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The PC to TV Solution
A Seamless Convergence
By Paige Donner
Have you ever thought you might like to watch your favorite online video clips or a short film from iFilm, YouTube, Dovetail, Grouper, Jaman or some other online video site, on your TV set rather than on your computer screen? Well, you're not alone. The good news is the technology is here, and the transfer and "transcoding" of online video into a readable format that can be "beamed" onto your TV screen is already happening. Experts in the online video technology industry call it the "PC to TV Solution."
The Lean Back Phenomenon
Internet or "online video" is the hot topic of today. Hip buzz words include UGC ("User Generated Content" to you and me) which denotes the kinds of short clips, often goofy and very personal, made by people all over the world and uploaded and watched for free on sites such as YouTube. The trend has been such a widespread success that the pre-eminent and pioneering free-for-all online video start-up sold for $1.65 billion at just barely two years old. Its buyer, the business-savvy Google Inc., worth an estimated $125 billion, presumably knew what it was doing.
And here's why: "What you have is the ‘lean back' vs. ‘lean forward' phenomenon," explains Rich Redelfs, partner at Foundation Capital, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm and major investor in this PC to TV technology.
What Redelfs is referring to is that, in just a short amount of time, the "lean forward" solitary user experience of hunching over your computer screen to watch a video clip or downloaded TV show will become the "lean back" shared experience of watching that very same video clip or show on your TV screen in the comfort of your TV viewing haven. And let's face it, even if you are a 12- or 13-year-old tech-savvy viewer, we're all still mostly comfortable watching entertainment on a TV set, in a relaxed, shared environment.
So what kind of an impact is this going to have on our consumption of home entertainment and even content itself?
"The Internet didn't set out to destroy TV," states Arthur Cohen, co-founder and CEO of iKlipz, an online start-up that profiles filmmakers. "The Internet and its available content simply filled the need that television abdicated." Now that the technology is here that allows Internet content to be viewed on your television monitor, the more personal viewing experiences Internet content seems to provide will fluidly be transferred onto your TV set.
The Players
The race is on toward who will emerge as a viable contender in this PC to TV solution revolution. In a real way, watching these contenders and how they are positioning themselves is entertaining in and of itself. Household names such as Microsoft, Apple and TiVo are racing little-known but technologically mighty companies such as Quartics, Inc. (a chip manufacturer), which just might do for the PC to TV convergence what YouTube did for online video.
With ABC and other networks offering TV episodes of shows such as Desperate Housewives as a computer download for $1.99, and Disney partnering with iTunes to offer film downloads, iTV from Apple has a leg up in the PC to TV content conversion game. Offering the simplicity and synergy for which its products have become famous, Apple sells an iTV that converts the downloaded show from your computer and beams it onto your TV. The process isn't dissimilar to a pay-per-view set up. And at MacWorld 2007, Apple launched Apple TV, a $300 appliance that wirelessly transmits movies and TV shows downloaded from the Web to a wide-screen TV.
The Quartics Chip Philosophy: The PC to TV Seamless Convergence
Quartics, Inc. is sprinting toward a wireless solution also. The little chip manufactured by the Irvine, Calif. company will allow your computer to beam shows and online content straight to your TV - wirelessly. Just "lean back" on your comfy couch and view your content at the time of your choosing.
"The Quartics chip offers flexibility and the any-to-any capability" (meaning any video "codec" - QuikTime, Windows Media, MPEG, flash - can be displayed on any Quartics chip-enabled device, whether that's a TV, computer or mobile phone), says Rich Redelfs, of Foundation Capital, the Silicon Valley VC that has put funding into the company. "Most devices support one or two formats; there are so many different formats, consumers want to just watch their video."
Safi Qureshey, co-founder of Quartics, adds, "Next year, we are coming out with a chip fitted to your cell phone or PDA that can bring up video content and beam that onto your TV set, wirelessly."
With the Quartics chip, there is no need to purchase a separate box or device, as long as your PC is Wi-Fi capable, has a Quartics chip installed and the necessary software on the hard drive. "Your PC becomes the ‘little box,'" explained Qureshey.
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Can a Quartics chip-enabled device transcode (make available for viewing) even proprietary content? Perry LaForge of Quartics explained, "If the content is available on the computer, the Quartics chip can send it to the TV set. The current chip handles 480p video and 720p graphics since nearly all of the content on the Internet is within these resolutions or lower. Next year, we will play all the way up to 1080p [High Definition] content."
The Positive Impact On Advertisers
Qureshey emphasizes that this PC to TV convergence opens up a whole new window, literally, for advertisers. "I can watch my favorite TV show, beamed from my Quartics chip-enabled PC, and if, for example, a BMW car commercial comes on, I can immediately click on the BMW weblink and find out more about that product. Our technology allows control of the screen." Currently, Quartics, Inc. is negotiating with electronics manufacturers, primarily based in China, to provide TV sets already equipped with the chip.
Microsoft's Xbox 360 & Xbox Live Network
As of November 22, Xbox 360 became the first gaming console in history to provide high-definition TV shows and movies directly to gamers in their living rooms. Xbox 360 gamers may access more than 1,000 hours of full-length TV shows as downloads to own; movies to rent are available to them via download from the Xbox Live Network. And the Network also became open to Vista desktop users with Microsoft's general release of that technology on January 29.
Microsoft has partnered with CBS/Paramount, who will, for the first time, deliver high-definition download-to-own TV shows, including "CSI" and remastered "Star Trek" episodes, as well as feature films such as M:i:III, Nacho Libre and Jackass: The Movie.
"This connects our partners with one of the most coveted audiences in entertainment today, and provides even greater value to our Xbox Live community, allowing them to enjoy the games and entertainment they want when they want it," says Peter Moore, vice president of Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft. Xbox 360 extended its catalog of high-definition games to more than 160 by the end of 2006, and is expected to be available in nearly 40 countries by the end of 2007.
Additionally, Warner Brothers Home Entertainment has made available movie titles such as The Matrix, Superman Returns, and Batman Forever. Says Simon Kenny, of Warner Brothers Digital Distribution, "Warner Brothers has been aggressively pursuing a strategy of getting our content to consumers when and where they want it."
DivX
DivX, a San Diego-based software company, plans to offer an alternative to the separate consoles that are the model for Apple's iTV and Microsoft's Xbox 360.
DivX feels that, according to their consumer research, both Apple and Microsoft didn't get it quite right. DivX's product development is directed toward products that can share content. "What's interesting is that [the iTV] is...a software package and appliance and not an Internet service. Our consumers said they wanted this functionality but they did not want a new product category," says R. Gordon Greenhall, the company's chief executive. DivX is actively working with a chip company to take DivX Connected forward.
Intel's ViivTM PC
Intel's new "Viiv PC" acts like a television set-top box to wirelessly deliver Web video and other content to home TVs. Intel believes an easy Web-to-TV link is a key factor in the expected success of movie download services from Apple Computer Inc., Amazon.com Inc., CinemaNow and Movielink. Viiv promises an easy way to connect Web devices and TVs.
TiVo's Holistic Approach
"There is an explosion in video on the Web that is not intended to be rights-protected, and now the consumer can decide which of that video he or she would like to view on the TV set," observes TiVo president and CEO Tom Rogers.
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TiVo plans to launch next year its "unified search," which is a way for subscribers to seamlessly seek out desired programming no matter whether its source be broadcast or cable TV or Internet content. "TiVo is the first to provide one holistic viewing experience where you'll be able to find what you want, when you want it, no matter where it comes from," says Rogers.
TiVo's Internet capabilities are available to standalone subscribers who have broadband-enabled TiVo Series 2 and Series 3 boxes. At last count, there were about 500,000 such subscribers out of TiVo's 4.42 million total.
Quartics, Inc.'s Qureshey points out that that the Internet is the biggest DVR (digital video recorder). "TiVo has done a great job at educating the public, but the Internet is my personal TiVo. The PC is an existing platform. We're leveraging that to facilitate a seamless PC to TV convergence."
Next year, 250 million PCs and laptops will be sold worldwide; 84 million of those will have Wi-Fi already built into them.
"Desperate Network Executives"?: What Online Video Companies Are Saying
At the most recent Digital Coast Roundtable, UGC companies had these perspectives to offer regarding the PC to TV content convergence:
"It means there will be a show written by a user-participant that will be aired the next day on TV," said Danny Kastner, CEO of Fan Rocket and former Trump Apprentice.
"It won't affect our existing advertising revenue base," offered Revver's VP of Marketing, Angela Gyetvan. "Our clips are all tagged with advertising at the end."
Carson Daly, who partnered with NBC/Universal last summer to bring viral videos to broadcast TV, said, "Online video is big. But we have to ask ourselves, ‘Who's watching broadcast TV?' An incredible amount of people still."
"User Generated Content is fracturing media. Network broadcasters have to fear it in that there are less viewers for their content, which means less advertising dollars which means less revenue for production," said Shawn Gold, senior VP Marketing, MySpace (the "new AOL").
From the advertiser's perspective, Brian Fitzgerald, president of Gorilla Nation, suggested, "Marketers that allow their brands - brands such as Lonely Girl, Ask A Ninja - to be democratized will end up benefiting the most...a ‘take my brand, please' kind of an attitude."
From Sony Pictures Imageworks, Tim Sarnoff commented, "We focus on story. We agonize over story. We focus on the beginning, middle and end of a story. How possible is this with 17-second clips?" |
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