Tag: tv streaming

Categories
Sony

Watch ITV & Channel 4 On PS3 In UK Starting This Week

If you are in the United Kingdom, you can start watching your favorite programs on Channel 4 and ITV from your PlayStation soon. Sony has announced a partnership with the two television channels to bring their content to PS3.

For what it’s worth, ITV has already been available as a web-based service for a while. Also, in the case of ITV, this expansion is not limited to Sony PS 3. The channel has revealed that they are leaving their services open for availability on other platforms – including the console rivals as well. However, in case of Channel 4, the television is likely to be available solely on Sony PS 3 for the moment. The television channel does not seem to have reached agreeable deals with Microsoft and Nintendo which means it will be available solely on PS 3 consoles for the time being.

Categories
Apple Gadgets

New Apple TV Taking Too Long To Stream HD Rentals, Claim Users

A number of users who have purchased the new Apple TV have been reporting that they have been experiencing trouble with loading HD rentals on to their television. Apparently, loading such rentals takes the user to a window that shows a message that reads, “Ready to load in ___ minutes“. While a few minutes of delay is anticipated considering the time required to buffer movie streams, users report having seen time as long as 3000 minutes.

Here are some excerpts from the Apple Support forum

“I wanted to create this topic to ask if others are running into the same issues I am with streaming rented HD movies. I go to play the rented HD movie and am transferred to a screen that says “Loading….” for about a minute or two. Then, that message is replaced with one that says “Ready to play in xxx minutes”…with horribly long times listed (my movie was rented last night, and as of this evening, it shows “Ready to play in 232 minutes”).”

“i’m having the same problem with both HD and standard def movies. At one point, the HD movie was going to take over 3,000 minutes to load. The AppleStore says they will replace my Apple TV with another, but now I’m not certain that the problem will be fixed. I’m using a Comcast connection which Comcast says is high speed. “

“Im seeing some shows downloading fine, while others have massive delays. For instance WKRP episode one started almost instantly, while the new Wolfman movie was 130 minutes delay. To further test my network, while the Wolfman delayed, I opened netflix on the apple TV and ran several movies without issue. This tells me the problem is on Apples end.”

“This is incredible. I am also a victim in the false advertising of renting movies on demand. Has anyone verified that the charge was actually made on the credit card even though the movie never streamed?
Has anyone heard back from apple? What are we to do? “

Some users have reported that they have seen improvements after subscribing to a higher speed plan. But the issue seems to persist for a wide majority of the rest. Apple is yet to acknowledge this issue. We will let you know of resolutions if any when we get to know more about this.

Categories
Web

Pricing For Netflix Streaming-Only Subscription Plan Outed

Netflix co-founder and CEO Reed Hastings has, on many occasions, made it known that he sees the company’s future in streaming content and not in the mail-in DVDs that is exactly how the company got popular in the first place. Now perhaps in a move towards incentivizing people towards the company’s digital offering, Netflix has now released a streaming-only subscription plan that will let users watch unlimited number of movies and TV shows without an alternative DVD rental.

The price for this new subscription service will be $7.99 a month. Along with this new offering, the cost to rent a DVD has risen too. Now the cost for renting one DVD in addition to unlimited streaming will cost the user $9.99 a month instead of the earlier $8.99. The marginal difference between the old and new plan steadily rises with the number of DVDs rented with an 8 DVD subscription service now costing $55.99 instead of the older $47.99.

Check out the complete pricing list below.

Netflix Pricing plan

Categories
Gadgets

Watch TV On iPhone & iPad From Anywhere With Tizi TV Hotspot

You must have heard of mobile hotspot devices like the Verizon MiFi that help you set up a WiFi network anywhere over the carrier’s 3G network. Now, Equinux, a Germany based company has launched a service called Tizi that will work like a mobile wireless hotspot, except that it is for television signals. That means, you can set up a TV signal receiver from anywhere just like you can for broadband hotspot.

Using Tizi, iPhone and iPad users can get access to digital TV while on the move. The product comes with an iOS app that is compatible with iOS 3.2 and iOS 4+. The application will run on iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod Touch 3G/4G and the iPad. Tizi will offer 3.5 hours of video playback and also comes with a Li-Ion battery replacement that is rechargeable.

Tizi is expected to initially launch in the European market at a price of €149.9 (£129). You can check out the product website at tizi.tv for more information.

Categories
Gadgets

Netflix Internet TV Streaming Consumes 20% Of US Internet Bandwidth

Netflix is no longer that DVD rental company that you know. As the company’s CEO had recently noted, the company sees themselves more as a streaming company. Now, with Netflix streaming supported on over 100 different devices in the American households, it is no surprise that a good majority of them use this streaming to watch primetime shows over the internet on TV. According to a report by Sandvine Inc., from Canada, Netflix streaming constitutes close to 20% of all internet bandwidth in the US during the primetime – 8PM to 10PM.

That however does not mean that the American internet user consumes any more bandwidth that their counterparts in the rest of the world. In fact, as the report points out, the median monthly internet consumption across North American households is 4GB whereas the corresponding number in Asia Pacific is a high 12GB.

Nevertheless, Netflix’s popularity among their 16.9 million registered userbase in USA in pretty impressive.