Each year during May, the television networks present their schedules to advertisers, a ritual which has become known as “Sweeps”.

The viewing figures during May determine the level of advertising revenue the networks can expect to get for the year ahead, and so all the big shows are débuted at this time.

However, this time there is a slight problem, as the sweeps have shown that prime time television in the States has lost six million viewers in a year.

Joint Reasons

There are two reasons for this, the first being the writers strike from the back end of last year and early this year which saw shows take an enforced hiatus and consequently made viewers make the switch to cable television and beyond.

However, the bigger and more important reason, is the increase of viewing options open to people now. From digital video recorders such as TiVo and on demand Web video, viewers now have more choice than ever before.

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Revision3, the online video company headed by Digg’s Kevin Rose has reportedly inked a series of new deals which will see its original series being distributed in a number of new places.

The company is best known for Diggnation, a series all about Digg, and the stories which make it on the social bookmarking site, hosted by Rose himself.

The show has always been available on Revision3’s own site, as well as YouTube and iTunes, but will now also be available on Hulu, Joost, TiVo, Revver and Break.com as well.

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Internet television is growing at a phenomenal rate, with services such as Joost, Hulu and Stage6 all providing more reasons than ever to turn to your PC or laptop rather than that square box sitting in your living room.

One of the biggest problems with watching television programmes, or movies online however, is the size of the screen you are being forced to watch it on. Unless you are rich, or an early adopter of future technologies, the chances are your PC or laptop screen just isn’t up to the job any more.

You do have an option though, and that is to hook your PC or laptop up to a projector, and have all your favourite video clips, and web episodes, in glorious full screen, home theater sized goodness. But, where’s the best place to begin?

Buying A Projector

First you’ll need a PC or laptop, and a home theater projector. There are plenty of places to find them, but I’d recommend reading through lots of projector reviews before you blindly purchase one which then doesn’t suit your needs.

Prices of projectors can vary wildly, but you’ll be looking to spend between $1,000 and $3,000 for reasonable quality and a good brand.

Be aware that there is a difference between a projector being HD Ready and actually outputting HD. HD Ready simply means it can accept a HD signal, but may output in standard definition so won’t look as crisp as you might expect.

If you want to make sure your new purchase is 100% HD then look at the output. An 800×600 output is not High Definition, whereas 1280×720 (720p) or 1920×1080 (1080i or 1080p) is.

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As regular readers of WebTVWire will know, Vuze is a video content distribution company built upon the P2P-based platform Azureus.

It’s similar to the iTunes TV shop in that it provides easy access to professionally-produced material both new and old – albeit with one great distinction: most of the stuff is free.

Making Headlines

Fairly recently, Vuze made a few headlines through the issuance of a petition to the FCC to investigate and halt ISPs’ practices of throttling bandwidth and network access to restrict the proliferation of data sent across the Internet via the BitTorrent protocol. 

It has demanded a stop to such selective restriction for the fact that it’s business model is wholly reliant on the technology, and stated that any blocks would shackle its business plan to the point of inoperability and out-and-out failure.

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I was hoping to upgrade to an HDTV this holiday season, and apparently I’m not alone, with HDTV at the top of Americans Christmas wish lists this year. 

As an analogue cable subscriber, before I buy-in, I’ve been considering the freedom that “going digital” should give me compared to the old analog world. 

The primary reason I haven’t “upgraded” to digital cable up to this point comes down to TiVo, it and the freedom that devices like it that connect to an analogue coax cable give me. 

Digital technology is supposed to deliver more, not less freedom, isn’t it? It’s not clear that upgrading to digital cable gives me the freedoms I’m used to.

Diving into the digital cable world looks to be a kludge of coax, daisy-chained set-top boxes (STBs), and IR repeaters. 

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A quick note to any of our American readers thinking about laying your hands on a TiVo HD IPTV set top box. According to the good folks over at Gizmodo, you are going to need the official TiVo Wireless Adapter.

TiVo lists on its site that you need to use TiVo branded gear for the unit, which is a bit of a shame although at least the company is being forward in informing you, the consumers, about it.

It seems that seeing as the new TiVo HD unit runs Linux, there are only very few drivers for wireless adapters included in the OS, meaning that third-party devices won’t work. Makes us wonder why TiVo didn’t just build their own wireless adapter into the unit in the first place. *harrumph*

In an attempt to boost demand for its high definition service, TiVo has today debuted a trimmed-down , less pricey version of its digital video recorder, 10 months after the original went on sale.

The firm announced that its newest TiVo High Definition DVR model, capable of recording up to 20 hours of high-resolution television, would retail for around $300 USD, and hit store shelves this September.

In contrast, the TiVo Series3 HD Digital Media Recorder, which is capable of holding about 30 hours of HD programming and has greater high-end audio and video features, already retails at $800 USD.

That said, both aforementioned models are more expensive than the average cable set-top box, a device that many millions of viewers receive from their TV provider for a miniscule monthly fee.

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