UK cable network Virgin Media are letting its catch up tv customers watch some eye popping 3D TV from Channel 4 television.

Virgin who are the UK’s biggest cable TV operator, has a wide range of 3D content available for subscribers to its watch on demand catch up TV services. You can start watching in 3D from today, you will need to supply your own 3d glasses though which can be picked up free from local stores.

Virgin Media spokesperson commented:- “We will be making the 3D episode of Chuck – aired on Virgin1 in August – available in TV Choice. We are also working on getting some additional content.”

The “3D Festival” from Virgin Media will give customers access to Channel 4’s The Queen in 3D and Derren Brown’s 3D Magic Spectacular. Both the shows can be viewed using Catch up TV and TV Choice.

The 3D on-demand content on Virgin Media will be available from today until to mid-December.

Virgin join a long list of suppliers and operators jumping on (out of) the 3D bandwagon. TV rival and satellite digital TV provider Sky has already announced plans to launch a 3D TV channel in 2010. Hollywood has been releasing a raft of 3D movies including the new Jum Carey ‘A Christmas Carol’

As more and more content is readily available and accessible from the internet, and traditional TV starts tapping into the net as well. Are the boundaries blurring into one?

Many viewers are almost without realising coming over to internet tv. This new media generation still watch traditional tv but also are very comfortable using other media outlets. Things like PlayStation 3, iphone or the new internet enabled tv sets.

A massive change is happening right in front of us in the world of multimedia entertainment, and it is blurring the traditional TV concept with many other platforms and devices. You are able right now to download TV shows onto your pc or laptop, stream your favorite movies straight onto your TV set, or even save it for mobile browsing on your new smart phone.

This integration in many ways is still in its infancy, but over the next few years, the concept of sitting on the couch to watch TV will have become a thing of the past.

The cable companies like Comcastare already laying a claim in this new market by launching their TV Everywhere service. By January 2010, Comcast will let subscribers watch TV episodes and movies online. Two dozen cable channels have agreed to provide content, including CBS, A&E, AMC, History, E! and BBC America amongst others.

Comcast are also deep in negatiations to buyout NBC Universal, owners of free catch up tv website Hulu. If the deal goes through, the Philadelphia-based cable giant would significantly grow its influence and market share.

The Comcast On Demand Online service allows subscribers watch TV shows for free on their computers/internet devices. Although to begin with they will only be allowed to watch the streams from home using a Comcast broadband service, its is expected that this will change to include other suppliers.

Then comes Netflix, the massive DVD-by-mail subscription company, began making it easier for customers to stream movies and older television shows online at no additional cost.

Netflix have also partnered with Blu-ray allowing its players to stream movies, and the company’s technology now lets users stream onto their PlayStation 3. The effort to expand its reach has been paying off as the company reported a 24 percent increase in its net income in the third quarter, adding another 510,000 subscribers. Its revenue is expected to be more than $1.6 billion by the end of the year.

Putting all these big name companies pushing online tv together with the new internet enabled tv sets being released, means that although the idea of everyone sitting around a laptop to watch TV is still not very appealing, the fact is that internet tv will soon be integrated in every device that has a screen. So soon sitting around the traditional TV will involve watching TV on the net.

Much applauded Catch up tv website from the BBC has been revamped for use on Nintendo Wii console. A previous version on the popular console was plagued with problems, hence the new release.

Although Wii users have been able to receive the iPlayer Wii channel for several months (since April 2008) using a broadband connection, there have been many reports of serious issues with the original interface which disrupted viewing and made it very difficult to catch-up on content.

However, users can put down the tennis bats and steering wheels, relax and watch via a new interface. Wii owners can download the latest version from the console’s online shop for free.

The iPlayer has been amazingly popular on Wii with over 900,000 requests for TV and radio shows, and this new version of BBC iPlayer for Wii has been designed to deliver a better and higher quality experience, with a new full-screen user interface allowing the whole family to catch up on TV and radio together in the lounge.

Erik Huggers, Director, BBC Future Media & Technology, said: “We’re pleased that we’ve been able to work with Nintendo to evolve BBC iPlayer on the Wii, providing a faster, high quality and improved viewing experience.

“It’s important that we offer audiences more ways to access the huge range of BBC content available, and this improved version of BBC iPlayer underlines our commitment to reaching new audiences by making BBC iPlayer available on as many platforms as possible.”

David Yarnton, General Manager, Nintendo UK, added: “Our partnership with the BBC is another way in which Nintendo is looking to broaden the market for its products by offering compelling and relevant content to families.

“BBC iPlayer offers Wii owners another reason to turn their console on everyday and adds to the already established non-gaming content on Wii that includes Wii Channels for news, weather forecasts and an internet browser.”

To use the new BBC iPlayer on Nintendo’s Wii, Wii users should download the BBC iPlayer Wii Channel from the menu screen of Wii Shop Channel. Once downloaded, users simply click on the BBC iPlayer icon to launch the new full screen service, then select and play their favourite BBC TV or radio programme that they want to watch.

Of course their is always a down side and this time its the fact that Wii owners cannot access iPlayer unless they live in the UK.

After a trial phase in 5000 homes, Comcast are launching TV Everywhere next month. Viewers who must also be subscribers, can watch Comcast shows on up to 3 internet enabled devices using the On Demand Online service. The Comcast TV Everywhere and On Demand Online are a response to the overwhelming success of internet tv.

Details of the new service have been disclosed by Comcast Interactive Media President Amy Banse, who talked about the initiative in an interview this week at the NewTeeVee Live 09 event in San Francisco.

The service will let existing Comcast subscribers view hit tv shows over the internet for no additional fees. Users will have to sign in online on either Fancast.com or Comcast.net websites to get authenticated as a genuine Comcast subscriber. Once signed up they will have access to online cable tv shows on demand content.Each subscriber can enable three devices to be used.

The advertising model is still being worked out, with Banse describing the upcoming launch as “the first inning” of how the business will work.

“If you’re an HBO subscriber, you’ll be able to watch Entourage on your laptop,” she said, referring to the hit HBO series. She added that the trial shows people like the video quality, the user interface, having access to content they watch on TV, and, in particular, being able to watch on-demand content.

Before Banse’s comments, there had been speculation among industry observers that the service would only work if the user was on a Comcast broadband connection, which would have limited its appeal. There are reports that using the service at home will contribute to a user’s monthly download limit.

Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis for consumer technology at the NPD Group, said that TV Everywhere — “everywhere as long as you’re a Comcast subscriber” — is a reaction to the explosion of watching TV shows on the web, such as on Hulu.com.

Rubin noted that Hulu “has been aggressive about keeping its programming confined to the PC and off of TV.” He referred to the trend among a number of major online video providers, such as Netflix and YouTube, to make their content available on TV sets through set-top boxes or electronics built into the TV.

By offering its cable channels to subscribers online, Rubin said, “Comcast can preserve its subscription revenue and add value to a subscription.” This strategy “absolutely makes sense from a cable perspective,” he added, and, for those who are already paying for a subscription, this kind of on-demand availability “is a nice bonus.”

Although many disagree with cable prices. Existing subscribers can only be happy that for no additional cost they have mobile access to hit tv streams at home or on the move.

Youtube has already dabbled with offering a selection of videos in high definition. But previously the HD content was shown in 720p resolution, now YouTube have announced that users can upload and watch content in full 1080p HD resolution at 50 fps (frames per second). A selection of 1080p test videos are on the site for anyone that has a fast pc/broadband connection.

A year ago Youtube introduced 720p videos. Since then the number of full HD camcorders has grown and much more of YouTube’s content has been uploaded as 1080p, though it wasn’t viewable as such. The Google owned site is planning to re-encode all of this previously created videos so that viewers will be able to take advantage of its original resolution.

YouTube is not be the first video sharing website to offer full HD, but it will almost certainly be the one that brings HD to the publics attention. YouTube has recently become eager to present commercial content and compete with the likes of Hulu, a joint venture of three major broadcast networks. Last spring, YouTube began to offer some premium content from Hollywood; the term “premium” should be used loosely, however, since the pickings have been slim. In September, the Wall Street Journal reported [subscription required] that YouTube was in serious talks with major film studios to stream movies on a rental basis.

The increase in quality is around 30% in picture density from the previous 720p hd streams. Company product manager Hunter Walk announced the news at the NewTeeVee Live conference in San Francisco.

The move to 1080p should support those initiatives. It is possible that YouTube could stream videos in Blu-ray quality for paid content. For regular users, full HD meana you can show your granny falling over on a big screen without losing quality. There is a downside though of course. At present YouTube are still limiting user-generated content to 10 minutes in length. Although because of the enormous video size that needs uploading, the current 2GB file-size limit may be increased.

Im just going to video my wife falling over.

Watch the Youtube HD Test Video

The BBC have given a sneak view of the Project Canvas Internet tv standard, and its looking good. Erik Huggers, the BBC Future Media & Technology director showed a demo to the C21Media conference in London today.

The demo showed a the new IPTV standard in all its interactive, cross-platform glory and showed how the Beijing Olympics would look on Canvas. Viewers would be able to watch instant highlights, send to friends, check out the Twitters, look at previous archives at the touch of a button and use commercial third party applications and services.

Also announced was the relaunch of the iPlayer with social content-sharing features, a newly developed Nintendo Wii player app and an intuitive multimedia search facility for bbc.co.uk.

Of course the future of Canvas is still in doubt, despite the flashy demo as the BBC Trust considers whether to back the project or scrap it. Huggers gave an impassioned plea for the industry and regulators to get behind the project: “Unless we succeed in getting Canvas through, that whole market will be fragmented—you would have multiple ways of achieving the same thing.” If Canvas fails, he argues, broadcasters would shoulder additional costs of reformatting new devices. “There could be a horizontal level playing field for everyone and I think that’s worth fighting for.” Update: The BBC contacted us to point out that this is only a demo of what people could expect from a Canvas product and is by no means the finished article.

Canvas looks great and whether it continues in its present incarnation or not, the technology will live on in other forms.

Read the full Project Canvas demo story – http://www.broadbandgenie.co.uk/broadband-news/BBC-relaunches-improved-iplayer-channel-on-the-wii

Although we and other websites of repute have been telling everyone that the great public will soon be watching and surfing the Internet in their living room/ Many have been skeptical.

Despite the efforts of many including AOL TV and WebTV Networks for many years, there has never been a big take up of the new technology.

However, that may be all about to change with the arrival of internet enabled tv sets.

The biggest TV manufacturers including Sony, Samsung, LG, Panasonic and Vizio say that they’re poised to revolutionize television this Christmas shopping season: They’re about to launch the first major marketing push for a new generation of sets that can easily integrate Web content with traditional TV news and entertainment — without the fuss of connecting the TV to a set-top box.

“When we all open up the newspapers on January 1st, and they talk about the hot items from the holiday selling season, Internet-connected TVs are going to be at the top of the list,” says Randy Waynick, senior vice president at Sony’s Consumer Group.

The campaign could be risky. Consumers may balk if TV sets become too computerlike and complicated. Manufacturers are in a race with cable companies and gadget providers — including makers of DVRs, Blu-ray players and game machines — who offer alternative ways to blend the Internet with TV.

But the new versions of Web TVs will soon become the norm in consumer electronics stores. In 2014, consumers in North America will buy 45 million of these sets, representing 69% of all TV sales, ABI Research says. That’s up from 6 million and 14% of sales in 2009.

As they catch on, television will become “a completely new ballgame,” says Matthew McRae, general manager of advanced technology products at Vizio. Software developers will flock to the new platform, making Web TVs “the next area of innovation” following computers and cellphones, he says.

With the backing of so many big names and the fact that as with nicam stereo and widescreen. Soon every tv will come internet enabled, this has to be the time of internet tv’s coming.

Read the full article – http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations/2009-11-13-1Awebtv13_CV_N.htm

Its a busy old life zooming from one internet tv site to another looking for a bit of tv eye candy to settle down with. To try and alleviate that small inconvenience, many aggregator websites have sprung up that basically display and link to streaming tv content from many websites.

Latest aggregator site to appear is clicker.com which has a comprehensive set of links and searches allowing you to watch pretty much anything online, free or pay to view.

Clicker is not competing with any free tv websites but is acting a comprehensive guide to them. Clicker indexes a selection of movies, tv shows, music videos. Some streams can be watched on Clicker but mostly you get redirected to the website carrying the streams

Testing has been completed during the last two months and now Clicker is available to the general public. Containing an index comprising 400,000 TV episodes, 50,000 music videos and around 30,000 movies that come from the Netflix or Amazon streaming stores.

Streaming from Netflix requires a subscription while Amazon.com sells or rents video downloads. Most of the other material in Clicker’s database is shown for free.

Although on the face of it, Clicker is just copying a myriad of other sites such as Yahoo and Bing, it is attempting to be different by adding social media elements and the addition of a forum allowing viewers to recommend shows to each other.

For revenue it is believed that Clicker will use advertising and collect commissions from the pay to view content.

The site is part of Clicker Media Inc., a Los Angeles startup that has raised $8 million from such investors as venture capital firms Benchmark Capital and Redpoint Ventures.

The site is organised in several categories such as:-

* Action & Adventure
* Animation
* Arts
* Business & Finance
* Comedy
* Documentary
* Drama
* Education
* Events & Specials
* Food & Cooking
* Health & Lifestyle
* How To
* Kids
* Live Programming
* Mystery & Suspense
* News & Information
* Reality & Game Shows
* Science & Environment
* Sci-Fi & Fantasy
* Sports
* Talk & Interview
* Technology & Gaming
* Travel

So click on Food & Cooking and you will get a selection of shows like Hell’s Kitchen which if you click on sends you to the home of the stream which could be Fox, Hulu etc.

Whilst a welcome addition to internet tv, there is nothing groundbreaking that cannot be found elsewhere. However, a little experience and work may evolve the site into a must visit destination.