The Inquisitr » internet tv

ZillionTV: yet another set-top box, or game changer?

Duncan Riley — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 23:11:46 +0000

New Internet TV provider ZillionTV launched today, offering yet another set-top box that brings internet television to the lounge room.

The tech specs are reasonable. On the plus side, ZillionTV will offer High quality streams, a Wii like remote for navigation, the ability to pay or opt-in to ads for content, and the ability to pick which type of ads you see. The rest of the specs are nothing we haven’t already seen from boxes like Roku, AppleTV and numerous others.

Most sites have been quick to write the ZillionTV off as yet another player in a market that continues to offer promise, but has never really taken off in a big way. But ZillionTV has a couple of advantage that could make it a game changer.

The strongest part of the offering is the content. Yes, many boxes already offer movies and television shows on demand, but the range of content providers has often been somewhat limited. ZillionTV is backed with content and investments from ABC/Disney, Fox, NBC/Universal, Sony and Warner Bros. The only content missing is CBS, but compared to other offerings out there, this offers a deeper range, and better choice between free and paid. Consumers don’t care for content deals and who owns what; what they care about is having access to their favorite shows, and ZillionTV looks like they may well offer a superior lineup.

The other factor that may make this a game changer is how it’s distributed. ZillionTV isn’t going to appear at your local computer or electronics store, and will instead be offered exclusively via partner ISP’s. Which ISP’s haven’t been disclosed as yet, but given the strong backing by media companies, it’s not unreasonable to expect that they’ll be distributed via large ISP’s. Some have suggested that this path may come up against network neutrality; this could happen if ISP’s decide to prioritize traffic to ZillionTV users, but there’s actually a better pitch: cap exemptions.

The box costs $50, and ISP’s get a cut from the ongoing revenue on each box. These same ISP’s are currently introducing capped internet access throughout the United States, and HD video gobbles up bandwidth. A likely outcome is that partner ISP’s will offer cap exemptions to ZillionTV traffic, so that although data traffic to the box may not get a speed priority, it will allow users to consume more without breaking their data caps. A not-dissimilar setup happens in Australia today; my ISP offers unlimited “free zone” data for content from iTunes and Australia’s ABC iView TV on demand service. This could well become a game changer as users hit cap limits; you can pay $50 to get a ZillionTV with data that doesn’t count towards your cap, or a Roku or AppleTV that does. If you like to watch TV on demand, which one would you pick?

ZillionTV launches in the 4th quarter in what will likely still be a difficult economic climate. It may fail as many have before, but the approach is different and it has strong potential.

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Want: Netgear Internet TV Player includes Live Streaming Online TV, BitTorrent

Duncan Riley — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 04:07:30 +0000

Netgear has announced a standalone internet TV box imaginatively titled the “Netgear Internet TV Player” or ITV2000 at this years CES.

While internet boxes for television sets aren’t new (my Apple TV gets a good daily workout), it’s the extras it offers that makes it a winner.

On top of access to video sites such as YouTube (pretty much standard these days), Google Video, Metacafe, Veoh, Daily Motion, NBC, Reuters, CNN and more, the box also supports BitTorrent and live online television.

BitTorrent built in is naturally exciting most people; TorrentFreak has more in that regard. It’s nice to have, but if it’s not a killer feature for me; if you’re prepared to download content via BitTorrent, most would find the syncing process onto a box not that hard to begin with.

Where this completely rocks is the inclusion of live online television.

There’s thousands of live feeds online today, but precious little way to access them outside of a computer. A plugin years back did bring some of these to the Windows Media Center, but that presumed you had a WMC box attached to your television (I did for a while). Bringing these feeds to a television is like offering Cable or Pay TV, but for free. Sure, you can’t get everything you might want to watch, but there’s still plenty to choose from, and it’s a great selling point.

The ITV2000 is due out in the Northern summer with an affordable price of $200.

The Future of Television has Arrived: CES Internet TV Roundup

Duncan Riley — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 00:25:55 +0000

As we covered extensively last year, most major TV manufacturers were planning to launch internet enabled television in 2009; the future is here.

Here’s a round up of what’s been released at CES. The biggest question last year was how open the platforms would be; or more precisely how closed they would be. Details included where available.

Sharp

Along with new screen technology, Sharp Internet enabled televisions will have access to the “Sharp Aquos Network portal” that will included widgets from includes a Navteq traffic report map. The Aquos Network doesn’t include web video yet, but there’s a reason: the new line of TV’s includes built in Bluray players.

Internet TV score: FAIL.

Toshiba

The new internet enabled televisions from Toshiba pack a punch: the cell processor best known for being the power behind the PlayStation 3. Primarily the chip will deliver ultra-high definition viewing, but it also opens the TV up to a number of other features. According to specs, as well as offering DVR functionality built in, the televisions will support the Intel/ Yahoo Widgets platform. The platform isn’t as open as say a web browser, but does allow developers to build on it, and when first launched last year included promised on video on demand. The down size is costs, with the new sets to be offered in the $5-10,000 price range. Toshiba though is going to offer a box to attach to existing sets, price isn’t known.

Internet TV score: Nice, but costly.

Panasonic

Panasonic was the first major manufacturer to launch an internet enabled television, although one model only in 2008. The lineup for 2009 expands three series – The Z1 series, the V10 series and the G10 series. Panasonic offers its own internet platform under the VEIRACAST brand. Content includes YouTube, Picasa Web Albums, Bloomberg and weather service; an newly announced HD movie rental via Amazon Video-on-Demand. Nice line up, but similar to the Apple TV, and sadly closed to general browsing

Internet TV score: a reasonable start well priced.

LG was the mystery playing coming in to CES. There was some rumors of that they’d play, and I’d speculated they would as well, although earlier announcements said they were more focused on internet enabling Bluray players. LG made the announcement of an internet enabled TV Jan 5 (details here). The sets will offer the Intel/ Yahoo Widget engine and content from YouTube and Netflix. Still a closed system, but appealing.

Internet TV score: win, but wish it wasn’t closed

Windows Media Extender

Add to the list Samsung and Toshiba’s pledge to support for Windows Media Extender, although it’s not clear if this will be available immediately. This will open up both to extra content, although a little fussy.

Conclusion

It’s a nice start to the beginning of the internet television era. The problem with all the sets so far though is that they remain closed; users can’t for example go to Hulu or a similar service for shows, and this will limit their appeal. However eventually having these features as standard means that they’ll be purchased anyway, and that’s where the space is headed. The only issue now is getting people to buy televisions at all given the economic crisis. The roll out will be slow, but it will happen.

LG Unveils Internet-Enabled, Netflix-Connected TVs

JR — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 16:37:10 +0000

Netflix has partnered with LG Electronics to create a new line of Internet-enabled, HD video-streaming televisions.

The new TVs, announced Monday, will officially debut at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. The sets will offer Ethernet connections built in to both plasma and LCD displays for high-definition content streaming. Users will be able to pick movies directly from an on-screen list without having to use a computer or access their Netflix “queues” of selected titles.

The new models are expected to cost about $300 more than similar televisions without the Internet option.

The move follows LG’s recent creation of the BD300 Internet-enabled Blu-ray player, which also offers users the option to download movies directly from Netflix. Past Netflix deals have made its videos available via the Xbox 360, certain TiVo DVR models, and Blu-ray players made by Samsung. Other electronics manufacturers, including Samsung, have recently come out with Internet-integrated TVs that are connected to other specific media services, including YouTube and Picasa.

Analysts have predicted the number of Internet-enabled televisions to grow massively over the coming years. Only 1 percent of TVs sold in the U.S. were Web-ready in 2008. By 2012, the number is expected to climb to 14 percent. Some accounts, including The Inquisitr’s own Duncan Riley’s, see the trend skyrocketing after that point, perhaps even as high to 100% by the year 2015.