Audio Video News

The LG LH50 LCD series and the PS80 plasma series will soon provide streaming of the popular movies-on-demand service, Vudu. These new Internet-connected TVs employ "NetCast Entertainment Access", allowing users to browse, search, and choose a variety of HD and HDX films right from their TVs without an additional Vudu set-top box.

LG is the first TV manufacturer to offer the Vudu service directly through a network-connected set. Current owners of these LG sets can easily update their software to gain VUDU access and begin viewing movies right away. LG's NetCast televisions also provide access to streaming movies via Netflix, televisions shows, and Web-based video when hooked up to an owner's existing in-home broadband Internet connection.

Vudu's catalog currently offers over 2,000 high-definition titles, far more HD titles than Netflix, and it doesn’t require you to pay a monthly fee, just pay for what you watch. Moreover, Vudu offers HDX movies, which provide the highest quality stream from any current movie rental service. Streaming starts almost immediately and just like hard media, it's possible to fast-forward, rewind, and browse through the content.

While Vudu offers the choice of buying or renting movies, the LG TVs don’t have the storage capacity for storing downloaded HD movies (unlike the Vudu BX100 set-top box with a 250GB hard drive), so at this time all that is being offered is a rental-only version of the service.