A few weeks before Google announced Google TV, I experienced the future of TV, at least as I see it. We normally record our programs with the EyeTV hooked to a Mac Mini. However, sometimes the EyeTV has a fit and we don’t get everything recorded, but that’s another story. Since our media center is a Mac Mini, I simply used screen sharing to access the Mac, used a web browser, went online to CBS’s Web site (I think it was CBS), and played a show in HD. It streamed quite well on our TV and the commercials weren’t all that annoying. The only problem, however, is that the Flash ads sometimes pop the viewer out of full screen and require me to use my laptop to put it back. If I wanted to watch TV without my laptop on my lap, this would be a problem.
We’ve now started to watch more shows this way and it is convenient. It allows us to watch shows that we haven’t recorded; convenient during the summer when our standard shows aren’t on.
My hope is that Google TV will build upon this concept and allow people to use a television remote to watch TV on the web without having to pay a ton of money for cable. We’re a family that only subscribes to basic cable (it comes with HD for the broadcast channels as it is required by law), so the concept of Google TV could work for us if it let us watch shows that are already available online, free of charge.
I think that’s what it will do, allow us to easy search around for ‘TV’ on the web, and watch it by control of remote. At least that’s what I am hoping! The videos I’ve seen so far suggest this is the case. Now we just need more and more content available free through the web!