In most homes today, the way we watch TV is no different than it was back when Lassie had audiences panting for more.
The programming available is still determined by large media companies. When I was a kid, the three big networks made that decision. Nowadays, satellite and cable providers are in the game. But for most of us, it's the same deal as it was for my parents. You select what you watch from a menu determined by others.
Over the last few years, thanks to the fact that high-speed Internet service is now common, a quiet revolution has been brewing. As that revolution comes to a boil, it will make innovations such as 3D TV and even the move to HDTV seem trivial.
If I'm right, you'll soon -- and I'm talking the next few years -- routinely sit in front of your big-screen TV and select from programming from around the world, moving from a comedy on Ireland's RTE network to a drama aired in the 1950s by the BBC.
But that's just the start. If you wish you can have a steady diet of Jackie Gleason. Or watch documentaries from dawn to dark. Whatever your tastes in TV, you'll be able to easily indulge them, no longer forced to select from programming determined by someone else. For the first time you'll be in control of your television.
This change is well underway. A relatively small group of people are already doing all this at home. But even if you are in that group, the big changes are yet to come.
Here's how things have progressed so far.
All this started when the giant bandwidth of high-speed Internet made it possible for television stations and media companies to gain world-wide viewership by piping video programming into homes using the Web. And outfits such as Netflix begin offering movies for instant download using the Internet. The DVD -- once such a startling innovation -- started to look like an old-fashioned and clunky way to watch movies. There is no longer a need to go to the video store, or to mail away DVDs that you've seen.
But like I said, that's just the beginning.
As often happens it took a combination of changes, of shifts in the landscape, to create what will become a technological avalanche.
For one thing, the fact that the cost of distributing video over the Internet is almost trivial opened things up to new players who wouldn't have been able to afford a seat at the table in the old days.
The ability to distribute programs easily and cheaply let companies such as Apple, Hulu, Google, Boxee and countless others to begin offering -- via the Internet -- a wide range of programming: movies from the big studios, television shows both old and new, documentaries, almost everything that has been recorded on either film or video.
But in these early days the programming, while popular, has been relegated to a relatively small group of viewers compared to those who get their TV from cable or satellite.
And most of those who do watch sit at the screen of a laptop or desktop computer to do it. That means viewing all this content is a solitary affair. Few families gather around the computer monitor.
It's been handy to watch a movie on a laptop screen while traveling, or to check out a YouTube video on a flat-screen monitor sitting on a desk. And some hard-nosed enthusiasts get all their TV on the screen of a monitor, but the awkwardness of the small screen means most of us still rely on satellite, cable or over-the-air broadcasts using an antenna.
It's the next shift in technology that finally pulled all this together and that will, almost certainly, trigger the avalanche that will change how we watch TV.
Manufacturers have started marketing HDTVs with Internet connectivity that brings the content I've been talking about to the big screen in your den or living room. That's fine for those ready to buy a new TV. But many of us have already purchased -- for big bucks -- an HDTV without that ability.
Luckily, the aisles of consumer electronic stores are crowded with add-on devices that open the content up to you. There are DVD players (priced under $200) that can pipe all this to your existing TV; or you can pick up a game console like the Sony PlayStation that can do the job. No matter which device you choose, there's usually no software to load. All that's required is a wired or wireless way to connect to the Internet.
I grew up in what folks call the Golden Age for broadcast TV. I think this is the Golden Age for Internet-based TV. And this is just the dawn of that age. New devices that go beyond today's Internet-connected TVs, DVD players and the like will widen the amount of programming even more as they become easier to use and less buggy.
For now, the best shot for an easy-to-use way to sample these new offerings is through an Internet-connected TV or one of the add-on devices that I mentioned. The picture quality is excellent and the hassles few. But this is the beginning of a huge shift; truly, you ain't seen nothing yet.
I plan to follow this shift and need your help. If you're watching TV using the Internet -- whether it's on an Internet-connected TV, DVD player or a device from Boxee or Apple -- write me and let me know about the good and the bad. With your help, I'll be keeping a close watch on what I think is an important change in technology.
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