Just received an invite for VeohTV Private Beta!

Thanks for your interest in the VeohTV beta!

VeohTV is a free specialized video browser that turns online video into Internet Television.

Watch video from thousands of web sites, in one easy-to-use full screen application. Watch streaming video from major television networks such as Fox and CBS, to independently-produced content available on sites such as YouTube, Google Video, Veoh.com and MySpace.

VeohTV makes watching Internet video as simple as watching television – navigate with a keyboard and mouse or use a PC remote control. VeohTV is like a free DVR for web video. Watch video on-demand or record it to your hard drive to watch later. You can watch your favorite shows in full-screen on your PC, or connect your PC to your television.

Installation and Setup Instructions:
1. Go to: VeohTV beta download page
2. Select the Download button and save the VeohSetup.exe file to your PC
3. Run the VeohSetup.exe installer
4. Enter your private beta key: XXXXXXXX
5. Log-in with your Veoh account

Email us your feedback at veohtvbeta@veoh.com.

Experience Internet Television with VeohTV!

Thanks,

The VeohTV Team

With Joost, VeohTV, YouTube; Orb, Snapstream, Sage, and MythTV; and all of the other “New TV” outfits out there; television is moving off of old-school Cable and moving to the internet. Although it will take a long time for television to move off your PC and onto your Television in your livingroom - it will inevitably happen. It is just a matter of making it easy enough to offer the content on your PC and share it in a way that the average user can handle.

My primary beef with all Web TV outfits (not THAT WebTV) is that all of the content is decidedly low-definition. Bandwidth requirements for HDTV over Internet are pretty hefty - but the pipeline is now available at your house. Verizon’s FiosTV is one such service who offers HDTV over their Fiber lines - they also offer internet plans up to 30Mbps (or 50Mbps in some areas) already. Once the ultra high speed networks come really gain market penetration, there will be more of a push for HDTV over IP.

Finally, there is the whole sticky issue of television studio involvement. Some outfits are backed by major names; for example VeohTV by Disney and YouTube by Viacom, YouTube by CBS. How crucial are these deals? My thoughts are they are very important. But, according to a source I have who is involved with a very beta video streaming services, the networks are knocking down doors at these startups to give them money, with the hopes they will hit the one that grows to become the major new internet TV provider.

When it comes down to it, the two crucial things that are most important to these new startups: the technology and the content. For technology, they need to make this software easy enough to use but still deliver the highest quality content with the easy of use of a remote. For the content, there really is only one way to go - you NEED to partner with a studio that is putting out the titles. Imagine if a show like Lost was shown on Joost - that would soon be a major draw for anyone who is able to access it (including those out of the US who are usually using technologies like Bittorrent to download shows shortly after they are released in the states.

The stakes for the television studios are high as well - if they don’t adapt to these new technologies - and make it EASY for consumers to get their shows (with advertising revenue?) then most people will just take the easy way and download the shows for free.

Here is the problem: you have a DVR/HTPC hooked up to your TV downstairs, but you have other televisions in your house you wish to use to access the HTPC. How do you distribute the Audio/Video signal to these other television sets?

One solution to this problem is Crossbar MediaCaster, which was kindly provided to me for review by SnapStream Media.

The basic idea of this hardware is that you are creating a “private access channel” AKA Avcast® entertainment network, which is then provided content from any device which outputs an RCA signal.

In the box:

• 1 x CableCaster - Establishes the Avcast entertainment network
• 1 x MediaCaster - Provides the content for the Avcast network
• 1 x IRcaster - sends IR signal over the Avcast network
• 1 x IRdetector - receives IR signal
• 1 x Notch filter - filters a channel range to allow Avcast network to utilize a channel
• 2 x Coax Cable - to connect MediaCaster/CableCaster to coax network
• 1 x RCA Cable set - to connect HTPC to MediaCaster

The setup of the system is rather complicated and requires that you both have access to, and know the setup of your home coax system which is already built into the majority of homes built in the past 30 years. If you have cable television, then you most likely have this internal network already set up.

Step 1:

Locate where the cable comes into your house. You need to intercept it where it splits off to go into separate ends of the house.

The CableCaster unit plugs in here. Also you will need A/C power. There is a plug for input - the input cable from your cable provider. Also in between the cable provider and the CableCaster goes the Notch Filter. This device blocks a channel range, so that the CableCaster can broadcast on this channel.

Step 2:

The MediaCaster is then plugged into cable network near or at your HTPC. You will need to have access to the coax network in your home if you don’t already have this near to your HTPC. This part will also need A/C power.

Step 3:

Plug your Audio/Video device (in this case, a DVR running SnapStream BeyondTV). This means you will need to output the video and audio in RCA format - so make sure you have the necessary cables/converters to do this.

Step 4 (optional):

At the remote end, connect the IR Caster and IR Receiver to the coax network. This will allow you to use the IR remote at a remote location to the intended receiver, the signal will be broadcast over the Avcast network to the MediaCaster unit.

In my case, I used the BTC Wireless Remote and Firefly remote, which were both able to reach to my upstairs room and control my PC.

Now that everything is set up, you can see my remote TV with my HTPC desktop running!

I must admit, it was very cool to be operating my HTPC from another room while seeing the content broadcast over a CATV channel. This signal is now available from anywhere in my house - allowing me to enjoy my recorded content over any cable-equipped television set.

There are several large drawbacks or flaws to using this system.

- First, the HTPC must output in 1.33:1 ratio format, meaning if you have your HTPC set up to output to an HDTV in widescreen format (16:9). I could only get my setup to output one or the other, meaning I had to make sure my aspect ration stayed in Standard format.
- Secondly, the notch filter also seemed to filter out content which it should not be filtering. Specifically, my Motorola set top box became useless. On Demand stopped working, as well as HDTV signal quality dropped dramatically - causes dropouts in signal.

These drawbacks really limit how you are able to use this system. In my case my wife really relys on the OnDemand service from Comcast - so this is a deal breaker for me. If your cable TV provider is not comcast, then you might not have this same problem. Also the system is fairly complicated to set up, so it is for advanced users only.

Final verdict:

Product provided by: SnapStream Media
Review date: 5/1/2007