Company’s New LocationFree Devices Compete With Buzzworthy SlingBox in Emerging Market. When it comes to watching television, TiVo revolutionized the “when,” allowing viewers to easily record a program and watch it later. Now, Sony Corp. is trying to get out front in a battle for the “where” of TV viewing.
It’s been two years since Sony announced LocationFree, a line of devices that allow users to stream TV programming from their homes to computers connected to the Internet. Yesterday, the company announced two new versions of LocationFree, which may draw some consumer interest in part because of the buzz about a similar product made by Sling Media, a San Mateo, Calif., start-up.
Analysts credit Sony for helping pioneer “place-shifting” products, which allow remote viewing of programs that are airing on the television set back home. But the product line attracted little interest when it launched, in part because the idea of watching mobile television was not widely known and also because the device was difficult to set up.
“You needed a significant amount of technical expertise to get it working,” said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst with Jupiter Research. “Sling, on the other hand, focused on the user and made the setup process a fairly simple, out-of-the-box experience.”
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Hmm sounds pretty random. So somehow your television transmits to your computer? Personally I don’t see a use for something like that but that’s just me. Besides the fact that I don’t watch TV I would rather just get a TV tuner (which I already have).
It transmits tv over networks. So if you have a laptop you can watch tv on it Personally I have a tv tuner card on my pc and I used it almost all the time in the background to whatever im dooing.