On Monday, a Silicon Valley-based start-up announced that it raised $17.5 million from a group of venture capitalists. The company, called “Building B”, says it plans to incorporate HD, SD, on-demand and Internet video content and have it delivered over wireless broadband without a PC.

Sounds like a nifty idea, but there’s not much known about Building B so there’s been a bit of speculation. First, the good news about Building B:

They’re Focusing on Mainstream Content. According to Michael Gartenberg at Jupiter Research, Building B is not interested in niche content like some companies. Said Gartenberg: “The fact that they’re focusing on mainstream, not enthusiast markets, the recognition that today’s broadband and home networking services leave a lot to be desired and the knowledge that mainstream audiences want mainstream content.”

Delivering Premium Content and Internet Video in One Box. I’m not sure what Building B will do for content. Will it partner directly with movie studios and set up its own on-demand service? Will it seek to partner with IPTV providers? Ether way, integration of Internet video in the same box as a cable box, for example, is sorely lacking.

Why Not Wireless Set-Top Boxes? I have a Tivo connected to my TV, but I don’t have an Ethernet wire running to it. I’m using Tivo’s wireless adapter to connect to my router. It cost about $50 but it’s well worth it. My biggest complaint is that Tivo didn’t have it built-in to its box and I had to buy it separately. But it’s worked flawlessly from day one and I can stream music and even download movies from Amazon’s Unbox service.

Get Away from the PC. Delivering the mix of SD, HD, VOD and Internet video to the TV is important. It’s easy to do all of that on the PC, but delivering those integrated video experiences and doing it well, with must-see TV and movie content is a great market.

But Don’t Believe the Hype

There are lots of questions, however. Like what wireless technology will they use in the home? WiMax? How will they earn revenues? When will they launch? What pricing will they have? What content partners do they have?

Gizmodo cautioned everyone:

“The bottom line is that we’ll believe in the One True Box when it’s sitting atop our TVs—we’ve heard way too many empty promises from far too many prophets to be true believers before then.”

NewTeeVee said that they were somewhat skeptical of their claims also.

“Such reticence makes me inherently skeptical of their claims, especially in light of Movie Beam, another wireless video content delivery service that burnt through millions of dollars and in the end had little to show for it. Similarly, Akimbo, which has been aggregating produced video content for some time, hasn’t exactly rocked the world, despite backing from AT&T (T) and Cisco Systems.”

Plus there’s the “Yet Another Set-Top Box” syndrome. Consumers already have lots of choices to get content. There’s cable, VOD, Tivo, Amazon, NetFlix, YouTube, AppleTV and lots more. And there’s the aforementioned MovieBeams, Movielinks, and Akimbos that have tried something very similar. Plus there’s also more recent competition. Mashable says: “WiTV and VuDu are others on which we’re keeping a close eye.”

In the IPTV space, wireless set-top boxes are ready to be unveiled. Celrun announced that it was adding wireless connectivity to its set-top box using technology from Metalink. Metalink makes the 802.11n WLANPlus chipset which allows for a maximum data rate of about 300Mbps (compared to 54Mbps for WiFi). Samsung also said it will use Metalink’s chipset, so it should be interesting to keep an eye on these products when they are finally released.

Bonus: PaidContent (via Variety) points out that Building B is partnering with a company called Claria, which used to be called Gator, a notorious ad-ware company.

Technorati Tags: Building B, Tivo, Apple TV, Motorola, Scientific Atlanta, set-top box, Celrun, Metalink, Samsung, WiMax, 80211n

Popularity: 21% [?]

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced on Monday that it would offering two $40 coupons for consumers to purchase Digital TV converter boxes.

Analog TV signals will stop transmitting on Feb. 1, 2009 and will switch to Digital. The NTIA created this program, funded for $990 million to help make the transition to digital. Reports say that an additional $510 million may be added if these initial funds run out.

My reaction? What a waste of almost $1 billion! Do people really need to have their TVs subsidized by the government? When the analog to digital switch happens, there will be many people that may not receive the digital signals because they don’t subscribe to satellite, or cable services. But I believe that by 2009, people will start making the shift themselves by buying new TVs or DVRs with digital receivers built in. Converters will be mandatory in every TV and DVR after a certain point.

Can’t we save this billion dollars for something more important?

Popularity: 85% [?]

HDTVs are becoming increasingly popular, but apparently, many in the U.S. don’t know much about the digital conversion of TV signals.

According to a survey by ICR Media, for the Association of Public Television Stations (APTS), 61% of American households are unaware that analog TV will be shut off in February 2009.

Overall awareness was very low: 10% of analog TV households had limited awareness of the digital TV transition; 20% were somewhat aware or very aware.

Furthermore, 53% had no idea of the date of the scheduled analog switch over.

APTS says it wants to lobby Congress for funding consumer outreach on the analog to digital switch.

Popularity: 15% [?]

Cnet takes a look at all the products during CES this week and gives out awards for the best products. Best in show was LG’s dual hi-def player that plays both Blu-ray and HD DVDs Can’t we all get along now, in this DVD war?

My favorite of the favorites was the wireless HDTV from Samsung. It’s a 58″ plasma TV that uses no cords (well, except for the power plug). It retails for $5,799, or what I call “completely unaffordable” for most people.

Popularity: 14% [?]