FOR almost 50 years Australians faced one of the most limited television channel choices on the planet -- a choice eventually expanded by pay-TV, and

FOR almost 50 years Australians faced one of the most limited television channel choices on the planet -- a choice eventually expanded by pay-TV, and then digital programming -- but now the country is about to enjoy almost unlimited choice with the arrival of IPTV in the lounge room.

IPTV, otherwise known as Internet Protocol TV, has been a buzzword on computers for the past year with the development of services such Joost, Hulu and the ABC's own iView application.

Now experts say the unlimited sourcing of programming from the internet is at hand with new television sets boasting direct-to-the-internet broadband connections. These will allow programming to be streamed to the TV without the use of a computer as an intermediary.

Sony, Samsung, Panasonic and LG are among a handful of manufacturers that will bring the technology to Australia.

Paul Colley, technology communications manager with Sony Australia, says the technology is already available on its Bravia range in the US, and will debut in Australia in the near future.

He says it will give TV viewers to a very different way of accessing content.

Sony launched its Bravia Internet Video Link in the US last year. This allows a TV to stream content such as IPTV and web pages direct from the internet without having to go through a computer.

But Colley says viewers are looking for a different experience through televisions and "don't want to be hunched over a mouse and a keyboard".

Sony's solution has been the development of its Xmedia bar, a navigation tool developed initially for the handheld PlayStation Portable and PS3, which comes with the video link box.

The navigation tool replaces the browser address bar and allows people to surf to regular websites and those offering IPTV feeds in a similar way to browsing through channels.

"It's just like channel surfing," Colley says. "And one of the wonderful things about the internet is the ability to explore."

Duane Varan, head of the Interactive Television Institute at Murdoch University in Western Australia, says evolving media habits were at the heart of the emergence of lounge room IPTV in the local market.

"The basic principle is that people have a primary need for content and they want it when they want it," he said.

"The big contingent in all of this is the metering of broadband."

Varan says the way in which broadband providers metered their content in Australian was one hurdle to the success of IPTV through TVs.

Another hurdle was the availability of content from overseas portals and the protection of digital rights.

"I think the other problem is region-specific," he says. "Savvy users know how to hide their IP address to get content from overseas, but this is beyond most people."

While there may be hurdles, Varan believes the arrival of IPTV in Australia as a staple alongside free-to-air, digital and pay-TV broadcasters could prove to be a benefit to existing players rather than a drawback.

"What does it (IPTV) do to TV viewing?" he says. "I think it enhances TV programming and it is not taking away.

"Overall, I think it represents good news."

Another benefit that Varan believes IPTV will bring is that it will allow advertisers to more keenly target audiences and individuals in the same way they can now slice and dice demographics online.

"Now you are going to have the ability to adserve, and there are some really interesting cases online already."

He cites the IPTV offering on the ABC network in the US which allows on-demand programming supported by ads and offered with an interactive element.

"On the one hand it is competing with existing advertising, but at the same time it is enabling a different type of advertising program," Varan says.

Sony's Colley agrees that broadband capacity and cost in Australia are among the most significant issues standing in the way of the development of IPTV in the lounge room, but says computer-based photo, video and music libraries are already starting to be networked around the home.

Samsung has launched its second generation TV capable of streaming TV from a PC to the TV, but director of marketing Kurt Jovais says "the holy grail of IPTV is live streaming content over the internet to your TV, like watching the American Superbowl in real-time over the internet in native resolution on your home TV. This will require very fast broadband speeds and most likely a subscription service, but from a device perspective, today's TVs could deliver."

"As we move up in our IPTV capabilities, people will be able to share nearly any content experience over the TV. The amount of available content from anywhere in the world will be astonishing.

"It is also very exciting for the industry, as it is classically disruptive to the existing free-TV and pay-TV business models. It will be a very exciting evolution to be a part of," he says.

How TV Streaming Has Changed How Viewers Watch Their Favorite Programs

TV streaming lets viewers watch their favorite programming in a matter of minutes on their computer. The programs are channel as a continuous stream on the internet. TV streaming is becoming the wave of the future of the internet.

Nowadays, there are different stations that are making their content available on the spot with this type of viewing. They feel that this is a different way for them to get more people online. In turn, when more people are watching tv online, the stations will get additional revenue. This provides the stations with an advantage because for them, the costs of tv streaming are minimal.

Since the word “free” will send anyone running, more people have been flocking to get the live feeds and access the tv streaming on the internet. As long as stations can keep their costs to a minimum, they will reach out to attract more people to watch their favorite shows. All a person needs is a broadband connection and a free media player. Windows Media or Real Player works well with this method.

The portals that are used with this method rely on advertising to keep them afloat. As long as the content has appeal, the stations will be able to provide valuable and interesting viewing to those that are turning to tv streaming. This concept is being used not only in the United States, but around the world as well. The expansion of this method provides an opportunity to serve in niche markets instead of just restricting it to certain areas.

This method allows producers to continue putting more shows and more episodes that people want to watch. Another reason why more viewers are turning to the internet for their favorite tv shows is because the producers know what areas to target. They have become very savvy as far as learning to get an audience for their programming.

TV streaming provides viewers with looking at an improved video screen resolution on their computer. There are so many selections for viewers to choose from and more people are catching on to this new way of watching their favorite programming. A lot of this programming cannot be found on cable or satellite. You would think that with all of the channels that these two main mediums have, people would be able to find whatever they want.

This method has led the way of providing high quality programming free to the viewers. Not only do they get what they want, but they can watch it in the comfort of their own home without having to fight anyone over regular programming from the tv set.

WD TV is better than Apple TV

WD has put a new device on the market, and it’s called the WD TV HD Media Player. It’s a small box that can connect to a TV via HDMI or Composite output cables, and can take most USB external hard drives as input (it should even read USB flash drives as long as they’re formatted in FAT32). Once a device is connected, the WD TV will read the media from that drive (movies, photos, music) and let you browse through them and play them on your TV. What sets this device apart for me is that it has gone beyond other similar devices like the LaCinema Premier, or Apple TV. I’ll explain below.

The LaCie product, for example, doesn’t play as many formats as WD TV, and can only support NTFS and FAT32 file systems.

You’re limited in the amount of content you can play with LaCinema Premier, since the drive is integrated within the device itself, and because not as many video formats are supported (see the specs on the LaCie website). That means you have to lug the whole thing from your home office to your living room, re-connect it at each place, and copy files onto it when you want to refresh its inventory. The remote also leaves something to be desired (too many buttons).

I know and like Apple TV myself, having bought one and configured it for my parents, but frankly, I find it overpriced and under-featured. The more you use Apple TV, the more limitations you find:

It has an internal hard drive that syncs with content over a wireless network, which means you have to wait forever to get a movie onto it. The drive can also fill up quickly, depending on which size you pick. (Yes, you can also connect it via a Gigabit network, if you’ve pre-wired your living room and home office with Gigabit wires already — but most people have not.)
You can stream to it, but then you always have to keep iTunes open, and it’s a hassle to remember that, especially when you’ve just sat down on the living room couch and turned on the TV.
You also need to be able to troubleshoot WiFi issues in case you’re not getting enough bandwidth and Apple TV playback stutters.
You have to add every single video clip you want to play on Apple TV to the iTunes library, and I don’t care for that sort of thing. I just want to store my stuff in folders and browse it from a device (like WD TV).
Apple TV has a USB port on the back, but you can’t use it for anything but “diagnostics” unless you hack the device. This is stupid. I can’t use the port to connect Apple TV to my computer and copy content onto it, I can’t use it to connect an external hard drive to it and have it read the content from it (like WD TV), and it just sits there, unused, unless I pay for a hacking device like aTV Flash.
It overheats like crazy. It can burn your fingers if you’re not careful.

I love the design of Apple TV and its diminutive remote. I love the fact that I can swap remotes between it and my laptop if I want to. I think the on-screen menus are well done. I also like the fact that it can stream Flickr photos and YouTube videos, but these extra functions are just that: extra-neous. It simply cannot do its basic job well, and that is to play my media conveniently.

I’m not alone in being frustrated with it. Steve Jobs recently said he’s not sure what to do with Apple TV. What also speaks volumes about his stance on the device is the fact that it’s not listed in the Mac product lineup on Apple’s website. It sits off to the side in a section of its own, and you have to do a search for “Apple TV” in order to find it.

For one thing, Mr. Jobs, you can stop being so greedy in your approach to the device and let people use the USB port on the back. Or how about letting people stream Netflix videos with it, so they don’t have to buy a separate device? I’m a Mac user and have a Netflix account. Until Netflix release Roku and opened up its streaming program to Mac users, I was in the dark. You probably don’t want to do these things because it’ll cut into your video rentals and purchases, and you like that extra revenue stream, but the fact remains that sales of the device will always remain low if you insist on hamstringing it.

The WD TV Player, on the other hand, is made to suit most people. It has a USB port where you can connect most external hard drives. It will read NTFS, FAT32, and HFS file systems too. (I found that out from WD Support, because the info isn’t listed among the specs. They pointed me to KB article #2726.) There seems to be an issue with HFS+ file systems, but they’ll still work, only differently. I’ll have to look into that later.

Also not listed among the specs is an Optical Audio port, but when I look at the back of the device, it seems to me I can see one there.

To me, WD TV is the long-awaited answer to my media player needs. At around $99 (street price), this is one device that will make its way to my Christmas stocking pretty soon, because I’ve got a Drobo full of content I’d like to play my way, not to mention that I also have two WD Passport drives.

I may even get one for my parents, to replace their Apple TV. They’ve had to keep their Drobo connected to their iMac in the home office, with iTunes open, all this time, just so they could watch a movie or two from the Drobo. That’s not right. Once I get the WD TV, I can take their Drobo, put it in the living room, and hook it up right there, without worrying about WiFi, streaming, iTunes, and a whole bunch of nonsense. Apple dropped the ball with Apple TV, and WD picked it up and started running with it.

The WD TV supports the following file formats:

Music: MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV/PCM/LPCM, AAC, FLAC, Dolby Digital, AIF/AIFF, MKA
Photo: JPEG, GIF, TIF/TIFF, BMP, PNG
Video: MPEG1/2/4, WMV9, AVI (MPEG4, Xvid, AVC), H.264, MKV, MOV (MPEG4, H.264). It will play MPEG2/4, H.264, and WMV9 videos up to 1920×1080p 24fps, 1920×1080i 30fps, 1280×720p 60fps resolution. That’s awesome.
Playlist: PLS, M3U, WPL
Subtitle: SRT (UTF-8)

You can buy the WD TV Player from:

Amazon: WD TV HD MEDIA PLAYER; USB 2.0/HDMI/COMPOSITE A/V

The end of TV: Boxee + Apple TV + Hulu

With the latest release of boxee(http://www.boxee.tv/) we’ve enhanced the experience, offering our alpha testers the ability to stream TV Shows, Movies and clips from sites like CBS, Comedy Central and Hulu. we think it is a big step towards making boxee a true alternative to expensive Cable/Sat subscriptions, as well as to those who revert to downloading pirated content. by making shows like CSI, Southpark or Heroes available for instant streaming, in good quality and with limited commercial interruptions we believe CBS and Hulu are helping make paying for Cable or pirating content both irrelevant.

while we don’t currently have a formal relationship with either content provider, we know that partnerships like these are what people want (x# of requests and counting). we hope to work closely with them in order to improve the experience and bring more content with even better quality to our users.

if you’re an alpha tester please tell us what other shows, services, content you’d like to see as part of boxee. Send me an email at launch_pad@rocketmail.com

if you’re a content owner/aggregator and would like to have your content on boxee please contact us. boxee is an open-platform and we’ll work with you to bring your shows, movies, music, and business model to it.

AT&T to try limits on monthly Internet traffic

NEW YORK -
AT&T Inc., the country's largest Internet service provider, is testing the idea of limiting the amount of data that subscribers can use each month.

AT&T will initially apply the limits in Reno, Nev., and see about extending the practice elsewhere.

Increasingly, Internet providers across the country are placing such limits on the amount of data users can upload and download each month, as a way to curb a small number of "bandwidth hogs" who use a lot of the network capacity. For instance, 5 percent of AT&T's subscribers take up 50 percent of the capacity, spokesman Michael Coe said Tuesday.

But the restrictions that Internet providers are setting are tentative. And the companies differ on what limits to set and whether to charge users for going beyond the caps.

Starting in November, AT&T will limit downloads to 20 gigabytes per month for users of their slowest DSL service, at 768 kilobits per second. The limit increases with the speed of the plan, up to 150 gigabytes per month at the 10 megabits-per-second level.

To exceed the limits, subscribers would need to download constantly at maximum speeds for more than 42 hours, depending on the tier. In practice, use of e-mail and the Web wouldn't take a subscriber anywhere near the limit, but streaming video services like the one Netflix Inc. offers could. For example, subscribers who get downloads of 3 megabits per second have a monthly cap of 60 gigabytes, which allows for the download of about 30 DVD-quality movies.

The limits will initially apply to new customers in the Reno area, AT&T said. Current users will be enrolled if they exceed 150 gigabytes in a month, regardless of their connection speed.

"This is a preliminary step to find the right model to address this trend," Coe said. The company may add another market to the test before the end of the year, he said.

Customers will be able to track their usage on an AT&T Web site. The company will also contact people who reach 80 percent of their limit. After a grace period to get subscribers acquainted with the system, those who exceed their allotment will pay $1 per gigabyte, Coe said.

Comcast Corp., the nation's second-largest Internet service provider and AT&T's competitor in Reno, last month officially began a nationwide traffic limit of 250 gigabytes per subscriber. Comcast doesn't charge people extra for going over the limit, but will cancel service after repeated warnings. Previously, it had a secret limit.

Two other ISPs, Time Warner Cable Inc. and FairPoint Communications Inc., are planning or testing traffic limits as low as 5 gigabytes per month, which is easily exceeded by watchers of DVD-quality online video.

Among the largest ISPs, Verizon Communications Inc. is a holdout, and has said it does not plan to limit downloads.