Battle of the Set-Tops

Leave it to Blockbuster to drop a bomb on the CE news industry just before the Thanksgiving holiday.

On Tuesday the on-time rental giant announced plans to launch a new digital media set-top box in partnership with networking developer 2Wire that will allow users to "rent" titles directly from the company's Blockbuster Ondemand service. The new HD-capable MediaPoint player is available "free" with 25 advance rentals from Blockbuster OnDemand (totaling $99) and will charge varying fees from $1.99 and up for titles after that.

"We are bringing Blockbuster, and the thousands of movies in our digital library, straight to customers' televisions," said Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes. "The player is simple to use, delivers DVD quality video, and there's no monthly subscription commitment."

As if on cue, Netgear this week announced a similar hardware-content partnership with Verismo Networks that will allow users to access internet video directly from their TV without requiring a PC intermediary, adding to the list of web TV devices that already includes the Slingcatcher and Apple TV.

What's the answer? Hopefully we'll get some more clues at CES in January, but right now it looks like the battle for living room supremacy is getting heated.