A MoCA network adapter is designed for use in households that use Cable. They are used when you need an internet connection over a long distance and your wireless connection isn’t fast or reliable enough.

The typical situation is where you want to stream HD video through your home, without the unreliability of a wireless connection, and without ultra-long Ethernet cables all over the place.

Instead you can just run your internet connection through the cable wiring already in your home (assuming you have cable wiring). Using a Coax-Ethernet bridge you can use the existing coax wiring in any home for fast network connections.

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A new promising placeshifting device with the potential to become the ultimate all-in-one home TV device is due for launch in March 2010.

The ‘Volcano’ from Monsoon Multimedia (the makers of the HAVA placeshifting line) is WebTVWire’s favorite device from the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show. Quite simply this slimline set top box is packed with a variety of promising features.

It is essentially does all of the following:

• HD placeshifter – Allows you to view 720p high definition streams of your home Cable TV connection and home video library over the internet.
• DVR – Plug in your cable box or other TV source and you have the typical DVR functions of recording and playing TV.
• Internet TV – Right not its YouTube for online video and CinemaNow for paid movies. In the works are many other web TV services including Boxee and Netflix.
• Apps – The device should also allow you to play on Twitter and Facebook as well as do a lot of other stuff like play games and check the weather through third-party apps.
• Live Broadcast - It can even broadcast video from your home live across the internet.
• Home Network Media – Access and share video and media across your home network wired or wirelessly.

Soak up some pics and watch a video of it in action…

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Boxee has been available for a while now, but it’s still a work in progress. However, the Boxee beta has now been unleashed on the world, available to all who want to download and use it.

It features an overhauled interface, and new apps and content. And it’s pretty damn awesome, though not yet perfect.

Boxee Begins

Boxee seems to have been building up to its open beta status for years now. Probably because it has been doing exactly that. But the beta has now finally been unleashed, unveiled during the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show.

If you haven’t yet heard or used Boxee, it’s a free, open-source piece of software that acts as a central locale for a user’s multimedia content. Films, TV shows, and photos from the Web and your local drive are brought together in one easily manageable setting.

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Netgear has announced ‘Stora’ at CES, an easy to use Network Attached Storage device packing a friendly 1TB drive.

Netgear describes it as the device for “first-time users who don’t want to learn server administration as a hobby,” and it is certainly simple to use.

It supports gigabit internet, has a USB 2.0 port, is DLNA certified so can stream media to compatible devices, and also has an in-built iTunes server.

The ease of use, decent size disk space, and ability to stream media also makes it double as a entry level media extender allowing you to watch video and listen to music on different devices on your home network.

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Toshiba has announced its new Cell TV which promises 2D to 3D conversion, HD upscaling and internet video. It’s certainly promising, but will it deliver?

The Cell TV does have some power inside it with the ‘Broadband Engine’, a new proprietary eight-core processor. That’s ten times the average power of a PC and 143 times more powerful than a run of the mill LCD TV.

2D to 3D Upscaling

These processors are used to convert all content up to 1080p 3D, so a regular 2D video in standard definition (and even 2D games) becomes a 3D experience. Sounds on paper like you’ll be getting the Avatar experience.

But don’t get those old Baywatch tapes out just yet! SD to HD up-scaling in past HDTVs has not been the true HD experience promised, so its highly unlikely the 2D to 3D up-scaling will be either. After all even movies shot in 3D don’t always look that good.

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2010 will be the year that web TV set-top-boxes start to make it into the mainstream. The recently announced Popbox priced just shy of $130 has received a lot of promising buzz, but does it deliver?

The PopBox is replacing its predecessor, the Popcorn Hour box with newer features and a sleeker interface.

Content Partners

The PopBox has partnered with a number of companies to bring a variety of video. It’ not got everything, but it’s got decent selection to keep you busy.

• Netflix – rent and buy movies instantly.
• Crunchyroll (Asain entertainment site)
• BlipTV – video clips and independent episodes
• NextNewNetworks – independent web TV shows
• Revision3 – independent web TV shows with a tech focus
• Livestation – live TV from various worldwide sources
• Internet Video Archive – archive of public domain video and old movies.
• MalaysiaKini – Malaysian videos

App Innovation Myth?

Apps were certainly big in 2010 on cell phone devices, and Popbox is trying to cash in on the app craze for the set-top-box.

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DivX has changed tact and reinvented itself more time than most. Its latest move is away from a dedicated set-top box and to a streaming Internet TV platform which will be available on a range of devices. Though competition is already fierce.

Evolving DivX

DivX has been a name synonymous with online video for a long time thanks to the codec and player which have been around for years.

However, in more recent years, DivX has tried to break out of these self-imposed walls by trying to enter the hardware market.

But having pretty much failed with its own set-top boxes, DivX is now entering the crowded Internet TV platform market. Which is a risky move.

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