Not so long ago I wrote about living two and a half weeks without cable. Here I am at CES, and what’s all the talk about? You guessed it, content. (They must have read my blog, right?)
From Boxee we have the “first cloud based DVR ever.” All of your shows are stored in the Cloud. They have created an interface to show them all to you in one place, on one page. There is no limit on how much you can record since the storage is on the cloud. Netflix, Vudu, YouTube all in one place. This product uses your off air antenna in conjunction with your apps to deliver what you want, when you want it. It is said to retail for $99.
Then there is PlayOn. What is PlayOn, you ask? I’ll let them describe it.
“PlayOn is media server software for your Windows PC. With PlayOn, you can use your home network to magically stream your favorite online shows, movies, and home media files from your PC to your TV, smart phone, or tablet. To display videos on your TV, PlayOn relies on a game console or other supported device, such as a Roku.”
I’m going to try out PlayOn myself, so stayed tuned for future information. The service varies in price from $39.99 to $69.99 depending on features (a one time fee).
There are a handful of others trying to bring content to you in one easy-to-use application. This includes TV manufacturers too. Samsung seems to have a head start with its Smart Hub 2.0. It has a 3 times faster quad core processor that allows for quick switching from one source to another and comes with S-Recommendation. This feature will ‘monitor’ what you watch and make—you guessed it—recommendations.
And, it’s just plain pretty.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention their Evolution kit, which is a small box that snaps on the back of the TV upgrading it to all the new functions of that year. (Some 2012 models are equipped for this feature). This could be just the thing to get some consumers to upgrade to that new TV.
Samsung’s Evolution kit.
There have also been announcements from Plex and some others. What’s the bottom line? There are many working on the cracking ‘cutting the cord’ conundrum. Stay tuned!
Heather L. Sidorowicz is project manager/designer for Southtown Audio Video in Hamburg, NY.
