Santa Clara, Calif. — Rovi and Toshiba are teaming up to launch a range of DTVs certified for DivX Plus Streaming content, the companies said Tuesday.
The new agreement is expected to increase the reach of Rovi’s advanced adaptive streaming format and enable Toshiba DTVs to support high-quality entertainment services from such over-the-top (OTT) content providers as Knowhow Movies by Dixons Retail in the U.K.
DivX Plus Streaming is said to deliver to streaming-video content and Blu-ray Disc features, including multi-language subtitles and audio tracks, a trick-play track for smooth fast-forward and rewind, chapter points for quick scene navigation, and resume playback across devices.
In addition, to help eliminate buffering or the “spinning wheel,” DivX Plus Streaming includes Dynamic Resolution Scaling.
Providing smooth and seamless transitions between different resolutions, Dynamic Resolution Scaling helps ensure consumers enjoy quick start times and continuous play even in low or fluctuating bandwidth environments, Rovi said.
“We are pleased to continue our relationship with Rovi and integrate DivX Plus Streaming to add to the high-quality viewing experiences that we offer,” said Takahiro Uchida, deputy senior manager, TV products, Toshiba products management division. “By integrating services such as Knowhow Movies with DivX Plus Streaming and enabling entertainment experiences that are flexible, convenient, and feature rich, we are providing even greater value to our customers.”
Knowhow movies is powered by Rovi Entertainment Store, a technology solution that includes white-label storefront and playback client SDKs, Cloud services, content licensing, management and marketing services.
The Rovi Entertainment Store offers retailers, service providers, CE manufacturers, content owners and PC OEMs the back-end Cloud support to drive revenue from OTT storefronts. DivX Plus Streaming is Rovi’s preferred method of content delivery, the company said.
DivX Plus Streaming has been approved by studios and adopted by companies helping fuel OTT entertainment distribution.
The advanced adaptive streaming format has gained the support of IC vendors including Broadcom, MediaTek and MStar, and has been selected to power video delivery for UK-based Dixons Retail’s Knowhow Movies, German retailer Media Markt’s Videodownloadshop, and Mei-Ah and China Mobile powered services that provides 4G LTE and 3G service subscribers instant access on their Android mobile devices to on-demand, catch-up TV.
The DivX DRM (digital rights management) solution, as used with DivX Plus Streaming, was also recently approved by the DECE (Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem consortium) for use in the UltraViolet ecosystem.
“Our collaboration with Toshiba results in new products for consumers that provide optimized, high-quality playback of streaming entertainment in the living room,” said Simon Adams, Rovi consumer electronics sales and marketing senior VP. “This product launch extends our long-standing relationship with Toshiba and adds to the growing industry support we are receiving for DivX Plus Streaming.”
Toshiba’s DTVs Certified for DivX Plus Streaming with Knowhow Movies is expected to be available to consumers later this quarter in the U.K.
