Streaming video, not 3-D TV, is the 'Next Big Thing'

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10262/1088363-96.stm#ixzz106UQVJP4

 

Sunday, September 19, 2010

By Ced Kurtz, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

We are being told that 3-D will transform home entertainment and cause us all to rush out in a paroxysm of spending to buy new TVs.

Not so fast. Despite what television manufacturers want to believe, TechMan thinks that the Next Big Thing in TV is where the content comes from, not how it is displayed.

And change is afoot.

About 3-D TV, just one word: glasses. There's no future in glasses. Enough said. Nielsen, the ratings folks, gave 425 people 3-D glasses to watch 30 minutes of 3-D TV. Half complained the glasses were uncomfortable, and only 12 percent said they would consider buying a 3-D TV. That was down from 25 percent before viewing. If using your product cuts in half the number of people who want to buy it, you've got a problem.

TechMan thinks the Next Big Thing is streaming video -- on-demand and high definition on your big-screen TV. And as so often happens, a product from Apple has spurred the market.

There are different ways to view a TV show or movie on your computer or television. You can download it from the Internet through an application such as iTunes and save the file. This is sort of the digital version of buying the DVD. Or you can stream the content. You still get the content but it is not yours forever.

The new Apple TV, available in a few weeks for $99, unlike the original that debuted about four years ago, has no hard drive to store video. It is all about streaming from a computer -- iTunes, Netflix, YouTube and other Net-based sources.

When Apple announced the new device, it said it would begin renting TV shows for 99 cents and movies for $2.99 or $3.99 from the iTunes store.

As usual, when Apple has a "new" product (streaming video has been around for a while), dominoes begin to fall.

Roku, a competing streaming box maker, cut the price of its two top models by $30 to $69 and $99.

Amazon cut the price of buying some TV shows to 99 cents to match the rental price from iTunes.

Hulu, a free streaming video service backed by several networks, recently added huluplus, a $9.99 a month service that allows you to stream the entire current season of TV shows, plus past seasons.

Netflix has a streaming service for Internet-connected TVs, including the new Apple TV, Blu-Ray players, the iPad and Roku boxes, as well as gaming consoles Wii, PS3 and XBox 360.

And in another possible game changer, Google has announced that it will release Google TV this fall. Using either a TV with the product built in, or a box to connect, you can do an on-screen search for video on cable, Internet, your DVD recorder as well as streaming sources.

And YouTube recently tested a live video streaming channel.

The key to this innovation and price-cutting is that broadband penetration here and around the world has been steadily growing. According to the International Telecommunications Union, fixed broadband subscribers have more than tripled since 2004, reaching 500 million worldwide by 2009. At the same time, mobile broadband has been soaring.

There could be a time when we stream all our video directly from the content originator, eliminating the need for cable or broadcast TV in the middle.

But that probably won't happen soon. A current roadblock is that much live content, particularly sports, is not streamed on the Internet. Few would elect a system that doesn't include watching a Steelers game.

TechMan's blog is at post-gazette.com/techman. Watch the TechTalk video podcast at post-gazette.com/multimedia or listen at post-gazette.com/podcast. Follow PGTechMan on Twitter.

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