that are deploying TV services based on the Microsoft TV IPTV Edition software platform.

From the keynote yesterday:

Now, I know that some of you may have seen IPTV in the past, but what I can guarantee that none of you have seen is IPTV running on an Xbox 360. (Applause.)

I'm going to bring up the Xbox guide, and I'm going to go ahead and accept this game invite for Gears of War. The bringing together of IPTV and Xbox 360 is going to give me all of the amazing next generation features of IPTV and the rich connected experience of Xbox Live. So I'm going to be able to get game invites, but what's really cool is using a headset I can actually talk with my friends while we're watching TV.

Now, I'm going to start up Gears of War here, and for me, being able to play games on an Xbox 360 and watch TV as an enthusiast, Xbox 360 now does everything I want in my living room. I can play the best next generation games, download movies and TV shows, connect to my Windows PC and access my music and my photos, watch HD-DVDs, and now experience next generation TV programs with IPTV.

This is everything I want, it's all in one box, it's all on Xbox 360.

Now, the thing I want to point out is that IPTV on Xbox 360 allows our service providers to really differentiate their TV experience, because now on one box not only can you get an amazing TV experience through IPTV, but you do get all that great gaming experience that is Xbox 360.

Sling Media and Palm announced at CES SlingPlayer Mobile for Palm OS, making it possible to watch television on the 3G-enabled Palm Treo 700p smartphone. However, not all Palm users will be thrilled. While Treo 650 and 680 users could try the software, it may prove limiting without the 3G network to power it.

SlingPlayer Mobile is a software client that gives Slingbox customers the ability to watch and control their home TV from a wirelessly enabled smartphone.

Verizon Wireless announced V CAST Mobile TV, a new service that will allow TV viewers to watch many of their favorite TV programs while on-the-go. V CAST Mobile TV from Verizon Wireless is expected to be available in the first quarter of 2007.

The new service will be accessible on new V CAST Mobile TV handsets via a dedicated V CAST Mobile TV key. The programming will be presented in "time block"/scheduled availability, consistent with familiar cable and satellite TV models, in both Eastern and Pacific Time zones. The initial lineup will include programming from CBS, Comedy Central, FOX, NBC News, NBC Entertainment, MTV and Nickelodeon; additional channels are expected to be added to the lineup after launch.

Tis the season for top 10 lists. Via Light Reading: Top Ten IPTV moments of 2006

"Most people will probably look back at 2006 as (another) 'warm-up year' for IPTV. Here at Light Reading we like to think of IPTV as a toddler -- just out of diapers, and about to break a heap load of stuff as part of its 'learning process.'"

After Dittberner announced the U.S. is not in the top 10 for amount of IPTV subscribers, Telephony Online is now reporting Dittberner says the U.S. may be in IPTV Top 10 after all.

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies has created the industry's first terabyte (TB) hard drive. Hitachi's Deskstar 7K1000 will begin shipping to retail customers in the first quarter of 2007 at a suggested retail price of $399 (USD), or 40 cents per gigabyte (GB). This new consumer-friendly price makes ultra-high storage capacity more affordable and accessible than ever before.

Hitachi is focused on maximizing the value of the hard drive by spearheading the era of the "smart" hard drive. Customized features have been incorporated into Hitachi's hard drives, tailoring them for the application-set that they serve. To that end, Hitachi's 1TB hard drives are targeted to two distinct application areas:

• Deskstar 7K1000 – gaming and high-performance PCs, external storage devices and upgrade applications
  • SATA 3.0Gb/s and PATA-133 interfaces
  • Ramp load design for increased shock protection
  • Three low-power idle modes to boost power efficiency
    
• CinemaStar 7K1000 – DVR applications
  • Adaptive error recovery and SMART command transport for optimized video streaming and picture quality
  • Smooth Stream Technology to optimize the drive for audio/video applications requiring reliable storage
  • "Bedroom quiet" acoustics

Bedroom quiet acoustics?

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies has developed new software technology targeted toward digital video recording (DVR) applications, including set-top boxes (STBs), that utilize hard disk drives. Hitachi's AVSM software technology is designed to seamlessly manage the mix of high-definition video streaming and best-effort file operations, such as electronic program guides or background IPTV downloads present in STB applications. Through "smart" hard drive management, AVSM technology helps reduce duty cycle by up to 60 percent and eliminates disk fragmentation, ultimately helping to extend the life of the hard drive and the host STB system.

By James Carlini, an Adjunct Professor at Northwestern University and President of Carlini & Associates

The divestiture in 1984 was not such a good idea.

We are almost back to square one as another regional Bell operating company merges back into AT&T. The executives and lobbyists from AT&T and BellSouth must be on a mission from God because they are putting the band back together. It seems no one can stop them.

They waited until the last week of 2006 to pull off the largest telecom merger in U.S. history. I always thought the old Bell system was better as one big company. They are another step closer to proving I was right by continuing the "revestiture" of AT&T, which I coined in a column in May 2005. I stated...

Conexant Systems, Inc. introduced a family of integrated VDSL2 customer premises equipment (CPE) system-on-chip (SoC) solutions. The new SoC family has been optimized to address a variety of triple-play voice, video, and data products ranging from VDSL2 voice-enabled CPE gateways to basic bridges. The SoCs feature a flexible architecture that supports all VDSL2 profiles up to "30a" for applications requiring 100/100 megabits-per-second (Mbps) operation, an integrated VoIP engine, and a powerful network processor. The chipsets also include advanced CPE technology that significantly improves VDSL performance by reducing interference on the copper lines, enabling operators to increase their subscriber coverage area.

Reuters is reporting that Italy-based Tiscali is aiming for 500,000 UK customers to take up their revamped HomeChoice IPTV service over the next two years. The company will start offering the service to customers in major cities.

Neal McCleave, managing director of media services, told Reuters, "It's (roll out) going to be progressive throughout the year. We will extend it to a wider base by the end of the first quarter, and then we will have a reasonable coverage by the end of the year."

Read the full article.

On December 22, 2006, TV 2 Norway became the country's first broadcaster to launch an all live online TV service. The new service enables Norwegian viewers to watch all the channels in TV 2's channel portfolio live online in high quality, including TV 2, TV 2 Zebra, the TV 2 Film Channel and the new 24-hour news channel, Nyhetskanalen, which is due to launch on January 15th.

All one needs in order to watch the live channels is a PC with a broadband connection. The live channels can only be viewed from within Norway while on-demand content can be viewed from anywhere in the world.