Internet TV Starts From Your Home TV-Set: New Technologies Take Your TV Anywhwere You Are Broadband-Connected

Wouldn't it be great to be able to take your television with you anywhere you want around your home apartment?

How about seeing your favorite satellite TV match from your laptop while connected from an Internet cafè on the other side of the world?

And since traditional TV stations do not yet broadcast live over your broadband Internet connection, the only solution left is to enable television content for Internet distribution at your own end.

Photo credit: Philippe Ramakers

If you already have a fast Internet connection using DSL, or cable, and you have a computer at home that is also connected to the Internet, then you have all that is needed to set up a personal Internet TV re-broadcasting system.

New technologies allow you to broadcast your cable, satellite TV, and possibly any other source of digital video including security cameras, webcams or any other video source you can hook up to these new tools.

In essence these solutions include all the hardware and software you may need to allow you to remotely control your digital TV content, change the TV channels, and do all this via the Web from any Internet-connected computer located anywhere in the world.

"The time is now right to deliver a product at a consumer price point that can deliver that living room TV experience wherever you are on whatever device you have."

The most interesting among these unique new devices transform the way you watch TV allowing you to take your favorite television programming anywhere your home Internet-connected devices (laptop, desktop, PDA, etc.) allow you to go.

Not only.

 

 

Among these emerging new tools, the one that has made itself most visible recently is the Slingbox, a compact and elegantly designed, electronic device that connects to your own TV set.

The Slingbox takes the digital signal coming off your DVR, satellite receiver or cable set-top box and converts into a signal that can be fed and streamed to all of your broadband Internet connected devices, local or remote.

The Slingbox also acts as a full remote control unit allowing you to switch and jumpt to any channel you want just as if you were in front of your traditional TV set.

Available since just over a month in the US, for now the Slingbox works only with the American TV standard NTSC (used in many other countries as well), but PAL (the European TV broadcasting standard), and hopefully SECAM are going to be supported soon (though not before of the beginning of 2006).

With the Slingbox there are no contracts to be signed or monthly subscription fees to be paid. Once you have bought your $249 unit you are set to go for the rest of your life.

An alternative solution, while being presented in a much modest fashion, claims to do even more, on both Macs and PCs, at a fraction of the price ($ 99.95). For more info see Clearphone.

Imagine what it would be like when you combine the smart ideas embedded into these tools with the disruptive potential of a technology like ByteTornado, as first introduced by Guido Cibursky.