The news comes from the COO of Syabas, the company that makes the Popcorn Hour set-top box. Up until now they’d had a loose agreement with the ‘Tube: They can stream video from YouTube for free, but YouTube can change the terms of the deal whenever they want. Which they did!:

YouTube has always retained the right to change its terms of service in the future should it ever wish to do so. As a result of Google’s decision, Syabas is no longer allowed to access YouTube through its APIs. To be clear, Syabas is not being singled out. With the exception of a few strategic partners Google has chosen to work with, the company has informed Syabas they are asking all over-the-top device makers that are currently connecting to YouTube content through its APIs to take down the service.

To quote every set-top box manufacturer in the world, probably: “Shit.” YouTube access had become the kind of thing you take for granted in a connected box or Blu-ray player, and it was nice to have. Now, it’ll be limited to devices like the PS3, Wii and TiVo — backed by the kinds of players who have the clout to pressure Google, or the money to pay them — leaving everyone else to search for some kind of hacky workaround.

I understand that Google wants to squeeze some ad revenue out of YouTube, and that letting anyone and everyone access raw, ad-free content through the back end probably isn’t the best business plan, but this isn’t Hulu — it’s not like they have many powerful content providers to appease, just a bunch of teenagers with webcams. Set-top box folks: Watch your free video cornucopia dissolve on December 2.

UPDATE: YouTube’s statement:

Since July of 2008, YouTube’s Terms of Service has restricted implementations for televisions based on our APIs. YouTube has been in active discussions with various developers on how best to implement YouTube on set top boxes and TVs. There are several companies, however, that have deployed solutions, like video scraping technology, to circumvent the rules and violate YouTube’s Terms of Service. Companies that have negotiated agreements to use our APIs, like TiVo, Sony, Panasonic and Sony’s PS3 are not impacted.

So, companies like Syabas have been in violation of YouTube’s terms of service for some time now and knew this was going to happen. The question remains, though: Why couldn’t they just comply and get a deal like TiVo or Sony? Does it cost anything? Is YouTube selective? Does it just take awhile? [Syabas via Engadget via Lifehacker]

Hulu, the joint venture between News Corp.’s Fox, GE’s NBC Universal and Disney’s ABC, doesn’t plan on charging people to watch the stuff it’s currently airing on the site–a mix of first-run shows from broadcast TV, a limited number of cable TV shows and a smattering of movies. But Hulu is trying to figure out how to create some kind of premium offering where you’ll pay for stuff that isn’t on the site right now.

This jibes with Carey’s adjacent reassurance that “not all content on Hulu would be behind a pay wall”, which hints at the addition of some kind of subscription or pay-per-view system, that could conceivably leave current offerings untouched. This is a plausible possibility, but far from sure: Kafka’s sources says Hulu doesn’t actually have a plan yet, so anything is possible.

Plan or no plan, telling everyone what they aren’t going to do would do Hulu good — vague threats of fees for “broadcast content” are just terrifying everyone. [AllThingsD]

McLachlan apparently only discovered this yesterday, even though it has been going on all season, and was last night trying to block it from happening. Good luck with that…

What the AFL (and the TV networks in general, really) fail to realise is that services like Justin.TV and other online P2P video streaming services are merely filling a void – if they actually bothered to offer their own IPTV solution, not only would they be able to reach a much larger audience by catering to those who don’t have access to the TV broadcasts, but also make a bit of coin through targeted, unobtrusive advertising. Sure, they’ve got an agreement with BigPond for some streaming to occur, but it’s locked to certain countries and fails to really embrace the idea of a global web.

There’s still a couple of years to go on the current AFL TV deal, but let’s hope that when the networks start negotiating the next deal, they throw in an enticing IPTV component as well…

[Sun Herald via TV Tonight]

Both 1080p HDTVs include wired and wireless internet connections and a crazy-sounding 16-speaker “sound projector” to really blast those rented flicks. Plus, the Vudu support includes support for YouTube, Flickr, Picasa and Pandora. Like Mitsubishi’s previous deal, the purchase of one of these sets comes with a $US50 Vudu credit for the first two months. Full press release below. [Mitsubishi]

Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America Ships VUDU-Enabled 1080p Flat Panel LCD Televisions

Unisen™ Diamond Line of Immersive Sound TVs With Integrated VUDU Service, Delivers Extensive HD Library In Full 1080p and Dolby Digital Plus Surround Sound

IRVINE and Santa Clara, CA – September 3, 2009 —- Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America, Inc. (MDEA) today announced it has begun shipping two new models of the Unisen Diamond 249 series that are VUDU-enabled out of the box. The Unisen Diamond models, LT-46249 and LT-52249, both 1080p flat panel HDTVs with integrated 16-speaker integrated sound projector and Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 Surround Sound, combine the incredible sensory experience of the Unisen Diamond series with the excitement of VUDU’s industry leading user experience and extensive on-demand HD movie library delivered instantly over the Internet.

Both models come equipped with an Ethernet port, which allows for wired or wireless connection to the Internet. Once the TV is connected to the Internet, the VUDU service is immediately available to consumers without the need for an additional device.

For a limited time, owners of Mitsubishi’s VUDU-enabled TVs will receive two months worth of free movies*, including SD, HD, and HDX movies, allowing them to experience the extraordinary 1080p image quality and immersive Dolby™ Digital Plus 5.1 Surround Sound of the VUDU Service running on Mitsubishi HDTVs.

“We are always looking to elevate the large screen experience for consumers, and the Mitsubishi VUDU-enabled TVs will combine unprecedented HD program choice with unparalleled picture performance,” said Frank DeMartin, vice president of marketing, Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America. “Owners of Unisen Diamond Immersive Sound TV’s will now have convenient access to high quality entertainment content.”

With over 2,200 HD titles and 16,000 titles overall, VUDU offers the most extensive HD movie library available today. In addition, starting later this month, the VUDU service on Unisen Diamond 249 LCD TVs will offer popular Internet services such as YouTube, Flickr, Picasa and Pandora®, as well over 80 channels of on-demand TV to choose from.

“VUDU’s extensive HD library of newly released Hollywood titles provides the perfect entertainment solution for the Unisen Diamond LCD TVs,” said Alain Rossmann, CEO of VUDU. “Through this collaboration with Mitsubishi, we are expanding the reach of the VUDU Service to a broad new segment of consumers, providing an outstanding movie watching experience with true 1080p and Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 surround sound.”

Unisen Diamond 249 Features

In addition to the VUDU streaming capabilities, the Unisen 249 line of premium flat panel TVs combine ultra compact design, immersive sound technology and advanced video performance to deliver a complete sensory experience without the hassle of complex setup. Each model features an UltraThin Frame™ design delivering a frame measuring less than one inch, fully integrated 16-speaker Dolby Digital 5.1 channel surround sound system, Variable Smooth 240 Film Motion for viewing of fast and slow moving programs, and Enhanced colour. Unisen LCD TVs feature wide colour gamut backlight technology to reproduce approximately 25 percent more colour than most LCD-TVs and both models are EnergyStar™ 3.0 qualified.

Availability and Pricing

MDEA plans to ship Unisen Diamond 249 models to authorised retailers in the United States by September 2009. Estimated retail pricing for the Unisen Diamond products will be $US2,799 for the 46″ model, LT-46249 and $US3,299 for the 52″ model, LT-52249.

About Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America, Inc.

Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America, Inc., the Official HDTV Sponsor of The PGA TOUR, manufactures and markets a comprehensive line of premium quality 1080p Home theatre TVs and Unisen™ Flat Panel TVs along with the world’s first laser TV: LaserVue™. recognised as a world leader and innovator of large display high-definition televisions, Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America builds products that lead the industry in quality, performance and ease-of-use. For additional information about MDEA, visit www.mitsubishi-tv.com.

About VUDU

VUDU is a leading provider of digital technologies and services that deliver Internet entertainment to consumers’ HDTVs. The VUDU entertainment service supports native instant start HD and, for the first time, instant-start HDX, which, with 1080p resolution at 24 frames per second, the cinematic gold standard, is the highest quality on demand format available anywhere. Through relationships with every major U.S. movie studio and more than 40 independent studios and distributors, VUDU offers a vast array of on-demand choices at the highest quality. The VUDU collection is constantly updated, and newly released movies from major studios are available on the same day as the DVD is released. Consumers can finally watch great movies without the hassles associated with traditional services: no driving, no mailing, and no monthly fee. For more information, visit http://www.vudu.com/.

• Media: GPU hardware acceleration, new codec support (H.264, AAC, MPEG-4), raw bitstream Audio/Video API, and improved logging for media analytics
• Graphics: GPU Acceleration and hardware compositing, perspective 3D, bitmap and pixel API, pixel shader effects, and Deep Zoom improvements
• Application development: Deep linking, navigation and SEO, improved text quality, multi-touch support, 60+ controls available, and library caching support
• Data: Data-binding improvements, validation error templates, server data push improvements, binary XML networking support, and multi-tier REST data support

That first one is far and away the most important, since high-bitrate HD streaming is well on its way to becoming the de facto standard for online video, and Flash kinda sucks at it. [Ars]

RealPlayer SP is the evolution of the long-running RealPlayer software, which has become a multi-limbed beast of a program: It’s a media manager and player, along with a packaged web browser, a subscription and a la carte music store (Rhapsody), a gaming store (Real Arcade), an audio recorder, and now a streaming video ripper/converter with ties-in to social networking sites. It is at the moment Windows only, though we’re assured a Mac version is forthcoming. The beta comes in two versions: One is free, and the other costs $US40 and includes H.264 conversion, DVD playback and DVD burning.

The SP stands for Social/Portable, so you can get a hint of where they’re going with all this. In addition to RealPlayer itself, the software integrates a button to rip video into your browser (Firefox, Chrome, and IE are supported, Opera is not, no word yet on Safari). This new addition includes a converter to pretty much every portable video format you could imagine, from BlackBerry to Symbian to iPod to Zune.

Where RealPlayer SP is convenient is in this video conversion, especially if you’ve got a more niche phone or PMP (and I certainly do). Normally, conversion to Zune-supported video is kind of a pain in the arse, but RealPlayer SP handles it easily and well. For newer devices like the Palm Pre and BlackBerry Bold, RealPlayer SP can pass the converted video right through to the player, while it’s able to go through iTunes to get video onto an iPhone or iPod touch. Older or less common devices, like my BlackBerry Curve 83xx and my Zune, are still supported, but you’ll have to copy the new video files over manually.

The problem with this new iteration of RealPlayer isn’t the new features, it’s the underlying RealPlayer media software. iTunes, Zune, MediaMonkey and WinAmp are all better and more full-featured media jukeboxes, and unfortunately, Real’s new focus on streaming video is new to that category of software but certainly not new to any of us. Hell, Firefox has had extensions that can do the exact same thing for years, with admittedly weaker codec support.

I also wasn’t thrilled with the conversion speed or efficiency. Real claims a 1x conversion time, meaning 1 minute of video will take 1 minute to convert, which is actually quite pokey. A 3.2MB music video took 3.5 minutes to convert, and I ended up with a 6.6MB file. Sure, it’s not a big deal for such a tiny video, but it feels like it should have been far snappier.

RealPlayer SP is also tied in to various social networking sites, but it’s pretty half-assed: For Twitter, it just provides a link to the page of the video you downloaded, along with some prime advertisement for Real that kind of makes you sound like a jackass. The default tweet is “just downloaded so-and-so video with RealPlayer!” followed by a link to the RealPlayer download site. So get ready to follow every single one of those Twitter posts with “Clarification: I do not work for Real.”

Really, the new features in RealPlayer SP aren’t bad at all. It’s a good idea to integrate streaming video ripping into a media jukebox, and RealPlayer SP does about as good job at it as we could ask. But the overall package needs some work: RealPlayer SP is way too bloated to work as just a video ripper/converter, and as a media jukebox it’s outdated and cumbersome. Real has a good idea here, but RealPlayer needs more than some flashy add-ons. We’d love it if Real would put out the SP features in a simple applet, and leave off the browsers and media managers that we don’t give a damn about.

So who should actually use RealPlayer SP? If you’re a BlackBerry or Zune owner who uses Windows, loves YouTube and is confused by the multitude of third-party video converters, RealPlayer SP would be an excellent choice for getting video clips on your phone. [Real]

While it’s designed to work over Wi-Fi and 3G—like that rumoured and delicious Hulu app—AppleInsider suggests it might need to be Wi-Fi only to appease AT&T, who fears what it would do to its network. After all, at best its retracted Skype-and-Sling-banning terms of service update was a Freudian slip. [Boy Genius, AppleInsider]

30 Rock, Dollhouse, Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles, Arrested Development, oh yes. Any hope AT&T has of charging people a monthly fee for mobile TV dies with a Hulu app, especially once ABC jumps onboard and it hits other mobile platforms (which it surely will). If it truly delivers the full Hulu experience—every video with a great UI—the potential awesomeness literally blows my mind. Hulu CEO Jason Kilar said one year ago that mobile is “ripe for the Hulu experience” but it “may not be identical” on every platform. I’d hope the iPhone is as close to the real thing as it can get, though that obviously depends on NBC and Fox to allow it, as well. And Apple has to approve it, obviously.

But still, mobile TV was not very exciting to me until this moment. [Alley Insider]

The newest wireless box, combined with the latest firmware updates, make this box a porn streaming solution that’s practical in that you can hook it to any TV in your house and deliver porn to it.

Here’s the gist of the device. The FyreTV box connects, via Ethernet or Wi-Fi, to the FyreTV servers. For $US9.95 a month (plus more if you go over your 100 allotted credits), you get access to a 10,000+ title library of porn. There’s HDMI as well as component and composite connections, as well as a (as of right now, pretty crappy) remote to control what you see.

What you need to know, as a gadget person who also enjoys the occasional pornographic video, is that this is probably the easiest way to get legal porn onto your TV. Where the previous version required you to drag an Ethernet cable for a connection—something not every person has in their bedrooms—the Wi-Fi on this version allows you quite a bit of freedom.

As for the quality, it’s essentially DVD-level video parsed through a streaming filter. FyreTV will have HD content soon, but the DVD quality is good enough for most people. The menus are navigated easily enough, and with the latest software updates, you won’t see too many slowdowns. Suffice it to say, you’ll be able to get the job done without waiting for stuff to load and menus to pop up, provided you have a decent enough internet connection.

Is it easy to use? Definitely. Is it free? No. You can rig up a PC to your TV and download free internet porn if you have an extra machine lying around and know what you’re doing. But it is the easiest, quickest and most legal way to get streaming pornography onto your bedroom or living room TV. [FyreTV (NSFW)]