DEMO: Metabeam brings movie and TV bonus features to your mobile devices and computers

Metabeam is one of 70 companies chosen by VentureBeat to launch at the DEMO Fall 2010 event taking place this week in Silicon Valley. After our selection, the companies pay a fee to present. Our coverage of them remains objective.

According to the Nielsen Group, 3 out of 4 Americans surf the Web while watching TV. The startup Metabeam is launching a new product at the DEMO conference today to take advantage of that trend.

It plans to offer consumers material related to what they’re watching on their web connected devices. In the process, it also gives content publishers an easy way to further monetize their content.

The company’s technology is already being used in the MetaMenu iPhone apps for DVD and Blu-ray releases from Lionsgate like “Killers”, “Saw VI”, and “Gamer”. Today, Metabeam is unveiling the Android version of its client, which is built on Adobe’s AIR platform.

Metabeam’s sideshow modules bring features similar to what you’d find on DVD and Bluray bonus features to any Web-connected device — including smartphones, the iPad (and future tablets), and of course computers. The sideshows can include video commentary, subtitles, or even just pop up trivia, and stay synchronized with the video’s timeline using IPTV (TV over internet connections), and the BD-Live technology on Blu-rays.

The company is competing with Blu-ray focused companies like Pocket Blu and MobileBlu. At the same time it has no problem working together with another competitor like BD-Touch, whose discs are now fully compatible with Metabeam’s Metamenus technology.

Metabeam is based in Los Angeles, Calif., and was founded in 2005. Thus far, it has raised $1 million in first-round funding, and it’s looking to raise another $500,000 for the same round.

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