waqarsh said:
and then using influence with television hardware manufacturers to start including Internet support for seamless .TV integration.
this is one of the crucial breakpoints ,which brings the common interest in TV ext. in wide range ,to the masses
I have found that toshiba was trying do something like this here
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,112322-page,1/article.html
but it didnt catch ,probably too soon on market
here another try with opera
http://news.digitaltrends.com/news/story/5348/opera_customizes_browser_for_tv_displays
oregan
http://www.oregan.com/tv_web_browser_and_ui.html
most recent article:
Consumer Electronics
Firms Race To Bring Web Video To TV
BY BRIAN DEAGON
INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY
Posted 6/5/2007
Philip Wiser, former chief technology officer of Sony Corp. of America, these days toils quietly as chairman of Building B, a self described "secretive home media startup."
Whatever Building B is building โ the company won't specifically say โ its target is the TV viewing room of U.S. homes. And it's no secret that Building B's products will bring streaming video from the Internet to TV sets, a field many observers call the next big thing in technology. Instead of the long talked about 500-channel universe, it seems the multithousand-channel universe is coming.
"It's a fascinating time for video," Wiser said.
And what about his product? "We have a solution that addresses the needs for a mass-market, TV consuming population built around the living room," he said. Building B, in a statement, says it's developing "a breakthrough on-demand video entertainment service that enables delivery of video content from broadcast and cable television, movie studios and the Internet directly to the living room TV." It also says the content can be personalized for each household member. Wiser and company won't say more in part because they don't want to tip rivals.
Building B, based in Belmont, Calif., is just one of many companies building products that aim to bring more content to TV sets.
SlingCatcher In Works
The onslaught of new products includes Apple's (AAPL) Apple TV, released in March. It hooks up to your TV set and home network to play movies and songs you buy from Apple's iTunes store.
Sling Media, the privately held company that makes the SlingBox, which lets you watch TV shows from an Internet-connected computer, later this year plans to unveil SlingCatcher, a PC-to-TV system.
Digital video recorder pioneer TiVo (TIVO) has a product, the Series2 DT DVR, that streams video content from some select Web sites. Sony (SNE) plans to start selling Bravia TV sets that come with built-in ports to connect the set to a home network. Netgear (NTGR) in March started selling the Digital Entertainer HD, a $350 device that streams Internet content to the TV.
"There's a lot going on," said Joe Laszlo, a Jupiter Research analyst. "PC-to-TV devices have been around awhile, but what's changing this year is there's a lot more video on the Internet that consumers are interested in."
That content includes fresh video made expressly for the Internet โ by amateurs as well as media companies. It also includes TV shows that anyone already can watch โ when they air on TV. But with a TV-to-Internet connection, you can watch those Internet videos when you want โ and you can watch them on your big-screen TV instead of your small PC monitor.
PC-to-TV "is the Holy Grail for a lot of people," said Brian Jaquet, a Sling Media spokesman. "Only very recently have the networks started to bring compelling content to the Internet. We think we can bring a compelling solution to the market."
Apple and Netgear, though, haven't said how sales of their respective products are going. Some analysts have said Apple TV isn't selling well. On May 30, Apple signed a deal to bring YouTube videos to TV sets via Apple TV devices. Google (GOOG) -owned YouTube is the most visited online video site.
More than half of the 70%-plus of U.S. residents with Internet connections already watch video online. Media companies, independent producers and amateurs are flooding the Net with video. But once people are able to easily connect their Internet content to their TV sets, the amount of online content is expected to explode.
What Do Viewers Want?
While many people like viewing video on their PCs, they seem to prefer shorter clips rather than full-length shows. Time Warner Cable (TWC) pulled the plug in February on a trial in San Diego that streamed its cable TV channels for viewing on PCs. Fewer than 1% of the 9,000 customers in the test used the service on any given day. The PC turned out to be the TV set of last resort, Time Warner said.
It's also true, though, that even PC-to-TV viewing has received a tepid response. A Forrester Research poll in late 2006 found just 20% of consumers saying they'd pay for a device that brings Internet video to the TV. That low figure, Forrester says, is largely because few consumers were aware that the technology to do this is here, and is easy to use. New wares are changing attitudes.
"Apple TV has been the most prominent among the (PC-to-TV) devices," Laszlo said.
But Apple TV and other such products have their limitations. The fare available via Apple TV is limited to what Apple sells at iTunes. That will also be true with Sony's Bravia TV. It will only provide an Internet link to companies it strikes deals with. It has agreements with Yahoo (YHOO) and Time Warner's (TWX) AOL for video distribution.
"There now are many limitations in trying to route video content through a PC to a TV," Wiser said. He says Building B won't have such shortcomings.
Yet, even when PC-to-TV technology is perfected, providers and content owners must agree on ways to distribute the content and share the proceeds.
"The obstacles are not technology related, they are also business- and revenue-model-related," said Ben Mendelson, president of the Interactive Television Alliance, an association whose members include content providers, advertisers and distribution companies.
Media companies will need to walk a fine line, Mendelson says. The arrival of Web-to-TV, he said, "changes all the rules of the game."
