I'm a big fan of Costco stores and over the past few months they have added more broadband enabled devices to their shelves, aside from just their large selection of TVs. On a recent trip to my local Costco, a new product display for the Logitech Revue powered by Google TV had been setup, allowing shoppers to test out the device. Of all the broadband enabled devices Costco sells, the Logitech Revue is the only one I have seen where consumers can try out the device in the store.

The Costco store was crowded when I went so I hung around the Revue demo area and spent time asking people a lot of questions about the unit when they were using it. Of the few dozen people I spoke with, almost all of them had no idea what the Revue does. Many said it puts the web on your TV, but they didn't know what that really meant, what kind of content it enables or how they go about using it. The Costco person who manages the electronics area didn't know much about the device and could not answer any questions and while a lot of people came by to play with it, not a single person I spoke with bought the device during their visit.

The biggest thing I heard from the consumers I spoke with is that they don't know what the value of the device and the Google TV platform is. Many asked why they would need to put the Internet on their TV when they have a computer for that already. Some asked what kind of programs the device comes with and many commented that they don't understand what exactly it gets them besides a browser on a TV and a keyboard. One person commented that the wording on the packaging of the device says "if you can think it, you can watch it", yet as we all know, to date, every major network has blocked their content from the device. Even today, the landing page for the Revue on Logitech's website says "you can watch what you want, wherever it comes from". Talk about setting wrong expectations with customers.

I don't believe a stand alone product like the Logitech Revue is needed in the market because the only way Google can have success with their platform is to get it embedded into TVs, which we're already starting to see them do. But if Logitech does want to try and sell a lot of Revue units, a store like Costco is not the place to try and push them as potential customers have a lot of questions and need a lot of hand-holding. The success or failure of Logitech's Revue unit really won't have much of an impact on Google as Google TV is long term play for the company, by my estimates five plus years.

Not much news usually takes place on the weekend, but on Saturday afternoon, Engadget.com posted multiple screenshots of an Amazon page offering free unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows. Amazon wording on the page said, "Your Amazon Prime membership now includes unlimited, commerical-free instant streaming of 5,000 movies and TV shows at no additional cost". Shortly after it was reported, the Amazon user who found the page could no longer access it, but multiple screenshots at Engadget.com clearly shows the details and is the best proof yet that Amazon is getting ready to challenge Netflix with a subscription based streaming service.

Offering free streaming to Amazon Prime members would be a really interesting way for Amazon to enter the content subscription market, which was something the WSJ first reported rumors about in August of last year. For $79 a year, consumers can sign up for Amazon Prime giving them free two-day shipping from items on Amazon.com. Free shipping is good to begin with, but offering free unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows on top of that would make Prime extremely valuable and would drive a lot of people to sign up for it. At $79 a year it would be cheaper than Netflix and while Amazon would only have about 25% of the inventory Netflix has today, if they do in fact launch with 5,000 titles, one would expect Amazon to build up their inventory pretty quickly.

While I would not expect Amazon to make money from the streaming service initially, they could make up for that with the physical goods people will end up buying because they have the Prime membership. Amazon has a big advantage over Netflix of being able to allow their core business drive the growth of their streaming service without having to worry about how many members they sign up each quarter, which is exactly what Netflix is so dependant on.

Amazon's core business could essentially subsidize the streaming service for quite some time, allowing Amazon to spend money on licensing more content and quickly expanding their inventory. In the last two years, Netflix has added about 8,000 titles at any given time to their watch now catalog and today, it is estimated they have around 20,000 movies and TV shows. So if Amazon launches with 25% of Netflix's inventory on day one, that's not a bad start.

The other big advantage Amazon has over Netflix is that they also sell and rent digital copies of movies. Adding a subscription service now gives Amazon three different ways to get in front of the consumer and multiple ways to generate revenue. Netlfix does have a huge head start when it comes to the number of devices they are on, but Amazon can catch up and since they already have their Amazon Video On Demand platform working on devices like the Roku and TiVo, they aren't starting from scratch.

The fact Amazon also sells so many of these broadband enabled devices from their website also allows them to push the distribution of devices and they could even potentially subsidize the cost of them if they wanted. Amazon could make it so that anyone who buys a Prime membership also gets a free streaming device of some kind. Considering that the Roku HD only costs $59.99 retail, it's not unrealistic to think that Amazon would give Prime members some kind of incentive to consume more movies and TV shows. And just imagine the disruption Amazon would create in the market if they released a Kindle capable of playing video?

Now that details of the offering have leaked out, I'm sure we'll hear more from Amazon on this pretty soon. In the mean time, the landscape for buying, renting and subscribing to TVs and movies continues to get crowded with Amazon getting ready to join Netflix, Hulu, Apple (iTunes), VUDU, Microsoft (Zune Video), Sony (PlayStation Network), BestBuy (CinemaNow.com), Blockbuster, Intel and others who are all competing for the living room.

I've been quiet on the blog lately as I have been working hard on the Streaming Media East conference agenda. I am happy to say that the Advance Program for the show is now complete, including the new dedicated track on the subject of HTML5 video. You can view the entire agenda here.

I am going to begin placing speakers today and if you want to recommend a speaker for the program, please email me the details. I will begin looking through all of the speaker submissions this weekend that I have already received.

I'm also excited to announce that we have some great moderators lined up to help lead the discussions at the show including Peter Kafka from All Things Digital, Greg Sandoval from CNET, David Kaplan from PaidContent.org, Dan Frommer from The Business Insider, Ashkan Karbasfrooshan from WatchMojo.com, Andy Plesser from beet.tv, Jonathan Hurd from Altman Vilandrie & Company and others.

Here is a list of the session titles:

• Device Demos: Boxee, Western Digital, Logitech
• Winning With Ad Buyers: What Makes Your Video Inventory Valuable?
• How-To: Technical Set-Up of Live Streaming Production
• Online Video Platforms: Simplifying the Content Publishing Workflow
• Strategies for Preparing Your Video for Tablets and Mobile Devices
• Winners and Losers in Over the Top Video
• Enterprise Video: Phase Two
• Device Demos: Apple, Roku, Sony, Western Digital
• Transcoding: In-House Or In The Cloud?
• How Streaming Video Is Changing The Television Landscape
• Challenges, Opportunities, and Best Practices of Enterprise Social Video
• Internet-Enabled TVs And Their Content Platforms
• How Video News has been Transformed by the Web and Mobile
• The Future of Video In Education
• Cutting The Cord On TV: Will Online Video Really Lead To Cable's Demise?
• Cost Savings From Enterprise Streaming: How The Conversation Has Changed
• The Potential For Monetizing Over-The-Top Video
• If Audience Buying is the Future, Why is Video Still Sold by the View?
• How To: Enterprise Video Case Studies
• The Impact Of Broadband-Enabled TVs, Gaming Consoles, And Devices
• Open Distribution vs. Premium Monetization: Striking the Right Balance
• Building A Content Brand Using Social Media
• Monetization And Video Advertising Formats
• How To: Encoding For Adaptive Streaming
• Friend or Foe? MSOs, ISPs, and the Impact of TV Everywhere
• How Old Media Is Embracing Online Video and New Media

And here are the HTML5 video based sessions:

• The Business Case for HTML5 Video
• How To: Encoding Video for iDevices
• HTML5 And Web Video Standards
• How To: Building an HTML5 Video Player
• How Flash and HTML5 Can Work Together
• Debunking HTML5 Video Myths: A Guide for Video Publishers
• How To: Encoding Video For HTML5
• HTML5, the iPad, and the iPhone: What You Need to Know
• Demos: New Products For Encoding and Delivering HTML5-Compatible Video

In addition to the new HTML5 video track, we're also going to have a new device pavilion on the show floor where attendees will be able to get hands on with more than two dozen broadband enabled devices. I'll give more details on that soon. In the mean time, online registration is now live and you can get a free Roku HD if you register early.

Today at 2pm ET I'll be moderating a webinar with Adobe and Juniper Networks on the topic of "Delivering Scalable On-Demand and Live Events with the Adobe Flash Platform". In this webinar you will learn how you can achieve superior media delivery with the Adobe Flash Platform; discover how Juniper's Media Flow caching and delivery dramatically scales video at TV like quality, across all formats and devices; and more specifically you will learn how Juniper's Media Flow platform dramatically enhances delivery of Flash Media Server.

After the presentations we'll have a live Q&A session so bring your questions and register here for the free webinar.

Over the past two weeks I've not had the time to do too many blog posts as I have been hard at work planning the advance program for the Streaming Media East show, May 10th-11th in NYC. I'm pleased to announce that in addition to the East show, we're also adding a two-day track dedicated to the HTML5 video topic. We'll have multiple how-to sessions, demos, case studies and round table panels, across nine sessions.

If you are an HTML5 guru or want to present a case study, do a how-to session or simply provide feedback, I'd love to hear from you. Below is a partial list of HTML5 sessions already planned:

How To: Building an HTML5 Video Player
This live coding session will demonstrate how to develop from scratch your own interface for HTML5 video, including embedding a video using HTML5, building custom controls using the JavaScript API, fallback strategies for older browsers and devices, and fixing known playback bugs on the iPhone and Android. By the end of the session you should feel comfortable adding HTML5 video to your own site.

Debunking HTML5 Video Myths: A Guide for Video Publishers
Now that Google has made the decision to remove H.264 from Chrome, it's more important than ever to pick the right video formats for online video distribution. Many claims about HTML5 have been laid down by both standards and Flash proponents, and not all of them are based on fact. In this session, we'll walk you through the capabilities of HTML5 and the Flash platform as well as the codecs they support, including WebM and H.264. Learn the effect HTML5 will have on video encoding and distribution in the future and how HTML5 may impact your business.

How To: Encoding Video For HTML5
Learn the technological fundamentals behind encoding both H.264 and WebM formats for playback with the HTML5 <video> tag. You'll learn the basics of H.264 and WebM encoding, and how to produce it for HTML5 distribution. In addition, see how the various H.264 and WebM encoding tools compare in regards to performance, quality, and features.

HTML5 And Web Video Standards
As video becomes increasingly important on the web, content providers, browser developers, and end users can no longer afford to have the primary video delivery mechanisms locked up in standards that cannot be adapted to new environments. This is especially true for emerging trends such as mobile video and cross-device video technologies. HTML5 Video might be the answer, and we'll discuss what it is, the challenges it's facing, and how it affects other formats such as Flash and Silverlight, as well as how leading platforms and web giants such as Google, Mozilla, and Apple are supporting it.

How To: Encoding Video for iDevices
The seminar starts by detailing the playback specs for all iDevices, old and new. Then, you’ll learn the strategies used by prominent iTunes publishers to serve the complete range of installed iDevices, old and new. Next, the seminar switches to cellular wireless delivery, with a technical description of Apple’s HTTP Live Streaming, including recommendations for the number of streams, and their encoding parameters. The seminar concludes with a review of encoding options for HTTP Live Streaming, and techniques for serving multiple target platforms like Flash and iDevices with one set of encoded H.264 files.

Here is a job opening that some of you may be interested in. The Video Specialist for the Distribution Technology Group at Walt Disney Studios is based in Burbank and will be the group’s expert in video technology and a champion of a high quality video user experience, and also very knowledgeable in audio technologies. Overall Responsibilities include:

• Provide expertise in multiple video compression technologies;
• Define and review video specifications for content distribution deals;
• Champion and test video quality using quantitative and qualitative methods;
• Identify new video systems and analyze their relevance to TWDS;
• Provide adequate support in audio compression technologies;
• Support various groups for video related projects.

Experience and qualifications:

• 5 years of intensive usage of video compression and formatting solutions;
• Detailed understanding of the MPEG family of video standards (MPEG-2, MP4, JPEG2000, ASP, AVC, profiles); 
• Broad experience with transport and container formats including AVI, MKV, MPEG-2 TS, MPEG-4, etc.; 
• Broad experience with audio solutions including AAC, FLAC, MP3, Apple lossless; 
• Broad experience with configuring video encodings and multi-channel audio encodings; 
• Broad experience in creating and testing software and hardware implementations of video codecs;
• Understanding of various metadata systems;
• Experience with streaming video and broadcast video solutions; 
• Proficient with video editing tools.

If you'd like more details or to submit your resume, contact Sonal Prasad in the Walt Disney Studios Recruitment group who is in charge of filling the position.

Most folks don't know this about me, but I spent six years in the military. I was never deployed to a war zone and my six years of service just happened to be right after the first gulf war ended and before the second one took place. While you are trained for war in the military, I am one of the lucky ones who didn't have to actually go into combat.

That said, I have some personal experience in what members of the military agree to when they take their oath agreeing that one day, they may in fact be called on to go to combat in a war zone. As I mentioned once before in a blog post when talking about CDN pricing, members of the media should not be using the word "war" to describe business competition amongst vendors. There is no "pricing war". There is no "format war". John Dowdell at Adobe makes a great point about this topic in his blog post today saying that, "it’s quite unsettling to see how techblogs go on about the “war” and “blood feud” and other speech which is meant to incite, and earn more ad revenue."

Vendors are in competition with one another and sometimes that competition is fierce. But these are companies competing for business, revenue and market share and they are not at "war" with one another. Yes, it can get personal at times, but it's only business, that's all. John's blog post today should be a reminder to all of us in the media that describing business competition amongst two vendors as "war" is a disservice to those who are in the military and who know what the true meaning of war really is.

Updated: For those who have asked and others who might be wondering, the flag is not displayed backwards in my post. That is how the flag is worn on the right shoulder of the military uniform, which is what I took a picture of. You can learn more about that here.