Charbax.com

I posted this as a comment on crankygeeks.com:

IPTV will be when people can browse through lots of video-on-demand and live video-over-IP from a 100$ high definition compatible box next to the TV.

The Wii could be it, but I haven’t seen the Wii have a certain interface just for browsing video-on-demand and streaming video. Probably that a device like the Wii could be powerfull enough at least for DVD resolution video progressive download or streaming. I guess some Wii users are watching the Flash video version using his Wii, that isn’t full screen sit back and watch internet video on you tv experience is it. Xbox360 and PS3 certainly have the possibillity of becomming good IPTV boxes, although they are a bit expensive and there is probably a tendency Microsoft will want to control the IPTV access of the Xbox and Sony of the PS3. The most accepted IPTV solutions will need to give access to all Internet video content, just like an internet browser lets people access all internet website. Users won’t accept being within some walled garden selection of Internet video on-demand or live content.

I think Cisco is coming with this 100$ IPTV consumer box later this year. It’ll be based on the Sigma designs latest chip, support for HDMI and composite tv output, support for connecting hard disk drives or HDDVD/Blueray drives on the USB2-host plug. Basically it’ll have a certain type of XML browser that will let webmasters easilly list videos from the Internet to be browsed through using a remote control. The box will support BitTorrent and RSS auto-download subscriptions. I think people will have wireless keyboards also in the living room, cause it’s always easier to type the title of something one wants to search for on the IPTV search engines and recommendations engines in the XML browser that will be available.