Philips Takes New Tack in Connected TV - Lets You Stream Any Content from Laptop to TV

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Published on Friday, 18 June 2010 17:45

So who needs TV Widgets and Apps? PC World reports. Philips now lets you stream any content from your laptop right into your TV. It works with a truly innovative chunk of software in the Philips TV that can read any web page or file type and dupe it on the 7700 Series LED Eco TV. However, reach is another issue, Philips Wireless Media Connect only 'connects'  on a couple of CE devices, the aforementioned TV the Philips BDP7320 Blu-ray player and it won’t be available in the TVs until September, 2010.

The new project from Philips will allow one to send photos or videos from your laptop directly to the TV for a little home entertainment - note that this is already possible with a number of Connected TV's, via DNLA, such as  Samsung.  But the added bonus with Philips is it will be possible to carry out a Skype conversation with full video by wiring over the video and audio directly to the TV. And whatever else you want from the Web.

Robert S. Anthony writes:

Philips Wednesday showed off a wireless technology which allows you to stream any content you can see on your laptop screen to a compatible Philips TV. Instead being limited to whatever Internet services are installed on your Internet-connected TV, Philips Wireless Media Connect lets you send any local or Internet content from your laptop wirelessly to its new 7700 Series LED Eco TV or to its BDP7320 Blu-ray player.

Many Internet-connected TVs offer on-screen widgets which connect you with Web content from specific sites. For example, the 7700 Series Eco TVs include a direct link to Netflix and will add Roxio Cinema Now and Blockbuster On Demand widgets in the fall.

Philips Wireless Media Connect technology, however, allows you to connect to any site on the Internet on a computer and view the content on compatible Philips devices, which for now includes only the two units mentioned above. The technology won’t be available until the fall.

This certainly puts a whole new twist on the Connected TV market and the future of TV apps and Widgets -  Philips Wireless Media Connect however, does take special firmware that needs to be built into the TV or Blu-ray player and also  requires you to install Wireless Media Connect software on your laptop. But it's another take and angle on the convergent media landscape that adds another dimension to how we look at the merging of web and TV in the future.

Philips unveiled the fresh technology during a recent press event this week in New York, working with a 7700 Series LED Eco TV.