Feb
24
Cablevision Testing Computer-to-TV Service
February 24, 2010 | Leave a Comment
Cablevision will soon begin testing a service that will allow consumers to transfer content from their personal computer to a television. The “PC to TV Media Relay” service kicks off a trial run in June, Variety reports [subscription may be required]. “The service will allow users to view everything from photos, documents and videos stored on a hard drive to streaming videos from YouTube and Hulu or iTunes downloads and the like on their TV screens,” the paper notes. The service “will work with a software download that allows the user’s computer to communicate with the Cablevision set-top box without the need for any wires or other cumbersome connection steps, or so Cablevision promises.” The relay will “funnel content from a user’s computer through Cablevision’s network and send it back” through a dedicated channel, and as such, Variety notes, the service raises privacy and piracy concerns. The cable company is also working to develop a version of the service that will work with Apple computers as well as cell phones and other mobile devices. Presumably consumers will also have the ability to funnel downloaded adult content to their televisions. A commonly voiced complaint about VOD and mobile content has been the lack of detail and expansiveness afforded by the small screen of the cell phone or laptop versus a television. Services such as the one to be tested by Cablevision could render such an issue moot and further wound the DVD business model.
[Source: Variety; Ty Colt © Falcon Studios.]
