Cablevision hopes to lure customers who want to watch computer content on a television, revealing that it's developing a wireless PC-to-TV relay service.
Cable subscribers will get a secure, dedicated channel for viewing whatever's currently displayed on their PC, transferred through Cablevision's fiber network. There's no hardware necessary beyond an existing cable box, and a software download makes the service possible. Cablevision says anything that can be displayed on a PC will work with the relay services, including online video sites, Internet radio and stored media such as photos or videos. The relay software is PC only, but Cablevision' hopes to eventually support Macs and handheld devices.
Questions remain: What's the lag like? Cablevision says "some" productivity applications will work with the service, so why not all of them? Is gaming a possibility? Also, how much will this cost, if anything, and when will it be available?
Anyway, this move from Cablevision is intriguing. The company obviously realizes that there's a growing amount entertainment to be found on the computer, so it needs to offer some way to keep those people from defecting to set-top boxes such as Boxee. Giving them an easy solution for watching PC content on a TV makes sense.
That said, there are other options on the way for wireless PC to TV vieweing. One of the coolest things I saw at CES 2010, for example, was Imation's yet-unnamed TV-to-PC connector, which supports 720p video transfer to a television up to 30 feet away via Wireless USB. The PC end uses a USB dongle, and the TV connects to a shark fin-like receiver through HDMI. It'll cost around $200 and should be available in a month or two, but there's already a similar product on the market from Warpia. Another standard, called WHDI, could allow 1080p transfers between PCs and TVs, even through walls. LG reportedly will ship televisions with WHDI this year.
Connecting PC to TV seems like a no-brainer with all the Web video and other content available, so I'm glad this is an area that's starting to heat up. Now all we need is for these products to actually arrive.
