Cablevision has been feeling a bit left out of the whole TV Anywhere concept that has been bringing streaming versions of network offerings to subscription TV customers. As one of the smaller cable providers, Cablevision has lagged in signing deals with major broadcasters to offer streaming versions to customers, but the company picked up a big win this week by signing a deal to offer streaming WATCH versions of the Walt Disney Company's networks. This of course involves offerings such as WATCH Disney Channel and WATCH ABC Family, but probably more importantly for most Cablevision subscribers, WATCH ESPN which brings content from ESPN's repertoire of networks online. 

 Mum's the word on how much cash was involved in the deal, but we do know it's a multi-year agreement and that Walt & Co. feel rather content about it, with a company's spokesperson saying, "With our robust and ever-growing multi-platform content offerings, we're pleased to be able to expand our relationship with Cablevision."

Engadget

Our own Andrew van Til recently scoffed at the notion of debating the merits of OLED vs 4K TVs and trying to decide which one is more worthy of holding out for. It would appear that the folks at IHS iSuppli Research would probably agree. IHS is predicting that 4K TVs will represent an exceedingly small part of the market over the next five years, only reaching 0.8% of all TV shipments in 2017. The central thrust of IHS's argument is that the LCD-based 4K TVs creeping into the market right now exist only so that manufacturers can stake a claim on the nosebleed edge of the premium market. In order for 4K to go mainstream, not only will consumers need to be convinced of the benefits, but new technology is going to be necessary to reduce costs. IHL predicts that will require AMOLED panels, but LG and Smasung continue to struggle to make large AMOLED panels and Japanese firms are scrambling to find a competitive technology to match AMOLED. By the time the behind-the-scenes manufacturing details get worked out for these companies and their 4K offerings, standard OLED screens will probably have already had their make-or-break day in the market and everyone will already be turning their attention to what will come next.

The 4K television segment recently has garnered attention with Sony Corp. announcing an 84" 4K LCD-TV priced at $25 000. LG Electronics also launched an 84" LCD-TV for $20 000. Toshiba Corp. is offering a 55" model priced at $10 000. Chinese brands Hisense and Konka have also announced that they will launch 84" 4K TV-sets this year. However, IHS believes that neither consumers nor television brands will have the interest required to make the 4K LCD-TV market successful.

X-bit Labs

One of the more intriguing media streamers to come out this year is the Roku Streaming Stick. The Roku Streaming Stick is a media streamer designed to be plugged into the MHL port on your TV or other device, and indeed we have already seen some Insignia TVs sporting the Roku Ready logo that Roku has come up with for certified devices, but the goal has always been to expand the Roku Streaming Stick into other consumer electronics. The first official non-TV device is a projector from 3M, the 3M Streaming Projector. The 3M Streaming Projector will start shipping in a couple of weeks for $299 and includes the Roku Streaming Stick. Only 2" tall and less than 4.5" in length and width, the Streaming Stick actually looks pretty big next to this projector. 3M is selling the Streaming Projector as a portable family movie device, touting the Roku Streaming Stick's Wi-FI and the projector's 2 hour and 45 minute battery as the solution for bringing epic movie watching to any room or backyard. Of course, with a lumens rating of only 60W, you better make sure that room or yard get very dark.

The Roku Streaming Stick plugs into an MHL port (looks like HDMI but actually powers and commands the Streaming Stick) on Roku Ready® consumer electronics devices, bringing Roku to a range of new products. Today, I’m pleased to unveil the first product of its kind–the 3M Streaming Projector powered by the Roku Streaming Stick.

Roku Blog

I know what I will be doing this weekend. I'm all for beta software, but media center software usually has to at least hit the release candidate stage before I am willing to try it out on the rest of the family. Well, OpenELEC 2.0 RC1 has been released and I have just the system to try it out on.  For those not familiar with OpenELEC, it is a specialized Linux distro built from the ground up to run XBMC, similar to GeeXbox, another XBMC-oriented Linux distro that recently hit a milestone of its own. As with GeeXboX's recent release, OpenELEC 2.0 is based on XBMC 11 (Eden), and will include the PVR capabilities that were recently merged into the XBMC main branch. OpenELEC 2.0 also makes the jump to 64-bit with this release, and as a result, anyone interested in hopping on the release candidate needs to be prepared to either perform a clean install or be comfortable manually removing and upgrading add-on packages. With so many XBMC derivatives willing to roll out new versions with PVR support included, hopefully XBMC 12 (Frodo) won't be far behind.

The OpenELEC team is proud to release the first release candidate of OpenELEC 2.0!

Internally this is known by the less-catchy name OpenELEC 1.99.1 and we really hope its one of the latest prereleases before our OpenELEC 2.0 final.

OpenELEC

MythTV has received an update, bringing the venerable FOSS media center program up to version 026. This latest version comes only six month after the release of version 0.25. Given that I am fairly certain the dinosaurs came and went in time between versions 0.24 and 0.25, version 0.26 had a relatively short development cycle, which might be part of the reason the MythTV team is describing this as a modest release. Along with the usual raft of bug fixes and performance improvements, there are a number of notable new features including support for HTTP Live Streaming playback and recording and the addition of recording rule templates for folks interested in customizing their rules for scheduled recordings. One major change in version 0.26 is the conversion of internal times to UTC. This is a change that has major impact on the MythTV database and it might be worthwhile checking out the release notes for details about the potential pitfalls and for more details about the value of performing a manual backup of the database before upgrading.

Notable changes include:

• HTTP Live Streaming playback and recording
• Conversion of internal times to UTC allowing smoother transitions around daylight savings changes
• Several performance improvements to the UI
• A greater number of translations (nine) are 100% complete for this release with a few more very near to completion. This number should grow by the time of the 0.26.1 point release.
• The usual bug fixes and incremental improvements

MythTV

Google entered the new year with big plans for Google TV. The platform was moving from Intel Atom chips to ARM SoCs, Sony was returning as a hardware partner and throughout the year the list of manufactures kept growing as companies like Vizio, LG, and Hisense announced Google TV products. Although standalone boxes dominate the scene for media streamers, Google TV has, from the beginning, pushed to be added to manufacturers' TV sets. LG is one company that has taken Google up on this offer. The LG G2 Google TV is a 47" LCD TV with an edge-lit LED 1080p panel. It sports the usual collection of connections including HDMI, component, and RGB, but no doubt LG anf Google are hoping you will have little use for these connections as the star of the show is the integrated Google TV. Now, one could go melodramatic and point out that building your media streamer right into the TV may mean no separate box is necessary, but it also means putting your faith in the manufacturer to not only have a great media streamer, but also a great TV, because there is no going back. Obviously there is nothing to stop one from simply adding another, better media streamer, but if the comapnies responsible for the LG G2 Google TV can get both sdes of the equation right, then they might have a winner. I'm feeling pretty good about LG upholding their end of the deal.

All second generation Google TV devices would move to ARM silicon, including SoCs from Marvell (long a player in the video silicon space) and a surprise entrant, LG. Korea’s LG would also play a role in a big software change for Google TV, the first skinned implementation. Skins over Android are rarely something to get excited over, and can often be a detriment to performance, but the reality was that the bar was so low with Google TV that anything that could inch it up would be considered a blessing.

Anandtech

Microsoft announced Xbox Music at E3 this year, and then promptly stopped talking about it. Rumors swirled that Microsoft was looking into adding a digital locker service similar to iTunes Match to complement the Zune-rebranded services already in place. Now more rumors are swirling that Xbox Music will finally launch on October 26. To be fair, this isn't exactly a blockbuster prediction given that October 26 is also the General Availability date for Windows 8 and the release date for the first wave of Surface tablets, both of which Microsoft has stated would be part of the Xbox Music ecosystem, but it is something. The digital locker service is still reportedly in the mix, integrated with SkyDrive, as are the Zune Pass-style subscriptions, but there might also be free ad-supported streaming, though whether it will be more like Spotify or Pandora remains to be seen. Odds are, it will be more like Zune Channels.

Microsoft is preparing to launch its Xbox Music service on October 26th. Multiple sources familiar with Microsoft's plans have confirmed the new service will launch at the same time as Windows 8. We're told that subscriptions, like the current Zune Music Pass offering, will be available alongside a free streaming service supported by ads — similar to Spotify. 

The Verge