Samsung has anounced new collaboration plans with DIRECTV, Comcast and DreamWorks Animation at CES 2001, adding TV interoperability with DVRs, easy navigation across Comcast's content and services though Samsung's Smart TVs as well as exclusive content.
Samsung's RVU-Compatible Production Television
Today at the International Consumer Electronics Show, DIRECTV and Samsung announced they have partnered to present the first RVU-compatible production televisions.
The TVs will provide DIRECTV subscribers with the ability to watch live broadcast and stored content from their DVR on Samsung smart TVs, without the need for additional set-top boxes.
The RVU protocol will be supported on Samsung's LED D6000, LED D6400 and LED 6420 TV products. A RUI technology based on industry standards such as DLNA and UPnP, RVU allows a set-top box server to provide a multi-room viewing experience that includes DVR services, without the need for additional set-top boxes in homes that have more than one connected TV.
Capable of supporting multiple connected televisions, DIRECTV's RVU server enables the UI and features to be displayed directly on those connected TVs. Under this partnership, Samsung will embed support for RVU in their smart TVs and provide its customers with the full DIRECTV experience, including DVR services, live pause abilities on all screens in the home, 200 hours worth of shared storage, picture-in-picture capabilities and the power to record up to five shows at once. Samsung?s RVU-compatible TVs will be available in March 2011.
Partnership with Comcast
Samsung will also partner will Comcast to offer a new service called Xfinity TV. For the first time on a connected TV, the new Xfinity TV service will offer a Web-like interface, enabling simpler navigation and the ability to search across TV, DVR recordings, and video on demand among many content choices. A sleek display will guide the viewer to their favorite programming.
The partnership will also deliver "a customized and integrated multi-platform viewing experience" on Samsung Smart TVs and the Android powered Samsung Galaxy Tab, Samsung said. On the tablet, the Xfinity TV experience is a virtual television guide and a mobile video player all in one. Xfinity TV digital customers will be able to browse, discover and sort video content, search for their favorite programs, change the channel on a Samsung Smart TV in real time, and program DVRs. In addition, they will be able to watch streaming TV shows and movies On Demand directly on the tablet, and access that content across multiple devices. The service's roadmap includes the ability to begin watching a favorite movie on the Samsung Galaxy Tab, then pause the movie and resume watching it on a Samsung Smart TV from the exact moment it was paused, and vice versa.
The Xfinity TV service was unveiled today at the International Consumer Electronics Show by Comcast Chairman and CEO Brian L. Roberts during a keynote speech by Boo-Keun Yoon, President of Samsung's Visual Display Business, and will also be demonstrated at the Samsung booth in the Central Hall.
The Xfinity TV experience will be distributed later this year on the Samsung Smart TVs and on the application store for the Galaxy products interacting through the Comcast set top box. Content can be watched through Samsung?s LED, LCD and PDP TV products.
Content Alliance With DreamWorks Animation
Samsung's announcements continue at CEs 2011 with the S. Korean company to collaborate with DreamWorks Animation and offer consumers who purchase a new Samsung 3D TV exclusive access to two of DreamWorks Animation's new 3D Blu-ray titles, including Megamind, which will be made available in 2011.
In 2011, the 3D Blu-ray version of Megamind will become the next DreamWorks Animation title to be made available exclusively to purchasers of new Samsung 3D TVs as part of a bundled promotion.
As part of their expanded collaboration efforts, the two companies have agreed to explore ways to work together on research and development of future technologies related to 3D TV and smart TV. The two companies plan to explore a new streaming 3D Video-On-Demand (VOD) service that would make DreamWorks Animation content - trailers and promotions in both 3D and 2D - available for streaming via the 3D application for Samsung Smart TVs beginning in 2011.