YouTube made two announcements Thursday for Web surfers who want high-definition videos. The company has expanded its HD player and is testing three new landing pages that aim to help the video-watching masses find news, music and movies on the site.”People are beginning to watch more Internet video on their television and they are beginning to watch more long-form video, so it’s inevitable that they are going to want to see higher quality than YouTube has normally provided,” said Phil Leigh, a senior analyst at Inside Digital Media.
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December 23rd, 2008
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is putting an end to its lawsuit strategy, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.The RIAA has sued thousands of people over the years for allegedly stealing music on the Internet — about 35,000 people since 2003 — but the group is reportedly looking for better ways to protect its members from online piracy.
Analysts said the lawsuit strategy wasn’t particularly effective, and caused public-relations issues. Indeed, the RIAA has in the past targeted single mothers, children and even a dead person. The RIAA’s new strategy is to enlist Internet service providers.
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December 23rd, 2008
In yet another HD video announcement, Roku on Monday unveiled support 
for streaming high-definition content.Roku is the digital-media technology company perhaps best known for its Netflix Player by Roku initiative. Roku launched a set-top box for Netflix in May to compete with the likes of Apple. The device allows Netflix subscribers to instantly stream the movie-rental service’s library of 10,000 movies and TV episodes directly to their TVs.
Now, Roku is promising instant streaming in high definition. By leveraging advanced compression technology, Roku said it can stream HD content over average consumer broadband connections. That, the company said, brings HD to the mass market at an affordable price. The Roku box is available for $99.
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December 23rd, 2008
