Gizmodo has the scoop on an upcoming product that's designed to make the AppleTV look like a Betamax player.

Vudu is set to launch this summer with a video store that will sell several thousand movies from seven major studios as well as independent filmmakers.

The other central component to the Vudu system is a small box that plugs into your television set. No computer required. You can purchase and download movies directly from the set-top-box.

The box will handle MPEG-4 video upscaled to high definition. It includes HDMI, composite, and S-video ports. No WiFi here. You'll have to connect to your high speed internet connection over ethernet.

No final word on pricing or hard drive size yet, but Vudu has the AppleTV clearly in its sites, so expect competitive features and pricing.

The BBC is hoping its new iPlayer software will give Apple a run for its money. The software will provide content from the BBC and other broadcasters to worldwide audiences.

In order to fulfill the BBC's public service goals, UK customers will be able to download BBC programs from the service for up to 7 days after they air without paying a fee. But overall the iPlayer venture is meant to raise revenue. Content distributed outside of the UK will be available either for a fee or supported by advertising.

The announcement follows news last week that the BBC would be making some content available via YouTube.

[via The Inquirer]

With all the talk about BitTorrent going legit with movie sales, and illegal torrent downloads one of the only ways British Virgin Media customers can watch Lost, it's easy to forget that there are plenty of free and legal torrent sites out there.

NewTeeVee has gone and compiled a great list of 10 sites that offer free BitTorrent downloads. Some of the sites are music only, and focus on live concerts from bands that encourage their audiences to share recordings.

But there's also a fair bit of freely available video content. For example, last year the documentary The Corporation was released by its makers as a free download. You can download a torrent for the movie from Torrentfreak.

Public Domain Torrents is another great site, featuring films that are no longer bound by copyright laws. There are a lot of movies here you've never heard of, but you can also get some classics like the original Little Shop of Horrors.

Last August, Fox began to stream programs from the websites of stations owned and operated by the network, but this is the first time local stations will be given the opportunity to provide content from any network. The stations will split the revenue generated with the network, and will be allowed to place local advertisements in the web streams.

In addition to streaming TV episodes for free, affiliate stations will begin selling downloaded episodes of programs including 24, Prison Break, and Bones, probably for $1.99 per episode and $30 to $40 for a full season.

Last September we heard that TiVo was in talks with Amazon to bring the Amazon Unbox video download service to TiVo, but then everything went quiet and all was almost forgotten...

In the meantime:

• People could download movies from online stores and watch them on Media Center PCs.
• The Apple TV got ready to bring iTunes video to the TV set.
  
• The Xbox 360 brought video downloads into millions of homes through the Xbox Live Marketplace.
• And the CES 2007 was flooded with media extenders to bring video into the living room.