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Blockbuster OnDemand coming to online-enabled Samsung TVs and Blu-ray home theater products

Blockbuster streaming will be added to several lines of Samsung TVs, Blu-ray players, and home theater systems in the fall of 2009.

John Falcone Senior Editorial Director, Shopping
John P. Falcone is the senior director of commerce content at CNET, where he coordinates coverage of the site's buying recommendations alongside the CNET Advice team (where he previously headed the consumer electronics reviews section). He's been a CNET editor since 2003.
Expertise Over 20 years experience in electronics and gadget reviews and analysis, and consumer shopping advice Credentials
  • Self-taught tinkerer, informal IT and gadget consultant to friends and family (with several self-built gaming PCs under his belt)
John Falcone
2 min read
Blockbuster OnDemand
Blockbuster OnDemand as seen on the 2Wire MediaPoint Player Sarah Tew/CNET

Blockbuster OnDemand is coming to a long list of Samsung TV and home theater products later this fall. The online pay-per-view streaming service will be added to Samsung's online-enabled HDTVs, Blu-ray players, and Blu-ray home theater systems via future firmware updates. As part of the deal, Blockbuster will also sell some of the Samsung products in its video rental stores.

According to Samsung, the Blockbuster OnDemand feature will be added to "Samsung LCD and Plasma HDTVs Series 650 and above, and Samsung LED HDTVs Series 7000 and above," as well as ""select 2009 Samsung Blu-ray players and home theater systems." We translate that as follows:

LCD TVs:
LNB650 series
LNB750 series

LCD TVs (LED-backlit):
UNB7000 series
UNB7100 series
UNB8000 series

plasma TVs:
PNB650 series
PNB850 series
PNB860 series

Models for Blu-ray players and home theater systems weren't specified, but all 2009 models already support Netflix and Pandora streaming, so adding a third online service wouldn't be a stretch.

Essentially, the Blockbuster OnDemand service will be an integrated version of the service found on the 2Wire MediaPoint Player. The problem: we ranked that video-on-demand set-top box dead last when compared to competitors such as Apple TV (iTunes, YouTube), Vudu, and Roku (Netflix and Amazon). So, while it's always cool to get a free feature added to your TV or Blu-ray player, we're a bit skeptical that Blockbuster OnDemand will be a big step-up for these Samsung products. Thankfully, the TVs and Blu-ray players on the list that we've already reviewed already have a lot more to offer.