News written by Rich Fiscus (April, 2008)

It appears that online DVD rental giant Netflix, whose streaming video service has become very popular with customers, appears ready to make a major move into the set-top box market. Early this year the company announced a deal that will have LG manufacturing some sort of networked player that will work with the Netflix service, and now Reuters is reporting that deals have been made with with three more companies to sell similar devices.

"We have LG plus three additional partners actively working on integrating our technology into their products," Netflix Chief Executive Officer Reed Hastings said on a conference call with analysts.

"Three of the four partners are major companies, which each sell millions of devices per year and will enable the Netflix functionality in some of those devices likely in the fourth quarter of this year," he said, adding "The fourth partner is a small company, which will likely launch sooner than Q4."

Nokia has announced a deal with Sony BMG, the world's second largest music label, to participate in their "Comes With Music" program, which is now expected to launch some time in the second half of this year instead of at mid-year as previously announced.

The plan is to offer unlimited music downloads from Nokia's online store for 12 months, with the option to extend that subscription after the first year. But perhaps the most important aspect of the program is that the files will still play after the first year if you decide not to renew your subscription. The music will be protected by Microsoft DRM.

Last year Nokia inked a similar deal with Universal Music Group, the world's number one label.

It's no secret the as DVR ownership has increased over the last few years, many people now see commercials as a nuisance to be skipped. In their search for a solution to this potentially very expensive issue NBC Universal has established a partnership with Omnicom Group Inc. that will focus on building TV shows directly around sponsors' products.

NBC Universal and Omnicom will create content specifically for non-traditional distribution channels like websites. According to the Associated Press the initial offerings, currently scheduled to debut some time this summer, will include "Gemini Division," starring Rosario Dawson, and include sponsorship from both Cisco and Microsoft.

"We are proactively working with our clients, the advertisers, to deliver compelling content to our audiences, wherever they are," NBC entertainment chief Ben Silverman said in a statement.

Over the last month I've been working on a number of MPEG-4 AVC related guides. Devices from mobile phones to Blu-ray players, and numerous others in between the two extremes, are designed with AVC video in mind.

One of the most popular AVC conversion tools available is AutoMKV. In addition to its price (free), the high level of automation which allows even novices to produce high quality AVC video, makes it worth considering if you don't want to spend a lot time figuring out how it all works.

If you'd like to convert your movies from DVD to AVC with AutoMKV you should take a look at our new guide on Encoding From DVD to AVC with AutoMKV.

If your source video is MPEG-2 video from either analog or DTV capures you should read our instructions on how to Convert MPEG-2 Captures to AVC with AutoMKV.

Entertainment giant Viacom is partnering with MGM, and Lionsgate to start a new premium cable channel. Less than three years ago Viacom gave up ownership of Showtime to CBS Television when they split assets between the two companies. The new channel will compete with both Showtime and Time-Warner owned HBO

According to the Associated Press, a statement from Viacom president CEO Philippe Dauman said "This venture has the potential to be a game changer for the industry," . "We are building an innovative service that will use traditional and new digital distribution technologies to bring great film and television entertainment directly to the consumer."

Viacom already owns a huge library of TV shows, as well as the theatrical movies released by its Paramount Pictures division. MGM owns with the AP calls "the world's largest modern film library," which includes not just MGM, but also United Artists and Orion Pictures titles.