Over-the-Top Interest?

We are interested in knowing how your watching Internet content on your TV. Are you? Do you see a need to? Do you have a media server? Do you use Tivo? Do you connect your laptop? Do you have a web-enabled television?

Share you thoughts and ideas on the use of this technology and the value of it in accessing Internet content.

jonesrc wrote:We are interested in knowing how your watching Internet content on your TV. Are you? Do you see a need to? Do you have a media server? Do you use Tivo? Do you connect your laptop? Do you have a web-enabled television?

For myself, I'm waiting for the content to improve. I only have a standard analog cable package and don't watch enough to justify paying a higher monthly fee for digital. Living in a apartment, getting some kind of satellite setup would involve dealing with the association. I'm very interested in IPTV, but so far it seems the content is lacking - what I want to watch isn't really offered in a TV-quality format. I'd really like to find something that carries the few cable channels I do watch so I can cancel cable. Cable seems to be the most expensive content delivery method.

So I'm waiting until I see something that matches my price-point and desired viewing and I'll obtain the equipment necessary to use it. I have no problems laying out money for equipment. But I work to minimize any monthly fees.

We don't pay for cable - we just get the free stuff over-the-air. So, streaming content online is great. I don't have anything too special (no Tivo or web-enabled TV). I use my laptop with a wireless connection and pipe the audio/video out to the TV from there (S-Video out). We've used it to watch BYUTV and General Conference for a couple of years now, and the reliability (particularly during conference) has gotten better and better. We also rent and download movies, watch shows and sports broadcasts, etc.

jonesrc wrote:We are interested in knowing how your watching Internet content on your TV. Are you? Do you see a need to? Do you have a media server? Do you use Tivo? Do you connect your laptop? Do you have a web-enabled television?

I have digital cable and have the ability to stream Netflix through a Wii. Otherwise, no Internet content makes it to the TV.
Do I see a need? Well, no, not for use in my home, but I can understand the desire for others to have that capability. For now I am perfectly happy with my 22-inch widescreen monitor for surfing.

I have no plans to view Internet content on my TV. If I need to buy a new TV (but my old standard-definition, analog Mitsubishi big-screen just won't quit!) and the new TV already has the ability to show web content then I'll try it. For now, however, I just don't feel the need to change nor spend money for new hardware. I'll watch the Internet on my computer.

jonesrc wrote:We are interested in knowing how you're watching Internet content on your TV. Are you? Do you see a need to?

We have not had a TV in our home for several years now, and we are doing just fine. With rare exceptions, the only internet content I view is html pages on my monitor.

I have watched a few events from BYU-TV. I sought out and watched an episode of a particular program as part of a Church assignment.

Other than that, I do not see a need. If I did, I could purchase a TV and a cable and send it on out there, and leave my glasses on the dresser.

Broadcast and tech blogs forecast the retailers to move 11 million Internet enabled sets next year. All the new sets for the most part will likely have some sort of Internet anabling included in the set at time of manufacture. 8 percent of Americans use IPTV services already, and that number is growing.

Some game devices, DVD/Blu-Ray players, etc., include similar things, for Netflix downloads or listening to Pandora (which is growing by 100,000 users a day) other Internet radio, podcasts, and other services could also eventually show up in future models. Other devices are coming, what types of things beyond this year is anyone's guess.

There have been some events in the last few years, one only this week, that indicate that OTA television may eventually be on the way out. There are no applications pending for new full-power TV stations, channels 5 and 6 may go to FM radio, and the matter this week is a number of applications for new 'low power' stations (those with -LP or -CA calls, or translator calls like K22AA) are on hold until further notice, what their plans are we don't know. They are looking for all kinds of bandwidth for a projected 40-fold increase in just wireless Internet use over how much was used just last year in the next 10-20 years.

jonesrc wrote:We are interested in knowing how your watching Internet content on your TV. Are you? Do you see a need to? Do you have a media server? Do you use Tivo? Do you connect your laptop? Do you have a web-enabled television?

Share you thoughts and ideas on the use of this technology and the value of it in accessing Internet content.

We have no interest or need to browse the Internet over a TV. We subscribe to a satellite service for our television, which includes the BYU channel so we can view all sessions of conference except the PHD session. We do not have a web-enabled TV.

One doesn't have to necessarily have one of the newer Internet-enabled TVs to be using the Internet with their TV. One of the satellite providers in the US, if not both, is using the Internet to serve 'on-demand' programming, you get a device that works between your wireless or wired network and the TV, it then downloads the program to your DVR, and you're ready to watch the program.

That is an early version of it.

But the thing here is that a lot of cable systems out there do not have the capacity, or the desire, to feature some channels, and so this is the way to get specific programming to those that want it without having to provide the channel space for the programming. I've heard that is how a lot of people in some situations get BYUTV, or even other Church programming available via the website. All they have to do is fire up the Internet on their set, and they're ready to go. One of the reasons is they live in an apartment where the cable service is provided as part of the rent, and it doesn't carry BYUTV, or any other given desired channel for that matter.

It's true though that a lot of people may not want it now, that's OK as it is a new technology. But it is developing rapidly and at the very least preparations need to be made to utilize it in the not too distant future. The prices of sets may be a little higher now, but that will come down. Once it hits the right price point, and hits a critical mass in audience, that will be what makes it commonplace, and by then the programming will be in place rather than some of the stuff that is out there right now that is not well-done or otherwise not that good, and we'll see a lot of useful things come via the Internet on our TVs.

We have a Tivo Series 2 that is networked. I haven't played with it much though since I got my SageTV HD Theater. It certainly would be useful to be able to access BYU TV with this device. I'm hoping that's why the OP is asking.

We receive over-the-air HD for local channels, which is piped to a home-built PC-based DVR. This is connected to one TV, and content is streamed to our second TV via an XBOX360.

In addition, we use this same DVR PC to view Hulu and Netflix content on the first TV, and we use Netflix via a Wii on the second TV.

Living in Utah, General Conference is recorded via the DVR PC from the HD OTA stream from KSL, and Comcast is subscribed to during the months of Sept. - Dec. in order to view BYU football...

We stream movies and classic tv shows through a netbook connected to our main tv. I use the online streaming more often than the Satellite because the classic TV shows I want to watch aren't available on the Sat lineup.

Without knowing the context of the question it is hard for anyone to express interest other than what they are currently doing. If, for example, the question is in respects to the church streaming its entire video library to tv's in ward buildings on demand, interest may be up or down.

Put it this way: if there was a BYUTV app for Boxee, I'd install it in a heartbeat.

I'm probably more of a geek than most, but all of our media viewing comes through Netflix and occasionally Hulu by means of Boxee on my Mac Mini. That thing has run both analog and digital televisions over the past few years (and a Linux PC with MythTV before that). If we want to record broadcast television (love the quality of local HD channels), I schedule it on my MythTV server and Boxee can play it back.

For stuff Boxee doesn't have available, say for example streams from BYUTV or lds.org, I just pull up a browser on the Mini and go to the site.

The problem is going to be integration into these devices people are hooking up to TV's (like PlayStations, Wii's, etc.) or the Internet enabled TV's themselves, unless you go via some open-source/public route, like a Boxee app, YouTube channel, or whatever Google comes out with.

This is an interesting thread to stumble upon. In a couple months, our DirecTV contract will be up, and we fully intend to cancel it, and replace it with an AppleTV. This will allow us to still see most of the programs we want (although with no DVR capability), and even if we 'rent' an episode for 99 cents, one month of that will still come to a lot less than what we're shelling out for DirecTV's dozens of channels that we never watch.

The only reason we've really kept around any kind of satellite/cable service is for the sake of BYU TV, especially for seeing General Conference. AppleTV won't solve that for us, but hopefully a way will be shown unto us whereby we can stream the sessions from a laptop to the AppleTV, and watch on TV that way.

emckirdy wrote:The only reason we've really kept around any kind of satellite/cable service is for the sake of BYU TV, especially for seeing General Conference. AppleTV won't solve that for us, but hopefully a way will be shown unto us whereby we can stream the sessions from a laptop to the AppleTV, and watch on TV that way.

Actually, you can find General Conference on your Apple TV. Go to the Podcast section, do a search for LDS Conference and it will show up. It is currently available in 11 languages and ASL and in HD, Video High, and Video Low formats. We are hoping that at some point in time we can become a provider and make it a lot easier to find but it is very much accessible in iTunes and the Apple TV. Look at it more as VOD instead of a podcast. You will find complete Sessions as well as separate talks. Enjoy.

This is very interesting. In addition to archived sessions, will this method work for live sessions, as it is being broadcast from the Conference Center?

Don't know if it will or not. Apple requires everything to go through the App Store, and while Google TV is just barely getting up so some of the material initially will of necessity start through the Android Market, getting the content is going to be a whole different matter, and often straight from the provider, you will likely only need the frontend app as an interface only.

Am unclear on any of the others.

Another thing about satellite TV is that it has the locals, necessary for local news and weather, not all stations put their news online either, and some programming that you might want to watch is simply not available online, at least not yet or for some time to come.

Very true, about local programming. However, we live right in between Portland and Eugene, and our neighbors (with digital antennae) have no problem getting local channels OTA.

Believe me, we looked into that. Losing touch with Oprah -- especially in her final season -- was not an option.

I've been holding off on an over-the-top device for some time. I couldn't justify paying $200+ for an Apple TV and the Roku was still lacking in features. All of the sudden we're in this flurry of OTT competition. Opening all sorts of options on what someone wants in an OTT device. I've been very impressed with all the new features on all the over-the-top devices.

For me, I went with the new Apple TV 2. For $99 I've been happy with the quality, plus with most of my watching coming from Netflix and my iTunes library, it was the perfect fit.

My second choice would have been the Roku. But I must say, I am rather tantalized at what Western Digital has to offer and Google TV seems cool enough (but I don't have dish network). I've done away with cable and am completely satisfied with what I am able to watch-- albeit a little behind everyone else.

This may make me slightly out of the loop when chatting around the watercooler about the latest Office episode.

We use netflix on the wii on one tv and have a Roku connected to the second tv. We also have the ability to connect a laptop to either tv, but that is not ideal.

Basically, Google TV only started with Dish but said they were working with other providers.

They also said that early next year (2011) they would be supporting Android apps, but even that will not be fully ideal due to how those are set up to display. However, an SDK for enabling with Google TV should be coming.

The other big change is going to start next year, it's already happening but to date the pricing of equipment is somewhat of a turn-off. However, in a couple of weeks at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, some manufacturers are going to offer an internet interface car stereo head unit (that's the part you see in your dashboard) that will support smartphones with apps that can be run by voice rather than with your hand or fingers. SDKs are either here or forthcoming for some of these so the necessary functionality can be added to existing apps. Many apps will be at first entertainment, particularly audio services, for now. I've even heard of price points that are only slightly above common pricing for lower- to midrange pricing for units now commony seen at discounters.

We use over the air digital tv, Netflix on the Wii, and cable is in our home only for internet access (and they act like a only-show-in-town monopoly).

For conference we connect up the laptop to the TV for connection to BYU TV, but over the internet is the only way we can access them. Fine for conference because not much else is going on then, but there are other times that one/some watching BYU TV and others on the computer becomes a gentle conflict of wants. Having to connect it up each time is also a bit cumbersome. (not difficult, just not handy). So I guess I would come down on the side of wanting internet-enabled television in the future.

At my techie son's suggestion, I purchased a Slingbox device, hooked it onto one of the two additional free cable boxes I obtained from Comcast, and installed the viewing software onto my laptop and iPhone 3. Now, whenever I'm on the road, or need to watch a program the rest of the family is not interested in, I watch it on the computer or the iPhone. We watched a BYU football game at 2:00 am while staying at a kibutz on the Sea of Galilee. Anything my cable service provides, including DVR control, is available remotely. Once the Slingbox device and the softward are purchased, there are no additional fees.