Disney announced a new service called MovieBeam today. While it's video-on-demand using a Samsung setop box, it looks like a combo aimed squarely at services like Netflix and TiVo.

Basically you've got a box with 100 movies on it at all times, with 10 new ones available each week from Disney's stable of movie studios. They charge $6.99 a month, plus $2.50-$4 for each movie you watch, which could be quite lucrative to them, especially since they are selling direct to consumers and cutting out middlemen like Blockbuster video.

The setop box does do digital audio out and s-video, but I wonder what sort of copy protection is in place on delivered movies. Also they mention all transmission is over-the-air, using a small antenna, but I haven't seen any details of the technical specs on that.

Serial entrepreneur Anthony Wood (founder of ReplayTV, Dreamweaver, and other products) has started a new company to focus on the HDTV market. An HD PVR must not be too far behind, although I wonder about the HD space needed for HDTV.

[Roku is] the first digital media player to be designed for high-definition televisions, which are gaining in popularity as prices drop.

The HD1000 can play slideshows, video or music files from its four built-in memory card slots, or play files streamed from a computer via an Ethernet network connection.

AP - ReplayTV Inventors Aim at Living Rooms

Alex Hoffman of TidBITS loves Tivo Series 2. For him Tivo = no need for NetFlix.

But despite the cost, believe everything you have heard about how great TiVo is. We have gotten more out of it than we would have gotten out of a new computer. Or two new computers. Whether you love movies (catch them to record even when you don't know that they're on), episodic television (never miss a show) or sports (watch replays when you want to, and then catch up by fast-forwarding through the commercials), TiVo changes the way that you watch television, and the Home Media Option is the best way I've seen to play MP3s on your living room's sound system.