Thursday, June 21, 2007

Now see this...

I have always been a a fan of the DVR (Digital Video Recorder) which basically replaced the VCR in our lives especially when it comes to recording shows on TV. Cable companies offer these special cable boxes for watching cable TV and recording shows. There are lots of bells and whistles these days with cable TV. You can watch a PIP (Picture in picture) or you can freeze the current program, walk the dog, and come back to where you left off.

It was only a matter of time before this would make it's way to our computers. The recent debut of Veoh TV has really put this technology and concept to a new level. Following in the footsteps of Joost, Veoh TV goes one step beyond Joost and allows users to watch TV on their computers and record the shows. A recent article in Business 2.0 magazine appropriately called this "...TiVo for the internet". I could not agree more. Plus, it's all FREE!


A user simply searches for shows on the website and downloads the shows to watch at a later date. The on-screen interface is similar to the TiVo interface. Users can also upload videos a la YouTube.

A quick scan of the site shows quite a few uploaded shows from users. A great deal of Japanese programs seem to common. You can also watch any show from the major networks. I searched for the NBC show "Medium" and was able to pull up several episodes. Several episodes of Star Trek were also available for viewing.

What does this all mean? Will we really need a TV in the future? Surely, this brings new meaning to video on demand.

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