To be frank, Samsung had its Music Hub software on some of its devices back in 2010. I know because I used the software on my Galaxy Tab, purchased in Dec. 2010. And guess what? It, too, was powered by 7digital. Samsung also had a hub for videos and e-books back then. Essentially, Samsung is tweaking its old service, which is good, but this tells me that Samsung is still struggling to compete in the digital media space; it hasn’t yet found the right mix of services to boast a top-tier ecosystem for its mobile devices.

The key difference in the “new” Music Hub is that the premium service is powered by mSpot, which Samsung acquired just this month. The company is a strong addition to Samsung’s mobile ecosystem as it challenges not only Apple’s iTunes, but also similar offerings from Google and Amazon. My first look at mSpot in 2010 showed the service had promise but was marred by low-quality music playback. Since then, mSpot has improved its product immensely.

Today’s news shows that Samsung continues to tweak its digital content strategy and for that, I’m grateful. After all, I still own the Galaxy Tab, have a newer Galaxy Tab 7.7 and a Galaxy Nexus — all Samsung devices. Without a strong Samsung ecosystem, I’ve turned to Amazon’s MP3 store for music purchases and storage, Rdio for unlimited music streaming and Google Play for the occasional video. This works, but entails three accounts on a trio of discrete services. Compared to iTunes and its one-stop shopping, it’s more complicated than it needs to be.

Since Samsung’s revised Media Hub isn’t yet available in the U.S., I’ll have to wait and see how the new service compares to iTunes. And I’ll also be keeping an eye on the company’s video offerings; when I last compared Samsung’s ecosystem to that of Amazon and Apple, I found it to be lacking in many areas. Many of the top 10 movies as well as television shows from some networks were missing.

If Samsung can keep improving its digital content stores — something its been trying to do for nearly two years — it could boost already high smartphone sales for the company. Why? An integrated experience is often more appealing than a piecemeal effort. The company already has hot hardware and solid software to power through Android 4.0. The final pieces of the puzzle may not fit just yet, but it’s getting closer.

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Currently mSpot’s movie rentals are available on either the day of or the day after the DVD release; Samsung already has its own media hub for movies but it doesn’t have a digital media locker solution of its own. Instead, Android owners of Samsung handsets are likely using Google Music or the Amazon MP3 player app for online storage of tunes. Indeed, Samsung had to partner with Dropbox for cloud storage on the new Galaxy S III handset; offering 50 GB of free space with the phone purchase.

Samsung highlighted the various new options mSpot will bring to smartphones and tablets, saying in the press release.

“The acquisition will provide a cloud-based entertainment experience of music, video and radio services for users of Samsung devices, while extending mSpot’s cloud and streaming solutions to a broader base of global entertainment fans. The combination will extend mSpot’s top class cloud and streaming services while further enhancing Samsung’s mobile and tablet device entertainment offerings. mSpot’s entertainment services will be a key integrated offering on newly announced Samsung mobile devices.”

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, nor were any hints at when mSpot’s platform would be integrated into Samsung’s mobile devices.

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Mobile audio and video startup mSpot introduced a new iPad app today that will allow users to rent and stream full-length movies on the Apple tablet device. The service includes new feature films and a variety of catalog content priced at $2.99 and $3.99, depending on the title.

The mSpot service acts essentially as a direct competitor to Apple’s own iTunes video store. The main difference is that, while iTunes rentals are downloaded to the tablet before playing, the mSpot rental service streams videos on both WiFi and 3G networks. That could soon change, however, as there are indications that Apple could soon move to a streaming model for iTunes, with the launch of its upcoming Apple TV set-top box. But it’s not clear if streaming services would also be available on Apple’s iPhone and iPad mobile devices, and there’s still some debate over which is better: streaming or downloads.

While mSpot is going to market with a new iPad app, news and entertainment video from Bell Canada’s Sympatico.ca website can now be accessed through the iPad’s Safari web browser. Using Brightcove’s HTML5 video solution, including auto device detection, the website is displayed in an iPad-, iPhone- or iPad Touch-compatible HTML5 format with H.264 video encoding. In addition to Sympatico.ca, Bell Canada’s other Internet media properties, including Fashionism.ca, CelebEdge.ca, InMusic.ca, InMovies.ca and Push.ca, are also now iPad-compatible, using the Brightcove solution.

Bell Canada’s foray onto the iPad comes as other cable providers seek to make their content available on the iPad or roll out interactive services on the tablet. Comcast, for instance, recently demoed an iPad app that will integrate remote control and social features onto the device.

Related content on GigaOM Pro: The Case For Removable Media on the iPad (subscription required)

So how does mSpot compare to the three options I highlighted in May, namely mp3Tunes, ZumoDrive and SugarSync? Overall, mSpot is potentially a better solution to stream your own music to an Android handset, but the low quality bit rate for streaming is sure to disappoint audiophiles – more on that later.

Installing mSpot on my Mac and Nexus One was simple, as was registering for a new account. Like other similar services, the mSpot desktop client can be configured to copy your entire iTunes library (DRM-free only) to the mSpot servers, or the software can monitor music folders of your choosing. As you purchase new tunes for your personal collection or add/modify playlists, mSpot can automatically find the changes and sync them up to the cloud, provided you have enough free space on the mSpot servers. You can also play your tunes from a desktop browser, but I focused on the mobile software.

The Android client is clean and intuitive with four main tabs: Playlist, Album, Artists, Songs. From a player standpoint, the mSpot software is comparable to any third-party media player, and better than the native Android player. Simply tap a song or playlist to get the music started, use the scrubber bar to move through a song or press the buttons to rewind or skip to the next track. I like how you can swipe the album art to navigate through tracks, and there’s an mSpot widget you can add to your Android home screen.

mSpot’s greatest strength is the ability to play tunes from the cloud even when you have no data connection, a shortcoming of nearly all other similar services. Users can configure how much of their cloud music they’d like to store locally — based on 10 percent increments of total available memory — and mSpot can top off your handset with music for offline playback. Indeed, when viewing your phone’s mSpot music library, local tunes appear in white, while cloud titles show in a gray color. A dynamic playlist called “On My Phone” quickly shows which music is available without a web connection. Any tune can be added to a “Quick Playlist” with a button tap, as well.

Even though the offline playback is a desirable feature, I can’t give a Grammy to this software for one key reason — the sound quality is sub-par. Whether streaming or listening to locally stored tunes, the audio range is lacking. A little digging exposed the culprit: the files appear to use a low-quality 48 kbps bit rate, which makes music sound like it’s on an 8-track player. My source music uses a much higher, albeit variable bit rate, so mSpot is clearly compressing the audio data.

On one hand, that makes sense for a mobile streaming application, in order to keep users from going over their monthly data limits, but even the locally stored tunes use the low bit rate. I hope that in the future, mSpot improves the sound quality through a better compression algorithm, or provides a way to stream higher quality versions of source music from the cloud.

My overall verdict? mSpot is worth watching, but not quite ready for prime-time due to the low-quality music playback. For now, I’m sticking with prior solutions such as mp3Tunes. If mSpot address the quality issue, the software will find a permanent home on my Google Nexus One. And if you don’t need to listen to your own music collection, I’d recommend a Slacker subscription, since it too offers cached playback.

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mSpot’s Mobile Movie Streaming Service Expands to the Web; mobile entertainment startup is extending its Mobile Movies site, which will let users stream full-length movies on their mobile phones, to the web, allowing users to enjoy mSpot’s online streaming movie service on your computer. (TechCrunch)

Vivox Lets You Drop Voice Chat Into Any Social Media App; the startup is announcing the Social Voice Partner Program, which makes it easy for developers to integrate voice into any social media application with a small amount of effort. (VentureBeat)

Panasonic Is Winning the First Round of the 3DTV Wars; the CE manufacturer’s 3DTVs have already sold out at Best Buy, despite having launched as recently as March 10. (Ars Technica)

ViaClix Joins Rush To Get Online Video to TV; the startup offers a home router, called TV-Link, that sends Internet content directly to televisions via WiFi for viewing. (Fierce Online Video)

Dish Files Countersuit Against DirecTV Over HD Claims; the slugfest between DirecTV and Dish Network over marketing claims continued, as Dish filed a countersuit charging the larger operator with falsely advertising its HD services. (Multichannel News)

mSpot allows users to stream full-length feature films (among other kinds of entertainment) across Wi-Fi, 3G or EDGE networks. We spoke with mSpot CEO and Co-founder Daren Tsui, who told us a little more about his service and gave us a little demo of it in action.

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