Samsung Electronics Co. is equipping Blu-ray DVD players so they can retrieve movies and TV shows from Netflix Inc.’s Internet streaming service, accelerating Netflix’s push to develop more delivery methods beyond the mail.

The deal, to be announced Thursday, could set the stage for Netflix to embed software connecting to its streaming service directly into television sets made by Samsung.

In a statement, Netflix and Samsung said they are planning to plant the streaming capability in a variety of home entertainment products. Reed Hastings, Netflix’s chief executive officer, declined to elaborate on the other possibilities in an interview.

This won’t be the first time that Netflix has piped its online content through Blu-ray DVD players — devices built to show movies in high-definition quality that outshines traditional DVD players.

LG Electronics began selling a $350 Blu-ray player with Netflix streaming earlier this month.

Netflix currently has nearly 8.7 million subscribers, most of whom still go online to request DVD rentals that are mailed to them a day or two later. But the Los Gatos, Calif.-based company has been trying to provide more instant gratification with a 21-month-old service that beams movies and TV shows over high-speed Internet connections in less than a minute.

After a slow start, the “Watch Instantly” service has been become more popular as Netflix expanded the selection to include more recent titles and forged various partnerships that have made it easier to watch on a big-screen TV instead of being tethered to a personal computer.

A Silicon Valley startup, Roku Inc., has been selling a $100 device that streams Netflix’s service to TVs for the past five months and Microsoft Corp.’s popular video game console, the Xbox 360, will become compatible within a few weeks.

Samsung’s connection to the Netflix service will work through two Blu-ray models, the BD-P2500 and BD-P2550, that have already been on the market. Consumers who already own those Samsung models will need a free software upgrade to make the players compatible with Netflix’s streaming service. Future models, carrying a suggested price of $400, will have the Netflix feature built in.

Fetching the movies and TV shows from a streaming library of more than 12,000 titles requires a minimum subscription of $8.99 per month that also includes DVD rentals delivered through the mail.

Netflix is aiming to make access to its streaming service a standard feature in all Blu-ray players, much like Dolby sound has become a staple in consumer electronics products, Hastings said.

Although they are still in relatively few households, Blu-ray players are expected to become more prevalent as prices fall and more consumers upgrade their TV sets to take full advantage of the February transition from analog to digital transmission.

With the sagging economy causing consumers re-examine their spending habits, Netflix can use every edge it can get. Subscriber growth has been running behind last year’s pace in the past two months, a trend Hastings expects to last through at least the rest of the year.

Netflix is hoping to soften the blow charging an additional $1 per more month to about 500,000 subscribers who rent Blu-ray DVDs. The surcharge is effective Nov. 5.-AP

Toshiba Corp is planning to stop production of equipment compatible with the HD DVD format for high-definition video, allowing the competing Blu-Ray camp a free run :sad: , public broadcaster NHK reported on Saturday.

Toshiba is expected to suffer losses amounting to tens of billions of yen :neutral: (hundreds of millions of dollars) to scrap production of HD DVD players and recorders and other steps to exit the business, Japan’s NHK said on its website.

No one at Toshiba could be reached for comment.

The format war between the Toshiba-backed HD DVD and Sony Corp’s Blu-Ray, often compared to the Betamax-VHS battle in the 1980s, has slowed the development of what is expected to be a multibillion dollar high-definition DVD industry.

Toshiba was dealt a blow on Friday when Wal-Mart Stores Inc said it would abandon the HD DVD format, becoming the latest in a series of top retailers and movie studios to rally behind Blu-ray technology for high definition DVDs.

Toshiba plans to continue selling HD DVD equipment at stores for the time being but will not put resources into developing new devices :mad: , NHK said.

Soure: Reuters

Today Sony announced the Sony BWU-200S – a new blu-ray disc writer that is capable of writing blu-ray discs twice as fast as last years generation. The writer will be available in November for around $600.

Press release from Sony:

Sony Unveils 4X Blu-ray Disc Writer Drive

Cuts Burning Time in Half from Previous Model

SAN JOSE, Calif., Oct. 9 — Sony Electronics today announced its second generation internal Blu-ray Disc(TM) (BD) writer drive for the computer aftermarket, which boasts 4X BD-R and 16X DVD+R recording speeds.

The new BWU-200S model cuts BD-R burning time by half compared to the first generation model, allowing for a full 50GB BD-R disc to be recorded in about 45 minutes. It also features improved DVD burning speeds, making it a multi-format combo burner that eliminates the need for more than one drive in a system.

The drive comes with CyberLink BD Solution software that provides a comprehensive application for capturing, authoring, editing, burning and viewing high-definition personal content captured in the native HDV 1080i format from an HDV camcorder. In addition, the software supports recording on DVDs and CDs, as well as playback of DVDs recorded in the AVCHD format.

The BWU-200S drive can record up to 50GB of data for random access storage and backup on BD-R (write once) or BD-RE (rewritable) discs, or up to 230 minutes of high-definition HDV 1080i video on a BD-R/RE 50GB disc. It also supports recording on standard single layer 4.7GB DVD+R/+RW/RAM discs, 8.5GB DVD+R double/dual layer discs, and CDs.

The internal drive features a Serial ATA (SATA) interface and standard 5.25-inch form-factor for easy installation inside a desktop PC with Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP or Windows Vista(R) software.

“Consumers and professional videographers alike can enjoy the huge storage capacity to record and experience high-definition video with our Blu-ray Disc drive,” said Bob DeMoulin, marketing manager for branded storage products in Sony Electronics’ IT Products Division.

The new drive is supported by Adobe(R) Encore(R) CS3 that now comes bundled with Adobe Premiere(R) Pro CS3 software, providing video production professionals with another option for outputting high-definition video on a Blu-ray Disc with MPEG-2 or H.264 compression.

“Advanced optical storage technologies, such as Blu-ray Disc technology with its vast capacity compared to DVD technology, will be key enablers for next generation PC applications like HD personal video content and high- definition TV recording,” said Wolfgang Schlichting, research director for removable storage at IDC. “Sony’s many innovations in optical storage have prepared the company to be a leader in the Blu-ray Disc writable market.”

Availability and Pricing
The BWU-200S drive will be available next month for about $600.