Streaming Media - April/May 2008 - (Page 86)

Wanted Sexy HDTV That Connects to the Internet and Services All DVRs By Ezra Davidson i admit it. Technology has spoiled me. As a result, I now enjoy a special relationship with my TV set, or actually my DVR, that challenges my fondness for my GPS navigation system. But as much as I love my DVR (I’m devoted to it and I’m very appreciative of all it does for me), I have developed a bit of a wandering eye—for TVs that are connected to the internet. I’ve recently started to focus on some of my DVR’s limitations. I’ve started to wonder if I can do better. For example, it really bothers me when the other love of my life, my wife, decides to watch a TV show and records another at the same time I’ve scheduled to record one of my favorite shows. My DVR can only record two shows at a time (including whatever I’m watching). Another thing that gets me upset is if I want to record a show on a different TV, it requires another DVR, and I can watch only what I store on that DVR on the TV it is connected to. I've begun to wonder if there is something better. In Search Of … At this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, I strolled through Panasonic’s booth and couldn’t help but notice a very sexy and sleek 150” plasma TV. But what really caught my eye was another model off in the corner that a bunch of other guys were ogling. It was called a Viera TV, and it had a built-in set-top box (is that an oxymoron?) that was able to connect directly to the internet and play YouTube and other content. Wow! That got me a bit excited. It could also beam HD content from a video recorder wirelessly to the TV set. I was impressed. I spoke to the Panasonic representative about whether it could be connected to a personal video server to record all my shows. He said they didn’t have anything like that yet. Panasonic just has a partnership with YouTube that allows viewers to stream anything that YouTube provides. Then I asked the representative if it came with a hard drive; he gave me this wide smile and said, “Not yet.” He did say they were working on a 32GB SD card, though. I asked him when any of this technology would be ready. “Soon,” he said. Just about this time, my wife called me to complain that one of our DVRs was acting up again. We use a satellite provider, and every now and then we get a 771 message, which means it can’t find the satellite. Consequently, all the shows I’ve set to record aren’t recording. Luckily, there’s a reset button. I told her where to find it, she pressed it, and—voilà!—it worked again. I’ve been meaning to swap out this defective DVR, but I’ve been too busy (and I’ve already had to send three others back). 86 STREAMING MEDIA April/May 2008

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Streaming Media - April/May 2008

Streaming Media - April/May 2008 Table of Contents Beyond the Bottom Line Technology and Business Trends by the Numbers (Not So) Instant Karma MSN Autos Revs Up Video Production Dow Finds the Right Streaming Chemistry Why Video Is Changing the World A Decade of StreamingMedia.com What's Your Digital Media Strategy? Blasts From the Past: A Decade (Almost) of StreamingMedia.com Headlines Analyze That A League of Their Own: Streaming Media All-Stars Where Are They Now? Wanted: Sexy HDTV That Connects to the Internet and Services All DVRs Anystream Agility Inlet Technologies Spinnaker S3000

Streaming Media - April/May 2008

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