Media Streaming

The surest sign that a new industry is here to stay is when new entries start popping up in the market to target the niches. CrunchyRoll has anime. Chow has cooking. Mela has found themselves a big niche to fill by targeting the market for Bollywood films with its new media streaming service. Think Netflix, but loaded with Southern Asian content instead of Southern California content. Mela is even taking a similar approach by rolling out its service with a single hardware device, though they are selling it themselves instead of through a partnership as Netflix did with Roku, with plans to spread across the app and device ecosystem.

Launching as a subscription service à la Netflix or Hulu Plus, Mela has more than 500 Bollywood movies available for on-demand viewing, as well as a total of 45 live TV channels. The service today is available for $149 with the purchase of a streaming box that will include a year’s subscription for on-demand movies, 20 live TV channels, and a choice between one of two regional live TV plans based on language. Otherwise, the subscription TV plans will go for $9.99 a month each, with access to the on-demand movie service set at $4.99 a month.

GigaOm

It seemed like everyone had finally settled down on H.264, in all its myriad flavors, as the video compression standard of choice, and now comes word that work on H.265 is starting to come together. Admittedly, its not much a surprise. Standards bodies need something to keep themselves busy and processor manufacturers are sure to appreciate a new application to push computing needs. With more than a dozen versions of H.264 approved over the last ten years, it has been a remarkably flexible set of standards. H.265 will be designed from the beginning to support resolutions ranging from the smartphone-friendly QVGA (320x240) all the way up to the recently approved Ultra High-Definition Television resolution of 7680x4320.

 According to Multichannel News, an initial draft of the new spec should be ready in February, with a completed standard due in January 2013.

The H.265 codec is expected to decrease the bandwidth needed to deliver video by 25% to 50%. The bandwidth savings come at a cost of increased processing complexity, but the benefits, particularly for mobile operators, make the cost worthwhile.

Zatz Not Funny!

It's been a busy month for the folks at DVBLogic. Earlier this month they announced the release of their DVBLink v4 products which included ATSC support, the DVBLink Connect! Server for streaming live TV to mobile devices and DLNA devices, and a new API for building 3rd party DVBLink clients.

Now DVBLogic has announced the release of an iOS client for DVBLink v4.

DVBLogic’sDVBLink iOS clientis available in Apple’sAppStore. The app works with DVBLink Connect Server! and is compatible with iPhone, iPad andiPodTouch.

With the app you can watch live TV, browse the EPG, manage recordings and view program details.

TDL

At the same time, the community of DVBLink users have been getting busy in the DVBLogic forums, working out how to configure MediaPortal as a client for DVBLink.

Over on DVBLogic’s forums there is a guide on how to use MediaPortal with DVBLink, if you have MediaPortal and want to get access to DVBLink features you will need to follow their detailed guide.

TDL

Apple and Google have become the dueling titans of the technology sector and both companies are counting on their digital media services and marketplaces to push the adoption of their different OS and cloud platforms. Recent rumors have both companies closing in on establishing new digital media services.

In the case of Apple, the focus is on streaming movies. Apple is reportedly negotiating with movie studios to enable iCloud to serve as a digital media locker for movies purchased on iTunes, similar to the recently launched UltraViolet.

However, according to "people familiar with the matter" it could allow Ultraviolet access on iThings via app, while also bringing its usual media lock-in magic by also throwing in streaming copies of any flicks purchased on iTunes, but only on its own hardware. 

Engadget

Google, on the other hand, is working the music angle and negotiating with music labels to open an MP3 store that would tie into Google Music as a digital media locker. Of course, these are properly pretty tricky negotiations given how Google launched Google Music Beta while thumbing its nose at labels.

According to sources within the industry, the platform, not surprisingly, would be directly linked to Google Music Beta and may launch within the next few weeks -- perhaps even before Apple unveils iTunes Match, at the end of this month. It remains to be seen, however, whether Big G will be able to finalize negotiations with record labels and publishers before launching the initiative in earnest -- a potentially major hurdle, considering Google's recent track record. 

Engadget