The back-end technology that broadcasts IPTV and broadband video. These articles discuss the technology and workings behind the platforms that bring us television over the internet including both hardware and software.
Google TV is still waiting in the wings trying to find its market. Google will hang in there waiting for consumers and content owners to catch up with its ambitions, but other companies are bailing out now. And I can’t say I really blame them.
Google TV was unveiled in the middle of last year after a little teasing from Google. The two main partners were Sony and Logitech, the former integrating the software into television sets and Blu-ray players, the latter releasing a set-top box named Revue.
Unfortunately Google TV didn’t take off for many reasons: The unfinished nature of the software, the price of the hardware, and, worst of all, the fact that all of the big television networks and other premium content owners blocked Google TV access to their programming.
The writing was on the wall from that moment forth.
Steve Jobs revealed some vague future plans for Apple before he passed away from pancreatic cancer earlier this month. Including a possible Apple television set. Which is a nice idea but something that still feels like it’ll be years away.
The Apple TV set-top box has never been more than a hobby for Apple, with Steve Jobs admitting as much a few years ago. However, it’s always been clear that Jobs and co. had bigger plans for the device and was merely waiting for the industry, technology, and consumers to catch up.
We now have some proof of this, with Steve Jobs’ biographer Walter Isaacson revealing Jobs’ thoughts on the future of the product. Forget a small set-top box, we’re talking about a true Apple television set here. Which would no doubt be white, have rounded edges, and be called iTV.
Hollywood has finally realized the Internet is here to stay, digital content is here to stay, and piracy is here to stay. So it’s doing all it can to stay in control of its own destiny. With mixed results. I’m not convinced UltraViolet is the answer.
UltraViolet is Hollywood’s answer to DRM. It’s an initiative that began three years ago but has only now seen the light of day. In theory it’s a system ensuring consumers need to buy content only once while still being able to watch it however and whenever they choose.
Horrible Bosses is the first movie to be released with UltraViolet enabled, with Green Lantern, One Tree Hill, and others joining later. Buy Horrible Bosses on DVD or Blu-ray and you’ll obtain a code allowing you to stream the movie to a range of devices. Sounds great, isn’t really.
Ivi TV has turned to crowd-funding in order to pay the huge legal bills it will be facing as it gets head-to-head with the cable companies and television networks. But not many people seem to be willing to dip their hands in their pockets.
Ivi TV launched over a year ago, in September 2010, as an app downloadable for free. Once installed on the device of your choice, Ivi TV enabled anyone to stream cable broadcasts over the Internet by taking the live feeds from Seattle and New York and rebroadcasting them to subscribers on the Web.
Ivi TV founder Todd Weaver believed this was legally acceptable thanks to a rewritten passage in the Copyright Act designed to help and protect fledgling local cable systems in the 1970s. But unsurprisingly the cable companies and TV networks disagreed, suing Ivi TV to get it taken offline.
It has been offline since February but Ivi TV has launched an appeal and Weaver is determined to fight this injunction to the bitter end. Which all costs money. And lots of it.
YouTube now has a dedicated editor built in to the site giving all users the opportunity to edit video they have previously uploaded. The range of options has even been expanded to include Instagram-style effects.
Google first rolled out a video editor on YouTube last year with a simple affair offering the chance to trim, drag and drop, add metadata, and add music made available through TestTube. But a team has been quiet beavering away on improving the offering for the past 12 months.
The new YouTube Editor has now gone live, and it’s a vast improvement over the last effort. It allows for the editing of all videos which haven’t yet managed to gain 1,000 views, which is the vast majority. Those which have become popular will be left intact, with a new post-edit video uploaded alongside it.
Google TV isn’t going to be one of those many products or services Google kills off quietly after a failed trial. Instead, it’s going to nurture Google TV and even expand its reach outside of the States.
Google TV may not have been a success in the U.S., with Apple TV outperforming it every step of the way, but that isn’t stopping Google from planning its next move. And it’s one that will see them hop across the Atlantic to arrive on the doorsteps of the British public.
According to Eric Schmidt, speaking in his keynote at the Edinburgh Television Festival, Google TV will launch in Europe in the next six months, and the search and advertising giant is already in talks with British broadcasters.
This is a necessary step if Google is going to avoid experiencing the same problems in the U.K. and Europe as it has in the United States. The major U.S. networks have all blocked their content from streaming through Google TV, proving their desire to remain in control but also their unwillingness to stare the future in the face.
Thanks to the newly-updated Android Market and Videos app you can now watch movie rentals on your smartphone. Assuming it’s not really old and assuming also that you’d actually want to. Personally, I wouldn’t.
Mobile video is a growing sector, with the number of people owning mobile devices capable of displaying video in high quality lurching ever upwards. As we all carry our smartphones with us pretty much everywhere we go content is needed to fill the gaps between taking calls and sending texts.
The question is whether anyone wants to actually watch movies or television shows on a screen that’s barely even a few inches in diameter? Google obviously thinks so, which is why it has updated its Android Market Videos app and rolled it out to smartphones.
