IP Democracy: Tivo Bridges the Chasm Between PC and TV..A Little

The abundance of video over the Internet is very cool, but won’t be a really big business until that video can be viewed on a TV set. That’s the conventional wisdom of most traditional media executives and Tivo, for one, has announced it will help close the gap between the two platforms.

The reviving PVR pioneer is adding features that will allow Tivo owners to watch some Internet video on their TV sets. First, the company has persuaded some Internet video providers to convert their content to the TV standard — MPEG2 — so that the video can easily be watched via wireless connection on the TV.

More intriguingly, Tivo will introduce software, which can be purchased for $24.95, that converts traditional Internet-based MPEG4 video to MPEG2 so that this kind of video can also be viewed on the TV set via a wireless link between the PC and the Tivo receiver. Tivo will further introduce a service that allows users to upload home videos and send them to other Tivo users — but to use this service, Tivo owners have to sign up for the company’s $4/month One True Media service.

It’s a step in the right direction, but there are a lot of gaps and hassles. First, Tivo owners are restricted to Internet videos that have been converted to MPEG2 or, in the case of users who purchase the special software, MPEG4 videos. Tivo won’t allow viewers to watch Adobe Flash video, which, unfortunately, is the form of video encoding used by many, if not most, web video providers, including YouTube.

Secondly, even if the content meets the MPEG2 or software-enhanced MPEG4 criteria, if it’s copy-protected, as is the case with most web-delivered movies, it can’t be viewed. Moreover, the sharing of home movies won’t work on combined Tivo/DirecTV receivers.

Still, Tivo, like Microsoft and Apple, is doing its part to break down the boundaries between the PC and the TV. With continued developments such as this relative baby step, ten years from now, will there be any barriers between the TV and the PC?

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on November 14, 2006 8:36 AM to IP Democracy