Boxee and Widevine Partner for Enhanced Video Delivery

Boxee and Widevine are announcing this morning that they plan to incorporate Widevine's DRM, adaptive streaming and virtual DVD controls into CE devices that contain Boxee's digital media software. The move gives Boxee a more complete solution to offer CE providers looking to bring both content and connectivity to their devices.

Widevine has been on a roll recently, signing deals with EchoStar, Sonic Solutions, LOVEFiLM and others in the past few months. Widevine is benefiting from an explosion of connected devices that bring online video to TVs. Consumer electronics manufacturers must ensure that video is delivered securely and complies with digital rights, and plays out in high-quality. In addition Widevine offers a "trick play" feature with progressive download that allows users to fast forward or rewind like they would with a DVD, without the annoying buffering.

As the battle for connected devices intensifies, it will become increasingly important that CE devices deliver a nicely-packaged, out-of-the-box content experience beyond the initial, common choices of Netflix, Amazon, Blockbuster and a handful of others. Last week's announcement by Samsung of its $500,000 "Free the TV Challenge" is one indication of how aggressive CE companies will be in incorporating additional content and apps. And Roku, which has been early to the connected device space, just announced yesterday that Vimeo will be its 50th integrated content channel. Separately, Boxee is planning to ship its own CE device, the Boxee Box by D-Link, this November.

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Categories: Devices, DRM

Topics: Boxee, Roku, Samsung, Widevine