AfterDawn: News

CES 2008: Panasonic to launch series of YouTube TVs

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., the Japanese industry giant behind Panasonic, announced at Consumer Electronics Show (CES) that it will launch Internet-ready plasma televisions that support Youtube videos and Google web albums. The rival Sony responded with its own announcement that they will also bring Internet video to upcoming TVs. Sony's new brand of TVs will feature content from AOL, Yahoo, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Sony BMG Music.

"This is the first time mainstream consumers will be able to easily enjoy YouTube videos from the living room with the enhanced quality of a fully integrated Widescreen TV experience," said Matsushita.



Sony Electronics senior vice president Randy Waynick also saw Internet video a big part of future televisions as he stated, "Internet video will clearly be the next step in the evolution of high-definition television, giving users more control over the content they view."

In addition Sony Pictures Television announced that it will add content to YouTube, the videos will be separated to several new channels, first of which is called Minisode Network which offers five-minute versions of TV shows.

Source:
Yahoo! News

Written by: Matti Robinson @ 8 Jan 2008 6:41

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• 8 comments

• nobrainer

  cool stuff Panasonic, but a bit last gen to all of us with a media centre pc!
  
  Quote:Sony responded with its own announcement that they will also bring Internet video to upcoming TVs. Sony's new brand of TVs will feature content from AOL, Yahoo, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Sony BMG Music.at what cost, the usual sony extortionate rates apply i suppose?
  
  
  
  Quote:Sony BMG skips DRM for Platinum MusicPass MP3 gift cards
  
  Originally posted by FTA link: Posted Jan 7th 2008 10:43PM by Christopher Grant
  
  Sony BMG Music Entertainment just announced Platinum MusicPass, retail gift cards which can be traded in for digital music, delivered to you in "high-quality" – and notably DRM-free – MP3 files. No word on precisely what bitrate constitutes high-quality, but for $12.99 (or $19.99 for a couple special edition albums) you can pick up a card from a local retailer, scratch the back, enter the pin number on MusicPass.com and download the MP3s (and sometimes bonus material). Is it perhaps inadvisable to require consumers to leave the internet, go to a store to purchase a MusicPass card, only to return home to the internet to download the DRM-free track? Hey, we're not business majors here and – judging by the initial album offerings – we're not their target demographic either. Celine Dion and Kenny Chesney, really?
  $12.99 for a digital album, has anyone told sony that there are very little overheads with digital distribution thus making it cheaper for consumers?
  
  Or is it rip of the artists & consumer time, yet again!
  
  http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/200...-downloads.html
  
  Originally posted by : Ars; Full Low Down On RIAA Screw Over Via Link: Radiohead: Artists often screwed by digital downloads
  
  You might think, if you didn't work in the music business, that famous artists stand to make mad cash from popular albums on iTunes and other digital storefronts. Sadly, that's not the case, and Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke has spent the last week calling out the labels for it. He recently told BBC Radio 4 that "the big infrastructure of the music business has not addressed the way artists communicate directly with their fans. In fact, they seem to basically get in the way. Not only do they get in the way, but they take all the cash."
  
  Yorke said the same thing in a widely-quoted recent interview with David Byrne. His advice to young artists in that piece was, "Don't sign a huge record contract that strips you of all your digital rights, so that when you do sell something on iTunes you get absolutely zero. That would be the first priority." He went on to say that selling the new album, In Rainbows, directly to fans made the band more money from digital distribution than "all the other Radiohead albums put together, forever."
  
  Or are they starting to try and force on us all, the single user licence big media's wet dream that will make the fat cats, even fatter?
  

  Tor: anonymity online HIDE your IP from the spies, post and browse anonymously! http://www.torproject.org/
  
  
  The RIAA Soundexchange Are: SONY, UNIVERSAL, WARNER GROUP, EMI.
  
  The MPAA Are: SONY, UNIVERSAL, WARNER GROUP, DISNEY, PARAMOUNT, FOX.

  8.1.2008 09:21 #1

• chaos_zzz

  what for? my computer it's connected to my pc :) cool feature thought for most ppl who are not tech fans

  8.1.2008 11:27 #2

• emugamer

  Now I can watch Tay Zonday and talking kitties in High Def......before I pull the trigger and blow my brains out.

  8.1.2008 12:07 #3

• redux79

  This seems like a step in the right direction for those who don't want to buy or upgrade to a media center pc. One question though, why do I need to watch some kid get hit in the nuts with a soup can on youtube in widescreen? Most of those videos are made with low end cell phones or web cams. I can only imagine how grainy and pixilated the videos will look on a larger screen.
  
  I know they mentioned new regulated video services, but promoting you tube? Just seems like a gimmick to me.

  8.1.2008 12:15 #4

• canuckerz

  Wow and eveyone knows what amazing resolutions you can get from youtube and how they'd be more enjoyed on an HDTV.

  8.1.2008 12:36 #5

• vinny13

  Why can't they just make TVs with a built in media center? Like a PS3 inside a 52" screen :)
  
  That would be perfect.

  8.1.2008 16:17 #6

• borhan9

  This basically means in the near future we are going to get TV's that have all the new high definition stuff plus an internet connection or wireless blutooth connection for internet connection and then we can do everything with our TV's and well this i am sure what people are doing already but this innovation is going to simplify the whole process.

  9.1.2008 19:53 #7

• chaos_zzz

  connect your pc to to your tv, youtube res is awfull thought and gets worse on a big screen

  14.2.2008 12:48 #8