Best Buy

Because the [itvt] editorial team has been on the road the past few weeks, we are covering stories in this issue in round-up/summary format. We anticipate that it will take us several days to catch up with all the recent news: so if your company has sent us a press release or briefed us on an announcement, and you don't yet see your news covered in this issue, please bear with us.

Because the [itvt] editorial team is on the road this week, we are covering stories in this edition of the newsletter in round-up format:

Content protection and video optimization specialist, Widevine, said Tuesday that electronics retailer, Best Buy, has tapped it to be a "preferred" provider of adaptive streaming, virtual DVD-like controls and digital rights management (DRM) for its Insignia-branded connected-TV devices, which include television sets, Blu-ray players and media players. According to the company, its video optimization and DRM technologies will enable content owners and service providers to deliver content directly to Insignia devices in an over-the-top or TV Everywhere environment. "The amount of content being delivered over-the-top directly to connected consumer devices is increasing every day," Widevine CEO, Brian Baker, said in a prepared statement.

Because the [itvt] editorial team has been on the road the past few weeks, we are covering recent news stories in summary/round-up form. We anticipate that it will take a couple of days for us to catch up with all the recent news: so if your company has sent us a press release or briefed us on an announcement, and you don't yet see your news covered in this issue, please bear with us. We apologize for any inconvenience to our readers.

TiVo and electronics retailer, Best Buy, said Tuesday that development is underway to integrate TiVo's software and advanced TV services (though not the TiVo platform's core DVR functionality) into new connected TV sets from Insignia, Best Buy's in-house consumer electronics brand. The companies did not say when the sets will be available and how much they will cost. This represents the first time that TiVo's software has been integrated directly into a TV set--though the company has announced several deals to integrate it into third-party set-top boxes (see, for example, the article on TiVo's new deal with Technicolor that was published on itvt.com, May 24th).

Portugal-based augmented reality company, YDreams, and Canesta, a Silicon Valley-based provider of "electronic perception" technology (note: the company offers single-chip CMOS 3D sensors, which it says enable "fine-grained, 3-dimensional depth perception in a wide range of applications," thus allowing devices to "react on sight to the actions or motions of individuals and objects in their field of view, gaining levels of functionality and ease-of-use that were simply not possible in an era when such devices were blind"), said Monday that they are partnering to "redefine augmented reality and bring it to the broad market."

As expected (see the article published on itvt.com, May 5th), Google unveiled a connected TV platform at its I/O developer conference in San Francisco last week.

Electronics retailer, Best Buy, on Tuesday announced the availability of its new download service, branded as CinemaNow, which it says will provide consumers with free, same-day instant access to new-release movies and TV shows: titles will be available for rent at around $4 each, and for purchase at around $15.

Consumer electronics retailer, Best Buy, is using augmented reality to make the weekly print ads that it inserts in newspapers interactive and three-dimensional.

The New York Times and the San Jose Mercury News were reporting late Wednesday that TiVo is set to announce a broad partnership with consumer electronics retailer, Best Buy, today.