This year’s CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas, where Bill Gates made his final keynote address, showcased many new IPTV developments — particularly new ways to get content to the TV. However, many were left disappointed that the IPTV-enabled Xbox 360 promised at last year’s CES hasn’t materialized. This left many asking whether the device would ever emerge, and the answer appears to be yes, at least according to an announced partnership with British Telecommunications Plc., or BT. The deal will allow BT Broadband customers to use an Xbox 360 console to access the BT Vision IPTV service and its library of on-demand content, also available through a standard set-top box. The offering is expected to be available mid-2008.
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Microsoft had its share of other announcements, including the availability of DVR Anywhere, a whole-home DVR which uses the Microsoft Mediaroom IPTV platform and proves the ability to watch recorded programs on any TV in the home. It requires only one set-top box with a hard drive and supports both standard and HD (high definition) TV. AT&T has announced plans to roll out the feature for its U-verse IPTV service within the next month.
Microsoft will also enhance its Mediaroom platform in a partnership with Broadcom Corp. The collaboration will enable the Mediaroom software to operate on set-top boxes using the Broadcom BCM7405 System-on-a-Chip. This will allow service providers and original-equipment manufacturers to support a range of features, such as whole-home digital-video recording, high-performance user interfaces and photo and music sharing.
The "TV" in IPTV
A major theme of the show was the ability to send online video or applications directly to the TV, bypassing the need for a set-top box altogether. This could become important for online IPTV services like Joost N.V. and for new video-distribution services like NBC Universal Inc.’s Hulu portal. It could also change the telco IPTV landscape, particularly if it eliminates the need for DVRs, although this would likely not be seen for quite some time. Sharp Corp., Samsung Group and Panasonic Corp. all made announcements on this topic.
Sharp’s new AQUOS Net service will use on-screen widgets to deliver information such as weather, stock quotes and other news directly from the Internet to AQUOS LCD HDTVs. The TVs will come with built-in Ethernet plugs, and the company announced several powerline-networking adapters to stream the content around the home to the TV as an alternative. The company said it also hopes to deliver video in the near future.
Samsung announced a similar offering in a partnership with USA Today: It will send news stories and other content from the paper’s site to Samsung’s new Series 6 and Series 7 LCD and plasma HDTVs via an Ethernet connection. Samsung also offers an add-on allowing the TVs to receive Internet video.
The biggest announcement in this space comes from Panasonic, whose new VIERA PZ850 series Plasma HDTVs will enable viewers to browse and watch videos from YouTube and view photos from their Picasa Web Albums, a free, online photo-sharing service — both services are owned by Google. The Internet-connected HDTVs are expected to be available in spring 2008.
Set-Top Boxes RIP?
In other news, Sling Media Inc.’s SlingCatcher was finally revealed — a set-top box that delivers broadcast TV, Internet content and personal media to the TV. The SlingCatcher includes three built-in applications: SlingPlayer for TV, SlingProjector and SlingSync. SlingPlayer for TV offers the ability to send programming to another TV in the home or to a TV in a remote location without a PC. SlingProjector enables viewers to project Internet and PC-based digital content, such as downloaded movies or YouTube videos, directly to the TV. SlingSync gives users the ability to sync files over their network connections and store them on third-party USB flash drives or other portable hard drives attached to their SlingCatchers, giving them the ability to use the SlingCatchers to replay content on demand and manage content from PCs via the SlingCatcher user interface.
D-Link Corp. also announced a media player that allows a user to stream Web-based content available on his or her PC to a TV, either wired or wirelessly , without the need for a proprietary media player. Virtually any local video content can be sent to and viewed on a TV using a media player such as iTunes, Nero, Windows Media Player or RealPlayer.
Whether set-top boxes will become obsolete remains to be seen, but the development of Internet-enabled TVs is worth watching. As more consumers want content delivered to the living room, such developments are not surprising. More advanced solutions will come, and IPTV players will want a piece of the action.
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