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TV everywhere. Now

By Jonas Kollberg (Intel) (6 posts) on June 26, 2007 at 1:02 am

Last couple of weeks I have used quite a cool setup. I have a Pinnacle PCTV to Go box on top of the settop box at home. This allows me to stream out TV (recompressed to H264) to a client on the Internet. (We dont see Slingbox in Europe...). Nothing very new in that...

However: I have used an UltraMobile PC with builtin HSDPA (also called Turbo 3G) support as client. Thus I can now, on the UMPC, watch any channel I have at home (or content recorded on the DVR/TiVo), at any place! On the subway, beach, waiting for the bus...

Its going to be interesting to see how the high speed coverage is in my summercottage this summer. Never been able to watch TV there before...

Of course this eats bandwidth, so an "all you can eat" 3G subscription is more or less required. These kind of subscriptions are now available for reasonable prices here in
Sweden. I pay around 25 dollars per month for free bandwidth anywhere in Sweden. Max speed is 3.6 Mbit/s and coverage is very good.

I wonder how the network will work if everybody starts doing things like this.... We probably need a broadcast technology as base if TV on the go is going to work...

Quite cool technology anyway! 

/Jonas

Categories: Mobility

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Comments (5)

June 26, 2007 8:21 AM PDT Josh Bancroft (Intel) Total Points: 4,584 Community Manager

Very cool. I've been using a free Windows XP app called Orb (http://www.orb.com) that lets you stream live TV, audio files, video files, photos, and other files from your home PC to any mobile device with an internet connection and either streaming Windows Media or Real Player. It's so cool to be able to access your media from anywhere! :-)

June 26, 2007 10:15 AM PDT Jonas Kollberg (Intel) Total Points: 15 Registered User

Yes, Orb is nice as well. Crowded UI though, I think... There are tons of great "reach your stuff at home" options, but using them on the go is the new thing. Many of these application dont adjust bandwidth dynamically, which is a must if you are moveing around in a cellular network. Pinnacles box do...

June 26, 2007 12:06 PM PDT Josh Bancroft (Intel) Total Points: 4,584 Community Manager

Yeah, the Orb UI isn't the greatest. But it does do bandwidth testing/adaptation - if I'm on a slow EDGE connection, it detects and compensates for that. The stream might be lower quality on a slower connection, but at least it comes through without constant buffering (which happens when it's trying to cram too many bits down too small a pipe :-) ).

February 26, 2009 5:08 AM PST Meredith Dixon

I am trying to find a way to get streaming tv on my pc and then connect to the big screen tv. Suggestions????? I have heard this is possible. I now get telephone thru the pc and would like to do the same with tv. Thanks, Michigan, USA

February 27, 2009 3:53 AM PST jonkol Total Points: 5 Registered User

A very good idea. Very hard to answer for me, at least. There are tons of ways, but they all depend on how your TV is delivered today. And I dont know the situation in Michigan... Some examples: - Many channels stream on the Internet today, so that would be easy: Just use your browser. - In Europe DVB-T is used to broadcast digital TV. In this case we buy a DVB-T card and get the TV in Windows Media Center, Mediaportal or any of the other great HTPC front ends that is out there. - Then there are satellite recivers for computers as well. This integrates with the same software systems as in the DVB-T case. I hope this is of some help, even if its not much? Thanks /Jonas

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