Internet Video on your TV

A lively discussion this morning inspired today’s blog post. The discussion was about Internet video content being displayed on the home television and what that means as far as ease of use and content to the viewer.  Now it is worth mentioning that there are many devices such as slingbox, xbox 360, etc. which allow you to stream video from a pc to your TV.  But what I’m more interested in the devices which easily allow you to view Internet content on your TV without needing a PC back-end.  And as it turns out, devices like that are fairly new to the market.

Before I go any further into what devices are available,  I wanted to know what kind of demand there was for Internet video, and as it turns out, it’s quite high.  An article on CNN read;

“Internet users in the United States watched a record 14.3 billion online videos in December, an increase of 13 percent over the previous month, according to comScore, an Internet marketing research firm.”…link…

People in general are starting to use their laptops and PCs to view online videos of all types from all over the world, but one of the problems for many right now is that many don’t want to relax in front of their laptops to be entertained.  Which is where the devices I’ve found would come in handy.

The first device is the Vunow by Verismo. They have a standard and high def version of their VN1000 model. There features are as follows;

Verismo’s VuNow is the only solution that provides everything a consumer wants. Access to the broadest online content, simple to use, ease of installation, and a compact size — all at an affordable price. …link…

Watch millions of free online videos directly on your TV instead of your PC.

• A Standard Definition and a High Definition model of the VuNow PoD that can connect to any TV
• Compact size and easy to install
• Support for wired or wireless connectivity
• Navigation using a TV-friendly and intuitive User Interface
• Watch YouTube™ videos on TV by categories
• Search for videos with the powerful built-in Video Search Engine
• Choose from a large selection of movies and download from CinemaNow™ – Coming Soon!
• Download videos using BitTorrent™ protocol
• Watch videos directly from popular websites by categories
• Watch Live TV Channels from around the world
• Access to Personal Media such as video, music, and photos from the home network – stored on a PC, Networked Attached Storage device, or even on a connected USB storage device
• No subscription fees

The last device I want to mention isn’t out just yet, but also looks interesting.  The Internet TV Player ITV2000 by Netgear.  Now they don’t have much information out on it yet, but here is what I was able to get from their site. …link…

• Watch live Internet TV channels from all over the world
• Browse popular video Internet video sites for news, sports, and more
• Laugh at funny video clips from YouTube™
• Groove to your favorite music videos
• Search the Internet for video content you want
• Catch up with TV and videos from your home town or country when you relocate
• Plug in a USB drive and enjoy your pictures, music, and videos on your TV
• Connect to the Internet and go – you don’t need a computer
• Use bookmarks to get right to your favorites

Ok so it’s only 2 devices right now,  but the scope of this blog post is also rather limited. For example the Roku Netflix enabled device allows you to stream content from netflix to your pc. And as I briefly mentioned at the beginning of this post that the Xbox 360 has options to that regard, including watching netflix.  There are also a growing number of Internet video websites such as Youtube, Hulu, and Joost.  And that technology is also starting to make it’s way to the TV set itself. Netflix announced a partnership with LG to stream movies and other programming to LG’s high-definition televisions. …link… Either way, expect more Internet content to make it’s way to your television in the relatively near future.