Panasonic has just released their first broadband video receiver here in Japan called the Broadnow. In other words you can download movies over the net on this thing and watch them on your TV.

Features include, download and watch movies over the net, listen to internet radio, use as an HDD recorder to recorder normal broadcast TV programs, if you forgot to program it you can access it through their website from any browser including your cell phone to tell it to record something. You can also connect it to your PC in which case it can access your PC's hard drive for example to play MP3s off it and visa versa, your PC can access the videos it's recorded/downloaded.

I guess it's just a test because the ad says at least through the end of October they are limited to 300 units.

Given that in Japan 12Meg ADSL is only $25 a month and 100Meg is only $60 a month this is something I've been expecting to happen soon. Theoretically you could use one of these anywhere in the world allowing you to watch you favorite programs from all around the world assuming the content is available.