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Most of us have "timeshifters" (aka VCRs or PVRs) in our living rooms and are familiar with their use -- albeit I suspect many of the clocks on such devices are flashing 00:00:00 for lack of programming.

However, thanks to modern technology, there's now a new challenge to copyright laws -- placeshifting.

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Yes, thanks to the arrival of a new piece of consumer electronics titled "The Slingbox", we can now redirect TV broadcasts to be streamed over the Net to your PC or even your 3G mobile phone.

Reuters is carrying a report on the introduction of this device to the UK market (see headlines below) but I note that there's no mention of copyright concerns -- which surprises me.

Here in NZ, I suspect that broadcasters (especially Sky TV) would have a fit if it was found that people were streaming their content across the Net -- even if it were just to a customer's PC and not to the wider masses.

Placeshifting is a clever idea and it may catch on, but far more important than any single device like the Slingbox is the whole concept of IP-appliances and I think we'll soon see a lot of these things appearing on the market.

In a previous column (some years ago) I suggested that IP radios might be a cool thing to have. Instead of a regular radio that just tunes to the local radio spectrum and limits you to nearby broadcasters, an IP radio could tune in to streamed broadcasts from anywhere in the world.

Well wouldn't you know it -- there have been a few attempts at selling such things but the reality is that radio remains a pretty "local" medium and the quality of streamed audio over the Net wasn't really all that good way back then.

Here's my next prediction though -- we'll soon (like in the next couple of years) see IP-TV tuners appearing on the market and doing quite well.

These boxes will plug in between your DSL connection and your TV set or VCR.

Using a simple onscreen menu, they'll give you *comfortable* access to the rapidly growing tsunami of video material now appearing on the Net. I say "comfortable access" because all of this will be readily accessible from the comfort of your favourite chair using a simple infra-red remote. In effect, you'll be able to watch Net-based video as easily as you enjoy broadcast TV.

Of course this is a good-news/bad-news story.

On the good-news side, it means that there will be immense pressure on Telecom and the ISP infrastructure to ditch this silly notion of data caps. It also means we'll probably see an explosion in the number of local content sources such as community IP-TV broadcasters, second-tier commercial operations, etc.

On the bad-news side, all this traffic is probably going to hammer the hell out of our data-circuits and may severely impact the speed of the Net at "peak viewing times".

That bad-news might not be as bad as you think though. A decent IP-TV tuner will have a hard-drive and allow content to be downloaded during off-peak times or at "background" speeds, thus reducing the load on the networks feeding it. Such a system would also allow broadcast-standard resolution content to be viewed even over our relatively low-speed DSL network.

I've said it before and I'll say it again -- the future of the Net is video and consumer-level IP-TV may well be the single largest consumer of IP bandwidth within 3-4 years.

What do you think?

Would you prefer access to a virtually unlimited number of widely diverse channels through an IP-TV tuner to the limited range of crap that Sky TV delivers via satellite?

Would you watch more Net-based video if it were able to be enjoyed on your 40" plasma screen at broadcast resolution?

As well as the IP-TV tuner, what other IP-based "appliances" do you think may appear on our shelves over the next few years?

Have your say!

Forget $50, go for $200!
Just following up on yesterday's column, a keen reader tracked down the webpage through which Xtra offers its $200 satisfaction guarantee for broadband connections.

So, armed with *this* information, demand your $200 and show Telecom that you are dissatisfied with the way this month's fiasco was handled. But be quick, the last point on that page says "Xtra reserves the right to terminate this offer without notice at any time" and I suspect they will, very shortly.

Did you notice
As eagle-eyed readers will have noticed, sponsorship of this fine blog/column is up for grabs.

Those who have already made enquiries about sponsoring Aardvark should hear back from me this week - and anyone else who might like to do so should drop me a line ASAP.

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