LG and Netflix Collaboration to Develop HD Set-Top Box for Media Streaming

LG is planning to develop a new set-top box that able to stream HD (High Definition) videos directly from the web, with the media contents provided by Netflix, the world’s largest online DVD rental company. Netflix has more than seven million subscribers with huge collection of 90,000 titles. They are looking for the way to further expand its business with collaboration from the famous Korean Consumer Electronics giant. The effort in getting a new set-top box with networking capability for online movie download seems to be a right move in this saturated market.

Similar trend was observed on other competitors inclusive of Vudu Inc and Apple Inc that emphasize more on online media download services to the subscribers. No doubt, with the increase of bandwidth available and broadband service popularity, consumers may no longer need to walk out from home just to get the latest copy of DVD on the street.

Not much was disclosed regarding the HD set-top box but it is believed that LG may integrate the networking module into its existing high end dual-DVD player (which supports both Blu-ray and HD DVD formats). Some of these features may seems to be redundant but it does offer more flexibility and convenience to end users.