Thursday, 23 October 2008

Samsung Forms Alliance with Netflix, Pandora on Including Audio, Video Streaming Services

In a recent announcement Samsung said that it is partnering with two Internet multimedia companies for the purpose of incorporating audio/video streaming services into the company's latest Blu-ray disc players.

The online video disc rental company Netflix and the music recommendation and Internet radio service Pandora would bring Internet-based multimedia streaming features to Samsung's BD-P2500 and BD-P2550 Blu-ray Disc players.

Both Samsung players have been available at retail for several weeks. In addition to Netflix and (for the 2550) Pandora support, a subsequent firmware update due on October 30 will add DTS-HD audio support (on-board decoding for DTS-HD High Resolution, bit stream output for Master Audio) for both players, and BD-Live support for 2550 (it's already available on the 2500).

Netflix said customers who already own Samsung BD-P2550 and BD-P2500 Blu-ray players, priced at around USD 400 each, can upgrade these devices at no additional cost to enable instant streaming from Netflix's streaming service, with a library of more than 12,000 movies and television episodes.