Netflix partners with LG to bring movies on TV
In the latest push to bring online video to the living room, DVD-rental service Netflix Inc. and LG Electronics Inc. plan to market an LG-branded device that will allow movies delivered over the Internet by Netflix to be viewed on TV screens. The partnership between Netflix, Los Gatos, Calif., and South Korea’s LG represents another gamble by technology companies that video from the Internet, which is commonly downloaded to personal computers, will go mainstream when users can easily access it from TV sets. So far, Internet television products such as Apple Inc.’s Apple TV have largely been unsuccessful, stymied by a poor selection of videos, complexity of use and other shortcomings. Netflix and LG provided few details about the product, which is due out in the second half of this year.
People familiar with the matter say it’s likely to also play Blu-ray and HD DVD discs, two rival formats for showing high-definition movies on televisions. LG already offers a $799 disc player that plays both high-definition formats. The companies didn’t disclose financial terms of their agreement. Early last year, Netflix began allowing its DVD-rental subscribers the option of accessing movies and television shows over the Internet on their PCs. The service, which “streams” DVD-quality videos over the Internet, leaving no permanent copy on a user’s PC, is available at no additional cost above Netflix’s standard DVD subscription fee, which is $17 a month, in most cases. The same policy will apply to the LG device. Netflix has more than seven million subscribers, an advantage over competitors trying to amass an audience for Internet video.
Source: WSJ, AP
Comments(12)
Who would want DVD quality when we’re now on to HD, unless it was absolutely dirt cheap, which it won’t be.
Also how long will it be before someone figures out how to mod the box to copy from cashe?
When are these idiots going to learn.. anything digital can and WILL be copied.
thats cuz we rule!!
keep up the great work rlslog!!
he’s putting finger prints on the dvd’s
There probably will be a way to intercept the stream/grab the video from the download sooner or later.
I’ll just wait for the rs links for this one.
Internet delivered content is the future, and we already do it now (especially file-sharers). HD-DVD and Blu-Ray screwed themselves by fighting and neither format will get widely accepted. And there is no reason why this won’t do HD content. NetFlix does HD content already, so no reason not to do it for this device.
wish they had this in canada, i would pay 17 a month for unlimitied acess to 60000 movies online. as its hard to find nzb for older movies lol
Vampirescu, why not just pay $10 a month for a rapidshare account. I have access to like 5 million movies that way
The problem on my end is crappy ISP’s that randomly decide to screw up my access because they oversold their overpriced broadband. I will never subscribe or even bother with any internet based TV and related services until ISP companies stop shafting their customers or can at least guarentee a minimum stable/constant speed. At this point I couldn’t care less how fast it can ‘burst’ since maintaining even a 1/5th of that speed is a pipedream.
I’d rather get the dvd rentals and rip them as all region.
@8 vampirescu – Netflix will not be providing unlimited access to 60000 movies for 17 bucks a month. If that was the case what need would there be for ever purchasing a DVD or subscribing to a movie channel. There would be no room for growth and the industry would probably shrivel and die, so it will definitely be a Video-On-Demand service but probably with a much larger catalogue than your current digital cable provider has.
That being said I am not really sure how they are going to overcome the ISP hurdle. I think that will be their biggest problem.