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Internet Television

The Times They Are a-Changin – from an old Bob Dylan song really epitomizes what is happening with Television and Video today. Soon getting movies from a store and TV from the airwaves will start disappearing. Yes there is cable, but that too is transforming into Internet TV. Within five years we will get much of our TV and hope entertainment content from the Internet.

This is possible because high-speed and very high-speed Internet access is readily available in most major metropolitan areas throughout the USA. My first Comcast connection was 1.5Mbps/256Kbps. That is 1.5 million bits per second traveling from Comcast to my PC and 256,000 bps traveling from my PC to Comcast. That has increased to 3Mbps/768Kbps. Then I tested Comcast’s 2 Mbps/2Mbps service. All these worked pretty well until Verizon’s FIOS appeared. The 15Mbps/2Mbps faster speed and lower cost drove me to change. Verizon has even faster speeds at a higher cost. There is a 5Mbps/5Mbps and an expensive 30Mbps/5Mbps speed combination. The home FIOS plans are 5Mbps/2Mbps, 15Mbps/2Mbps, and 30Mbps/5Mbps. So how do these stack up to how we use TV and Voice.

Some ballpark speeds used by voice and video services are: voice telephone line – 64 KBps, standard full motion TV – 384Kbps, business telephone service (T-1) – 1.544 Mbps, full motion HDTV – 1.544 Mbps. So a 15 Mbps downlink could handle several streaming HDTV channels. And the fiber can easily go much higher speeds. So besides doing smart things like using Vonage and not doing stupid things like swimming with sharks, how are we going to use all this speed?

Here are a few beginning services. PCTV4Me freeware permits you to get TV from around the world and more. Download from http://www.softpedia.com/get/Internet/Internet-Radio-TV-Player/PCTV4Me.shtml. Alternatively, you can try http://www.blinkx.com/ to find TV content to stream into your PC. Not all this is free content. My first search required a user name and password login to Verizon. Since I am now using Verizon FIOS this was easy.

What would be this missive without https://www.youtube.com/ . This is it. You can create and broadcast your own videos. Then anyone can view them. At first look I found NERD rap that made me feel right at home – except I do not rap. And they mixed in the Circus Freak Geeks. Nerds are from Dr Seuss but Geeks are not. My autistic grandson loves everything and anything muppet. He is self imagined the king of all muppets. So he found muppet videos on YouTube.com. But some of the content was inappropriate. So I blocked YouTube.com only to discover several days later that he was still able to view YouTube videos. When I asked him how he was able to view them, he said that he went to www3.YouTube.com. When it comes to PCs, persistence prevails over all.

Finally, there is http://www.vongo.com/ that offers movie downloads for $10.00 per month. You download the movie and play it on a PC. This does not sound all that thrilling unless your PC is hitched to a 42-inch plasma monitor. Then you download into a home theater system. Bye-bye video store. They have a 14-day trial and permit you to use up to three PCs. I wish that I had the time to test it all. This sounds too good. I guess that I need to try it for a while to see if they have any good movies. Three PCs … hmmm .. I could attach wireless laptop to the big projection TV upstairs. When I run out of videos over the holidays, then I http://www.vongo.com/ would be the best answer. No late fees and watch as many as you can. The choice must be limited.

These services are just the tip of the iceberg. There is more and more to come. The very high-speed Internet revolution coming will support streaming TV and HDTV video. So we will see an increasing variety of services and offerings based upon the relentlessly and endlessly evolving Internet technology.


Link to Internet television

P. D. Moulton and Dial A Nerd, a local Columbia, Ellicott City, Howard County, Maryland(MD) PC repair, computer repair, laptop computer repair, Wi-Fi network and wired LAN network configuration & repair, Windows XP repair, Windows Vista repair, Windows 7 repair, network server computer support, and virus & spyware removal. Dial-A-Nerd repairs PC (s), computers, networks, removes viruses & spyware and upgrades slow computers 24 hours a day 7 days a week. DialANerd provides immediate remote access as well as fixed price computer repair, network repair, virus & spyware removal services at its local Columbia, Ellicott City, Howard County, Maryland(MD) repair shop. Repair completion is typically 24-hours to 48-hours. Dial A Nerd recovers hard disk data and saves your data. Each hard disk is tested for errors for free. Dial A Nerd makes a fixed disk image, recovers and saves your data for about a 90% of the desktop computer, laptop computer, and netbook PC (s) serviced. Dial A Nerd, a local Columbia, Ellicott City, Howard County, Maryland(MD) repair business provides fast PC repair, computer repair, desktop computer repair, laptop computer repair, Wi-Fi network and wired LAN network configuration & repair, Windows XP repair, Windows Vista repair, Windows 7 repair, network server support, and virus & spyware removal services with a warranty. Dial A Nerd works on many PCs including Sony computers, Gateway computers, Hewlett Packard computers, Compaq computers, Toshiba computers, Emachines computers, Clone PCs, and Dell computers in the local Columbia, Ellicott City, Howard County, Maryland(MD). The Dial A Nerd mission is delivering the best quality, affordable cost effective PC repair, computer repair, laptop computer repair, desktop computer repair, Wi-Fi network and wired LAN network configuration & repair, Windows XP repair, Windows Vista repair, Windows 7 repair, network server support, virus & spyware removal, home PC repair, printer configuration, PC - desktop computer - laptop computer - netbook computer performance optimization & speed up service. Homes and small businesses with limited IT service and IT support budgets in the local Columbia, Ellicott City, Howard County, Maryland(MD) hire Dial A Nerd.


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