The WHDI Mirror

Tag Archive Netflix

Choices, Choices, Choices

Uri Kanonich / March 12, 2012 / No comments

We touched on the increase in entertainment choices available to the consumer earlier in our piece, Bring The Stream Back In, but the story of choice-culture does not end there. For every well-known platform, which is being used to stream digital content that you can name, there are many more, that you have never heard of. And increasingly, people rely on these smaller platforms for their favorite entertainment.

Any advancement in living room technology has to take into account the full breadth of options the Internet makes available. It’s not enough to just offer Hulu or Netflix. Users rely on the entire Internet for entertainment and will go to wherever they can find this flexibility. In a given day (for instance, my day yesterday), a user can stream content from Netflix, Hulu, Funny Or Die, CollegeHumor, YouTube, Vimeo, Tumblr, Facebook, PBS.org, the BBC, CNN and on and on. Notebooks can handle all of that. Tablets and smartphones can to a lesser extent. What’s left? The TV.

Many solutions aimed at bringing Internet content to the TV focus rather narrowly on what they consider to be the user demand. But, as we showed above, the demand is wide-ranging and if there is anything early adapters do not enjoy, it’s being told they cannot have the flexibility to which they have become accustomed. Many people use Smart TV offerings in conjunction with their tablet and notebooks, where they watch what they cannot find on their TV. We think it would be better to put everything in one place, specifically in the place best designed for entertainment, the TV. And by mirroring the full Internet experience from other devices to the TV, WHDI allows users just that flexibility. There are no walls, just mirrors.

Video: WHDI multiscreen mirroring

Enhanced by Zemanta
Category: Applications, HD video, HDTV, home entertainment, Tablet, WHDI, Wireless HDMI / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Rise Of The “Everywhere” Games

Uri Kanonich / February 22, 2012 / No comments

This month, we have been writing about how content becomes mobile and streaming. Those two trends define the modern consumer. However, there is something else content is increasingly becoming … games! Maybe Call of Duty finally making its way to the iPhone and iPad unleashed the gamer inside all of us, because now almost everybody is playing games and it is no surprise that, just like shows on Netflix or on Hulu, games are being streamed to our mobile devices.

And gaming is not just for “gamers” anymore; the casual gamer has become a major force in the market. No longer is gaming reserved for those with big, fancy systems with a ton of horse power; quality games are now available for reasonable prices (sometime even for free) on notebooks, tablets and phones. But what about those of us who enjoy those games, but still want to have a higher quality gaming experience? Once again, enter the TV.

Your fancy entertainment center need not go to waste just because you are addicted to Call of Duty. With WHDI, you can mirror the game to your big screen and destroy zombies in the full screen glory with which they were meant to be destroyed. The games you play everywhere can now be enjoyed in the comfort of your living room. This is just another way that WHDI brings added quality to what consumers are already doing.

Enhanced by Zemanta
Category: Gaming, home entertainment, Tablet, Wireless HDMI / Tags: , , , , , , ,

Bring The Stream Back In

Uri Kanonich / February 14, 2012 / No comments

It’s no secret that it is a good time to be in the streaming media business. We live in a world where “on demand” is the norm and products that are not delivered precisely when consumers request them are struggling. From groceries, to meals, to bills, to reminders, to social interactions and finally to media, everything these days is designed to be available how and when the customer desires. This new reality is reflected in content consumption habits.

People demand personalized content more than ever before because they have the technology that allows them to make such demands. As we described earlier, mobile technology has changed the way people access content, but it has also changed the foundation of what it takes to successfully provide content to users. Now, mobile is important, but so is “on demand,” and the proof of this is how big companies like Netlix, Hulu and Amazon are in the media marketplace.

Despite recent missteps by Netflix, they remain a force in the media world without parallel. They reinvented an industry. They brought streaming to the forefront. Their legacy will remain, regardless of whatever other bonehead decisions they may or may not make in the coming years. Available, streaming content is now what people expect.

Access to “on demand” content has often meant sacrificing devices that were not in the Internet loop, like the TV, or alternatively just keep viewing this great “on demand” content on the ‘lousy’ small mobile screen  Sure, some cable providers have offered “on demand” packages, but only for their own limited ‘closed’ content. The variety of their content was nowhere near what was available online. The TV was out of luck. Unfortunately for TVs, the need for “on demand” content is only going to grow. SmartTVs attacked the problem from another direction, but then again provides limited format support, typically using dedicated applications and, most importantly, it doesn’t connect to your new mobile streaming machine. Fortunately, WHDI is coming to the rescue, offering a way to bring these sources of content to the big screen.

Forget about fancy converter boxes or brand-specific hardware, WHDI allows you to mirror all of your streaming sources to the big screen. Neflix, Hulu, Amazon, whatever and from whereever. If you can stream it, you can see it on your big screen. This is already the way people get content, now it’s time to reincorporate that with their favorite place to view content. It’s time to bring the stream back in.

Enhanced by Zemanta
Category: home entertainment, Tablet, WHDI, Wireless HDMI / Tags: , , , , , , ,

Making a Really Smart TV

Yoavnc / August 23, 2011 / No comments

What makes a TV truly smart? Currently, a “smart” TV means an Internet-enabled TV which can deliver OTT as well as traditional broadcast media. Basically, this encompasses on-demand streaming (e.g. Netflix) and a few other applications.  However, this approach prevents TV’s from reaching their potential – true intelligence requires more.

One of the biggest problems facing today’s Smart TV model is its very limited application space. Most TVs are tied to a specific, closed set of applications (the proverbial “walled garden”) and there is no common platform that enables developers to easily bring applications across multiple TV brands. The result is that, outside of a handful of common applications, there is a small hodgepodge of different applications for different TV brands. This limits the ability of developers to reach users and forces the customer to learn a new TV-based application interface for each new smart TV they use.

People talk about creating one common Smart TV platform (Yahoo widgets, Google TV, and now MeeGO), but this is a difficult job, and none of these efforts has met with much success. But this problem has been solved for PCs, now even tablets and mobile phones. These platforms have huge numbers of apps, games, etc. that consumers recognize and enjoy. There are common platforms for developers and common user interfaces that consumers understand.

So what makes a truly smart TV? First, be a TV! TV’s should let consumers easily leverage all of the other applications and content currently available on their laptops, tablets and mobile phones. Sure, support some easy applications internally in the TV if that is what consumers want (e.g. video streaming), but do not force the customer to put down their laptop, tablet or smartphone just to bring content or applications to the TV screen.

A truly smart TV allows a user to access any program or content in any manner, on the device of his or her choice. If the user prefers to access social media link on a mobile device, a truly smart TV should enable him to do so. In other words, a truly smart TV is a TV that enables smart connectivity. This is where the WHDI standard (Wireless Home Digital Interface) can help.

The content that people want is already in their hands, in systems they know well. Why take away this familiarity? If the app they want to use is on their phone, let them use their phone! If the app is also on the TV and the user wants to use it, great, but if not, WHDI will bring it from any device, in real time, to the TV.

With WHDI, it is possible to mirror devices that people are using to give them a better experience rather than ignoring those devices. Giving TVs Internet connectivity via Wi-Fi or otherwise is a great achievement, but for true intelligence, TV makers need to realize that personal entertainment does not exist exclusively within their boxes and they have to engage the user on his or her own terms.

This post first appeared on the IBC Official blog. You can find us at IBC 2011 (Israeli Pavilion, Hall 3) where we will be showing how WHDI-based technology is the right solution for production monitoring via wireless video.


Enhanced by Zemanta
Category: AMIMON, Applications, home entertainment, iPhone, IPTV, Mobile, Smart TV, Tablet, WHDI, Wireless HDMI / Tags: , , , , , , , , ,