The latest company to enter the social TV fray isn’t being very vocal about how it’s planning to revolutionize the market. But that hasn’t stopped New York City-based Umami from being able to raise funds. The startup announced a modest .65 million funding round Tuesday that it will use to grow its team and build a new platform to connect networks with their fans.

So what is Umami? The Japanese word refers to a certain type of savoriness associated with kombu seaweed and dried bonito flakes. As for the startup, well, it’s building a platform to enable networks to better engage with their viewers.

Not just another social TV app

Umami hopes to differentiate itself in an already crowded social TV space, which includes a number of TV check-in apps, as well as some others that have been built to tap into the engagement of conversations happening on social networks like Twitter and Facebook. Unlike previous social TV apps, which were built primarily with the consumer in mind, Umami is also focused on finding ways to provide value to the networks and content producers that actually create the shows viewers are talking about online.

According to CEO Scott Rosenberg, Umami will not just create an easy way for networks to re-use existing assets such as behind the scenes videos, photos and other creative assets to build mobile experiences. It will also provide the kind of engagement and viewer data that will allow those networks to sell interactive advertising enabled by its platform.

Showing networks the money

Rosenberg knows how important data is to make a sale, as he just spent the last few years as VP of Advanced Advertising at Rovi, where he sold interactive TV advertising to TV networks and consumer brands. He hopes to leverage that experience, along with the Umami platform, to provide networks and advertisers the types of metrics they need to justify social TV campaigns.

“If they can’t make more money from this, they won’t be a part of the party.” Rosenberg told us in a phone interview. If you can prove, for instance, that your social application leads viewers to spend more time on the network or to have more brand recall on a sponsor’s message, you can actually use that data to get advertisers on board. “If we do our job well, networks will sell more ads and sponsorships,” he said.

For now, Umami is keeping the platform that enables this — and its corresponding consumer-facing applications — under wraps. But the startup expects to provide more information over the next few weeks. We’ll keep you posted once we’ve gotten a chance to see what’s under the hood.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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• Here Come the Social TV Apps
• Integrating Social Media and Traditional Entertainment
• Welcome to the New Paradigm: TV Makers Rule

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Similar to last year’s BD-P4600, Samsung is releasing a further uniquely designed Blu-ray Player, the BD-C7500. While many players have a black glossy finish, this player has a nature-wood inspired outside finish. Add to that, Samsung Blu-ray Players is pronouncing the player as the World’s Thinnest at only 1.1 inches thick, that may also be attached into your wall. The BD-C7500 model succeeds in setting itself apart from all the other Blu-ray Players.

In addition to wall mounting player, you could have it standing around a 25 degree angle or simply just laying down flat. The disc loading tray is situated in the right side of the Blu-ray Player. Its truly a beautiful and reliable design which will appeal too many. Also, interesting is its easy to use Graphical User Interface (GUI). Samsung Blu-ray Players proceeded to go that has a more image menu making it simpler and a lot quicker to decide on features and functions.

The Samsung’s BD-C7500 does have built-in Wi-Fi and 1GB of internal storage memory, so you’re able to quickly take full advantage of BD-Live content. Otherwise you can access Internet/Tv and Samsung’s Apps; which can provides online entry to streaming movies, Tv programs, music, videos and also other online content. Services which include Blockbuster, Fashion TV, Netflix, Picasa, Pandora, Rovi, Accedo Broadband, AccuWeather.com, The Associated Press, Travel Channel, Twitter, USA TODAY, and Vudu are all available. Providing you with a tremendous degree of material available and enjoy.

Visual quality will likely be at 1080p/24 fps playback with Blu-ray Discs, without any requirement for up converting. DVD up conversion is accessible up to 1080p. There may be internal audio decoding for Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital, DTS-HD and Dolby Digital Plus. With improved disc loading times and operation speed, you can start to enjoy these functions faster than before.

This specific modern new design by Samsung, the BD-C7500, will be call the worlds smallest Blu-ray Player. This has Built-in Wi-Fi and 1GB of internal memory. You may get access to Samsung’s Internet/TV to download and stream internet movies and Television shows, etc. Has internal audio decoding for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio.

Cost is still unknown for the BD-C7500. There aren’t any 3D features. BD-C6500 has the same features available.

That has a modern, small, natural-wood design, this just maybe the simplest looking Blu-ray Player ever. It is wall mountable and does have Built-in Wi-Fi and 1 GB of memory storage, so you can easily take full advantage of streaming online features and BD-Live features. If you prefer a more standard looking Blu-ray Player, the “normal looking” BD-C6500 appears to have all the features on the BD-C7500.

Last month, we reported that Macrovision changed its name to Rovi , and now Samsung has made a deal to use the company’s electronic programming guide (EPG) in its future products. According to Video Business, it’s a multi-year contract, and Rovi has previously stated it doesn’t expect its …

I’ve never used a Tivo, but I hear good things, especially with respect to its on-screen guide. I have subscribed to Time Warner Cable and DirecTV, and I can tell you that their on-screen guides are basic at best, junk at worst. There’s more than 1,000 channels, and the best you can do is break that into “Sports” and “Entertainment and Music”? Gee, thanks. I bring all of this up because Macrovision (of all people) has said, “You know what, yeah, those on-screen guides could use a new coat of paint, and then some. There has to be more you can do than merely diving those 1,000 channels into “News and Information” and “Movies.” So let’s make a new, better guide, tap into the Internet, and call it a day. Oh, and let’s also change our name to Rovi.” And it did.

Yes, as of today, Macrovision has changed its name to Rovi. The change coincides with a big re-think of what the company is, and what it wants to be. I spoke to a few of the guys (well, one guy) the other day, and he laid it out for me: whereas Macrovision had become synonymous with preventing people from copying media (I had to use an old, pre-Macrovision VCR to rip a scene from a Simpsons DVD in high school), Rovi is more focused on organizing your thousand-channel TV listings, or making sense of Internet-derived audio/video content. Or, simply, it’s focused on building a better guide, for you. The guide’s codename is Liquid.

And now some screens to show what I’m talking about.

There’s your main TV listings. Rather than what DirecTV does, of showing the next several hours all on a flat plane with no distinguishing characteristics, what’s airing right now is given preferential treatment, with later time blacks fading away from the eye. That you can actually see the show, or at least a screenshot, you’re hovering over is a nice touch.

And here’s a more photo-oriented guide. It has a very Plex look about it, which just goes to show you how professional such homebrew applications have become.

And here’s a show close-up. From here, you’ll be able to branch out to find other, similar TV shows or movies, or, say, find all TV shows or movies starring a particular actor. So you’re watching Ferris Bueller’s Day Off on one channel, and wouldn’t you know it, Glory is airing two hours from now on another channel.

So it all looks very nice, yes.

And another thing I’d like to highlight: friend recommendations. Surely you have several online “friends” (from something like Flixster) whose movie tastes sync with your own. Well, the idea here is that you’d anoint a few of them with the ability to recommend you TV shows and movies. You’re a fan of Seinfeld but never gave Arrested Development a try? Surely a friend will point you in that direction.

Now, when is all this coming out? Not for a little while yet, sometime early next year. The idea is to partner up with TV manufacturers so that Liquid, or whatever the final name ends up being, comes pre-installed.