onlinevideo

Tired of squinting at your PC to watch online video. ABC has updated its online video player to support high definition (720p) video playback.

Right now there's not a huge selection of content available in high definition. You can watch a whopping one episode each of Desparate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy, Lost, or Ugly Betty at resolutions up to 1300x770.

You'll need a 2Mbps or faster internet connection, and even then you're not guaranteed crystal-clear playback. Just because the player supports HDTV resolutions doesn't really mean you're going to get HD quality over the internet. The faster your internet connection and the better your computer's specs (CPU, Graphics card etc), the better your results will likely be.

[via Lost Remote]

No one has filed a lawsuit against VeohTV yet, but it could just be a matter of time. The service is something of a cross between YouTube and Joost, giving you the ability to surf for online videos without using a web browser.

Many of those videos don't come from Veoh, but from sources like NBC, CBS, and YouTube. That includes full length streaming episodes of shows like 24, Heroes, and 30 Rock. And Veoh's made the intriguing (and possibly ill-advised) decision not to ask for permission to distribute those videos.

Netflix customers know that the company is rolling out a service that lets impatient subscribers watch videos on their computer. But not every movie in your queue has the "watch now" button next to it. So trying to find a movie for instant gratification can actually take quite a long time.

Someone's decided to step in and make the process a bit easier, compiling a list of over 2300 Netlix movies available for online viewing. Most titles include a link to the movie's page on Netflix. You'll need a subscription in order to watch these movies. But now that you know how easy it is to find titles like Gothic Vampires from Hell, why wouldn't you want to sign up?

[via Brent Evans]

We got a little peak at DivX Connected at last night's Digital Life press preview event. While there was a small set-top box next to the big TV showing off the software interface, it wasn't the GejBox that made a brief appearance last month, which shouldn't be surprising as DivX doesn't have plans to sell a set top box. Rather, the company is developing a platform that could be integrated with cable boxes, DVD players, and other set-top boxes.

The DivX connected platform functions much like an AppleTV, letting you access music, video, and pictures from any computer connected to your LAN. It's also internet enabled, allowing you to access online videos from Stage6 and Google Video. Because it's an open platform, expect other online video sites to be added to that list. The plan is to announce hardware partners by the end of the year.

More photos after the jump.

Right now, Internet TV platforms like Joost are basically the ghost of television shows past. Want to watch old episodes of Rocky and Bullwinkle or Babylon 5? No problem. But fresher content is a bit harder to come by.

That's why it's rather impressive to see that Joost has landed a deal with VH1 to premiere the entire season of the new sitcom I Hate My 30s starting July 16th. That's ten days before the show will air on VH1.

The series' eight half-hour episodes follow a group of adults who are turning 30 and dealing with all those things you deal with when you realize your life is about a third of the way over. But you probably guessed that from the title.

TiVo and Amazon have tightened the integration of Amazon's online movie download service with TiVo set top boxes.

In March, the two companies launched a partnership that lets you buy and download movies and television from Amazon Unbox to your computer, and then watch those videos on your home network-connected TiVo.

Now, the companies are eliminating the two step process, allowing you to order and download movies directly from your Series2 or Series3 TiVo. All you need to play is a broadband connection and an Amazon Unbox account. You'll have to enter a 5-digit code on your remote control to order movies, which should keep the kids or house guests from filling up your TiVo.

The update makes TiVo a serious competitor for the AppleTV and other devices that bring internet video to your television set.

It's not even clear yet that there's a market for full-screen applications for watching internet video without a web browser. But companies are coming out of the woodwork to take on internet TV platform Joost. I guess nobody wants to see Joost become the next YouTube when they could have had a chance to get in on the craze at its outset.

Blinkx is the latest online video site to announce a full-screen video player, no web browser required. BetaNews gota sneak peak at Blinkx's upcoming BBTV the other night.

Blinkx is best known right now for its video search engine. BBTV will utilize the same video indexing features as the web service, allowing you to search for specific text in a speech track. This will also help Blinkx to integrate a contextual advertisements.

BBTV will deliver video using a peer-to-peer system, much like Joost.

Who wants to spend their time and energy hacking the AppleTV when you could finagle with the open-source (hacking encouraged) Neuros OSD? Turns out, a lot of people. But that's beside the point.

The Neuros OSD is an open-source PVR that's capable of accessing online media like music, movies, and pictures. It records directly onto removable flash cards, making it an ideal choice for commuters who like to watch recorded TV on the train using a portable media player.

Thanks to the miracles of the modern hacking community, Neuros has just announced a new beta update for the OSD that adds YouTube browsing to the device. You can browse YouTube by categories and ratings, or you can perform keyword searches. A future release will add sharing, subscriptions, and other features.

[via Boing Boing]

What Joost is doing for television over the internet, Veoh wants to do for internet video... over the internet. Let me rephrase that. You know how Joost takes internet video out of the web browser and puts it into a standalone full-screen application with easy to navigate controls? Yeah, that's what Veoh wants to do.

But while Joost's strategy has been to partner with companies like Paramount, CBS, and Viacom to provide content, VeohTV, which launches in beta this week, lets you see pretty much any video on the web in a standalone full screen application.

At this point, television networks have made some prime time content available for free online. We're not talking about $1.99 downloads from iTunes. We're talking free streaming episodes from networks like ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, and the CW.

But you can usually find just few episodes of a few programs. Mashable has put together a list of 33 services that provide online access to TV programs in one way or another. Some are 100% legal, like Joost and Babelgum. Others are a bit shadiers, like TV Links, which doesn't host any copyright-infringing video on its servers, but provides links to sites where you can (probably illegally) stream video.

When you first describe a PVR to someone, it's hard to convey how much it changes the way you watch television. "So it's like a VCR," they usually say. But of course, it's much more than that.

Hanford Lemoore worked on the first ReplayTV, and he estimates that he'd probably been using a PVR in his home longer than just about anyone. Lemoore had a ReplayTV unit in his house for a year before they hit the market.

But when his hard drive died a year and a half ago, he unplugged his ReplayTV and decided to see what life was like without a one.

Within 6 to 8 weeks, TiVo will roll out a new expanded search feature the company's calling "Universal Swivel Search."

Universal Swivel Search will let you find programming that you like based on titles, actors, genres, or suggestions from other users. Sure, you can browse or search for actors or other keywords right now, but the new search feature won't require searching a specific database. My best guess is that means you'll be able to type in a show that you like and your TiVo will spit out a list of other shows you might want to record.

The bigger story is the fact that Universal Swivel Search will let you search for programs online as well as for shows that will be airing soon on television. The search will cover TiVo's online partners, ranging from Amazon Unbox to Rocketboom and other vlogs with TiVoCast channels.

Online video company Akimbo is getting out of the hardware game Monday. The company had been selling a set-top-box that allowed customers to download movies over the internet without a computer.

It's likely that the company may have overestimated the market for standalone boxes that only do one thing. At a time when you can pick up an AppleTV, Nintendo Wii, or Xbox 360 and surf the web, browse RSS feeds or watch movies on your TV, it's hard to justify another set-top-box by your TV.

Akimbo will be launching a new website where you can buy digital downloads. The new strategy will be to deliver content to consumers via PCs and set-top-boxes from other companies.

Arab news network Al Jazeera launched an English language network almost half a year ago. But the network hasn't had much luck getting on air in the United States, where many broadcasters consider Al Jazeera to be biased against America and Israel.

So what does Al Jazeera do? They go and partner up with YouTube, creating an online channel for their material. The channel went live today, and while the introductory video has been watched a couple thousand views, most of the actual news stories have only been clicked on a few times so far.