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According to recent reports it looks like the Netflix player from Roku has almost hit the 100,000 unit sold milestone. The Netflix player was originally launched back in May of 2008 and was quickly sold out. Overall not a bad set of numbers, especially considering that Apple has sold just 400,000 AppleTV units in two full years.

My question is, assuming that Roku did in fact hit 100,000 units sold, how many of them are actually being used? Personally mine collects dust most of the time, because the current availability of movies is just not where it should be.

Of course, that just brings me to a good point, assuming Netflix had a much larger and more desirable movie selection, can you imagine how many units Roku could have sold.

Via [paidContent]

Get ready, here comes Kodak into the TV set-top box market. Due to hit stores in September, their Theatre HD Player is a Wi-Fi equipped TV set-top box that can stream music, videos, and photos from any computer that is connected to the same network right to your HDTV. It offers 720 playback, HDMI and component output ports, and a USB port.

Sounds decent, right? Sure. Until you take a look at the price tag and then compare it to what is already on the market and comparable. We have the PlayStation 3 and AppleTV. These two alone offer the exact same features and more. The Theatre HD Player will run you $300.  Now, while a 40GB PS3 is a little pricier at $400; it also has a Blu-ray player and the obvious video game console included. The AppleTV costs less than the Theatre HD at $229, and it even allows you to store media.

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The Vudu XL has begun to ship. Available in the 1TB XL model, users will now have a pretty decent amount of available local storage for all your content. In addition, and just in case that large local storage is not going to be enough, they have also announced the Vudu Vault. Still listed as being in Beta, the Vault will allow users to store content online as opposed to taking up your precious local storage space. Access to the Vault will come with the latest software update, which brings it to version 1.3.

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Apple has released the long awaited and once delayed “Take 2” update for the AppleTV. Current owners can get the download for free by going to Settings, then Update Software.

The update took less than two minutes to download and about ten minutes (with quite a few restarts and screen flickering) to actually install itself. Once the “Take 2” update is installed you get to see the new welcome screen that leads you into the new setup and menu’s. At first look it seems a bit strange and not as nice looking as the previous menu system, but I am sure with time I will get used to it.

There are a bunch of new items within the new menu that tie into the iTunes Store, for example in the Movie section you now have Top Movies, Genres, All HD, Search, Trailers and My Movies. At first reaction the movie rental section seems a tad slow, it seems to load the movie image icons at a slow rate, giving you some movies and some with just a generic movie ticket icon that takes time to load. Time to go and check out the movie rentals, and hopefully rent my first “HD” title. 

With the AppleTV “take 2” still not available, Vudu seems to be willing to put up a strong fight to remain in the market. It was just last week that Vudu lowered their price by 25% and have now added more HD content.

A new update, that will bring the software to version 1.2 will add about 80 more movies and also adds an on-screen broadband instant-HD indicator. The movies are priced starting at $4 each, which is comparable to the AppleTV pricing. The indicator will help the instant start movies by giving users an alert as to whether or not their current broadband speed will be able to handle the movie without any delays in watching. It also has a recommendation option that will help you choose the best movies based on your broadband speed. Like other competing services, the eventual winner will come down to who has the better user experience and more available content.

Read [Wired]

Apple announced today that the AppleTV “take 2” update will be delayed. According to Apple the new “software will be available as a free automatic download to all Apple TV customers within two weeks.” Of course we were told two weeks during Macworld which would have meant yesterday. While its not a reason to hold off on purchasing an AppleTV, it is annoying to those of us who cannot wait to start renting HD movies.

Read [Apple]

In what seems like a move to better compete with the newly priced AppleTV, Vudu has just announced a price cut for their video-on-demand box. Originally priced at $399, the box will now be selling for just $295, which is pretty close to the $229 for the 40GB and the $329 for the 160GB AppleTV. Competition is always a good thing, at least this way if the Vudu fails it will not be because of the price.

Good news for those customers who have purchased a Vudu box within the past 30 days, you can get a $100 movie credit by calling 888-554-VUDU(8838) and speaking with a customer service representative.

Read [CNET]