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Consumers are Cutting the Cord to Watch Online Video on Their TVs

Mar 5, 2010  •  Post A Comment

The days of bulky hard-wired systems that allow your television to display what is shown on your computer are quickly coming to an end as Intel, Netgear and MediaMall are moving to the market with wireless PC-to-TV receivers, Wall Street Journal’s All Things Digital reports.

Intel and Netgear’s Wi-Di (wireless display) system is currently available for Toshiba, Sony and Dell laptops. A $100 adapter is required for the system, but comes free with purchased laptops. All Things Digital found setup a breeze, and all actions on the laptop screen were reproduced on the television wirelessly.

No hiccups were found, but video quality was a bit degraded from standard HD footage.

Meanwhile, MediaMall’s PlayOn allows for video playback via game systems like Sony’s Playstation 3, but the video can only be played from PlayOn-enabled sources like Hulu. All Things Digital found the user-interface a bit clunky, as the video game system remote has to be used to navigate videos. Another clunky issue was getting third-party video sources on the system.

Despite those stumbles, video playback was smooth.

4 Comments

  1. Absoluting amazing. Does anyone out there realize that in the vast majority of the country, television is available wireless and free? It is called broadcasting and has been around since the 1930’s. It is now digital, much of it in high definition and doesn’t suffer any degradation as more users access it.

  2. Oh yeah, 4.5 networks, predictably written shows, locked-in viewing times. And if your digital signal isn’t perfect, you get nothing at all. I am a 25+ year broadcasting veteran, but I know that on-demand viewing IS the future. Better to ride the wave than fight it…

  3. You are both correct, but here’s the difference…I am out of work, pay $16 a month for less than basic cable and get those 4.5 network stations, a satellite station, one cable news station, and three spanish stations. For $50 I could get a few more, and for $100 I could get some movie channels, and the whole spectrum, but I would just rather rent a movie or as I do now, watch clips on my PC.

  4. Nice!! Great Ifo. Great People. Great Blog. Thank you for all the great sharing that is being done here.

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