We are on track to launch the PlayOn Beta for the PS3 and Xbox360 in 19 days! It is looking great. We have decided on the name PlayOn (what do ya think?) for the product that will allow you to PLAY Hulu, YouTube, CBS.com, and ESPN.com ON your TV via your PS3 or Xbox360. We are still rounding up Beta users, and in fact I just received an email yesterday from a gamer that works over at Yahoo! Videogames, and I quote:

"Sounds awesome! I was just complaining to a friend the other day that I can't watch Hulu on my bigscreen because it doesn't let you download the video and stream it. So count me in for the beta. ;)"

Thanks Richard - we are excited too! And - if you have a PS3, Xbox360 or HP MediaSmart TV, you can be a Beta user as well -- just shoot an email to tracy@themediamall.com and let me know what device you have, and we will put you on the list for the August 18th Beta release. Oh - and like all Betas, the release will be free for Beta users! So, come on and join in the countdown fun!

Cheers!

So according to Adweek, some Tivo owners can finally watch YouTube on their TV! Bummer that it is only thousands that have a powerful enough box to do so. Tivo despirately needs to embrace Broadband Video as its increasing relevance may negate the need for Tivo altogether (with sites like Hulu and ABC.com). This is a step in the right direction -- as I mentioned in my post on Broadband's Abundance.

We want to take it much farther than the thousands who will be able to watch YouTube on their TV via their Tivo -- we want to open up not just YouTube, but also Hulu and ESPN.com and CBS.com and CNN.com to the millions (over 5 million) of folks who have PS3s or Xbox360s -- so they can watch these Internet-based videos on their TVs. I mentioned this on my last blog post where I invited PS3 owners and Xbox360 owners to try out our Beta. The offer is still open - email me at tracy@themediamall.com.

As always - would love to hear your thoughts!

We have had great feedback from our DSM-520 users, and we want to offer ActiveTV to many more users!  We are completing development on a UPnP version of ActiveTV...it will first be available for the PS3, XBox 360, and HP MediaSmart TV.  It will offer a limited but powerful set of video content sources, including Hulu, YouTube, CBS.com, CNN.com, ESPN.com, and Netflix.  WOW.  And -- to kick it all off, we are offering a FREE Beta version for folks who have one of these game consoles/TVs.  If you are interested in participating in our Beta, you can subscribe to this blog (we will be offering all subscribers the Beta version) or drop me an email at tracy@themediamall.com and I'll make sure you get on the Beta list!  It is still about 2 months out, but it is something to look forward to this fall!