Monday, February 7, 2011

Verizon FIOS Media Manager

In the mail this week I got my bi-weekly advertisement from Verizon Fios tempting me to switch to their service.  I usually browse though to see if they are offering any compelling new features that Comcast does not offer. 

In this week's flyer they have a new feature called Verizon FIOS Media Manager that allows you to stream photos and videos from you PC to your TV.  I have in the past wondered why Comcast does not offer such a feature as it seems it has all of the necessary components in place.  Concast seems to be focusing a lot of recources lately toward the IPAD and movie streaming services there which makes sense as it is the hot new product.  But it is a product that is in less that 1% of US households.

I am pretty sure there is a much larger percentage of Concast customers that subscribe to both internet and cable service that would find a media streaming from PC to TV much more useful.

I recently purchaed a Sony PS3 game console that along with allowing me to wirelessly stream Netflix movies also allows me to stream music, video and pictures to my TV from my PC.  Sony's implementation of PC to TV  streaming is a bit buggy but is workable.   One big issue I have is that it does not allow me to stream wmv files from my flip campcorder which is 99% of the videos i would stream.  Must have something to do with their competition with Microsoft's Xbox console.

I would love to see Concast jump into the PC to TV streaming arena and see what they could do with it. At the very least to keep up with Verizon.