Hooked my new Panasonic up to the internet over the weekend (bridging a
wired to wireless link on a Windows XP portable - in case anyone else has
wireless in the house and no wired point near the TV) and brought up Viera
Cast.

Why on earth did they bother? Ok, so you can find the odd You-Tube clipe
but there's nothing else worth looking at.

There are rumours of iPlayer and/or 4OnDemand coming soon, at which point it
might be worth having but currently, don't waste your time.

Paul DS.

On 08/02/2010 17:24, Paul D.Smith wrote:
> Hooked my new Panasonic up to the internet over the weekend (bridging a
> wired to wireless link on a Windows XP portable - in case anyone else
> has wireless in the house and no wired point near the TV) and brought up
> Viera Cast.
>
> Why on earth did they bother? Ok, so you can find the odd You-Tube clipe
> but there's nothing else worth looking at.
>
> There are rumours of iPlayer and/or 4OnDemand coming soon, at which
> point it might be worth having but currently, don't waste your time.

'The Gadget Show' came to the same conclusion, a few months ago.

Adrian C <email> wrote:

> On 08/02/2010 17:24, Paul D.Smith wrote:
>> Hooked my new Panasonic up to the internet over the weekend (bridging a
>> wired to wireless link on a Windows XP portable - in case anyone else
>> has wireless in the house and no wired point near the TV) and brought up
>> Viera Cast.
>>
>> Why on earth did they bother? Ok, so you can find the odd You-Tube clipe
>> but there's nothing else worth looking at.
>>
>> There are rumours of iPlayer and/or 4OnDemand coming soon, at which
>> point it might be worth having but currently, don't waste your time.
>
> 'The Gadget Show' came to the same conclusion, a few months ago.
>
The Eurosport archive might be worth it but doesn't appear to be available
in the UK.

BTW, if you want to download any videos to play on the TV you can use
multiAVCHD (http://multiavchd.deanbg.com/) to copy them onto an SDCard in a
format playable by the TV.

In article <7tb0egF426U1>, Adrian C wrote:
> > Hooked my new Panasonic up to the internet over the weekend (bridging a
> > wired to wireless link on a Windows XP portable - in case anyone else
> > has wireless in the house and no wired point near the TV) and brought up
> > Viera Cast.
> >
> > Why on earth did they bother? Ok, so you can find the odd You-Tube clipe
> > but there's nothing else worth looking at.
> >
> > There are rumours of iPlayer and/or 4OnDemand coming soon, at which
> > point it might be worth having but currently, don't waste your time.
>
> 'The Gadget Show' came to the same conclusion, a few months ago.

As have I about my Samsung TV, which also has internet access with so little
you can actually do with it that it isn't worth the bother. The display
itself is excellent but I could have saved a hundred quid or so by getting
the cheaper model that didn't have the extra gimmicks. I think the
manufacturers are simply including these things to make a more impressive
looking feature list.

I've just finished building a media centre, which is basically just a PC
with an HDMI output feeding the telly and the audio feeding the hi-fi.
Anything I can watch on a computer can now be put on the big screen, which
is effectively just a display, with all the clever stuff in external boxes
of various types. This is clearly the way to go.

Rod.

Roderick Stewart <rjfs> wrote:

>As have I about my Samsung TV, which also has internet access with so little
>you can actually do with it that it isn't worth the bother.

An Ethernet interface is required to meet Freesat specifications. My Panny
has one which (currently) does absolutely nothing.

nospam" <nospam> wrote in message
news:186r
> Roderick Stewart <rjfs> wrote:
>
>>As have I about my Samsung TV, which also has internet access with so
>>little
>>you can actually do with it that it isn't worth the bother.
>
> An Ethernet interface is required to meet Freesat specifications. My Panny
> has one which (currently) does absolutely nothing.

That explains a lot. I really could not see what use it was. That said, in
theory it will play media over the internet from a DNLA (?) server. Not
tried it as I don't have any media of that sort but might be worth a look at
some point.

Paul DS.

Duncan Booth" <duncan.booth> wrote in message
news:ooth
> Adrian C <email> wrote:
>
> The Eurosport archive might be worth it but doesn't appear to be available
> in the UK.
>
> BTW, if you want to download any videos to play on the TV you can use
> multiAVCHD ([..]) to copy them onto an SDCard in
> a
> format playable by the TV.

Oooo... that looks like lots of fun! Thanks for that.
Paul DS.

"Paul D.Smith" <paul_d_smith> wrote in message
news:7rf1

> Why on earth did they bother? Ok, so you can find the odd You-Tube clipe
> but there's nothing else worth looking at.

My new Sony has the same feature (with some other marketing name,
obviously). I've found the same thing: currently it is pretty useless.
However, it can see the other computers on my Windows network, so I can
peruse my photos on the telly, which might be vaguely useful.

The main thing that is coming is iPlayer. It is already working as a beta
service on the Sony, and also on the Humax Foxsat HDR. I've used it, and it
is the most useful feature by far.

Mind you, the quality looks pretty ropey on such a big screen - it still
comes down your broadband pipe, of course.

SteveT

> The main thing that is coming is iPlayer. It is already working as a beta
> service on the Sony, and also on the Humax Foxsat HDR. I've used it, and
> it is the most useful feature by far.
>
> Mind you, the quality looks pretty ropey on such a big screen - it still
> comes down your broadband pipe, of course.
>
> SteveT

Isn't there a "HD" version, or is that the "download and play later"
variant? Could we be using a server to do this and playing back later using
the iPlayer app or is that yet-another-useful-but-absent-feature?

Paul DS

"Paul D.Smith" <paul_d_smith> wrote in message
news:lqk1
>
> Isn't there a "HD" version, or is that the "download and play later"
> variant?

There's a 'high quality' version, but it isn't remotely HD. That was the
one I was talking about - and it looks ropey on a 46" screen.

> Could we be using a server to do this and playing back later using the
> iPlayer app or is that yet-another-useful-but-absent-feature?

As you say, a full quality SD (or particularly HD) picture would probably
require a download-and-play-later facility for most people's broadband
connection. It would be technically trivial, of course, but I don't know
whether it is offered. You would certainly need a hard disk, which
disqualifies most TVs, but a PVR such as the Foxsat HDR could handle it - at
least in theory.

Does anyone know more about this?

SteveT

In message <9ri1n55sks6hceda64k70o7o472edr186r>, nospam
<nospam> wrote
>Roderick Stewart <rjfs> wrote:
>
>>As have I about my Samsung TV, which also has internet access with so little
>>you can actually do with it that it isn't worth the bother.
>
>An Ethernet interface is required to meet Freesat specifications. My Panny
>has one which (currently) does absolutely nothing.


It will do soon. The Humax Freesat boxes can now run the IPlayer.

In article <9ri1n55sks6hceda64k70o7o472edr186r>, Nospam wrote:
> >As have I about my Samsung TV, which also has internet access with so little
> >you can actually do with it that it isn't worth the bother.
>
> An Ethernet interface is required to meet Freesat specifications. My Panny
> has one which (currently) does absolutely nothing

My TV doesn't have freesat. If I wanted that it would be a separate box, which
would presumably include everything it needed in its own box.

You can only use the network connection with software already built into the TV,
which enables looking through images on Flickr v e r y s l o w l y, and
similarly with You Tube, and something else I've forgotten and can't be bothered
to check because it was so useless. I tried this with an ethernet cable across
the living room, and if it had been a success I'd have considered purchasing the
wi-fi dingle that can be plugged into one of the USB ports, even though of
course it can't be just any wi-fi dongle but the particular Samsung one that
goes with this particular TV. I've tried putting some of my pictures on a USB
memory stick in the hope of making a slideshow display, but even that didn't
work - maybe the file format or picture size wasn't right, but I just couldn't
be bothered to mess with it any more.

So now I just use it as a display, currently with RGB SCART from a switch box
carrying all the freeview stuff, and HDMI from a computer which does all the
things the network connection on the TV is supposed to do, but does them
properly, and of course all the audiovisual things a computer can do anyway.
Samsung displays are superb - as displays. The extra gimmicks are a waste of
money.

Rod.

"Paul D.Smith" <paul_d_smith> wrote in message
news:lqk1
>> The main thing that is coming is iPlayer. It is already working as a
>> beta service on the Sony, and also on the Humax Foxsat HDR. I've used
>> it, and it is the most useful feature by far.
>>
>> Mind you, the quality looks pretty ropey on such a big screen - it still
>> comes down your broadband pipe, of course.
>>
>> SteveT
>
> Isn't there a "HD" version, or is that the "download and play later"
> variant? Could we be using a server to do this and playing back later
> using the iPlayer app or is that yet-another-useful-but-absent-feature?
>
On my 22" HD monitor some of the live streaming clips at 720P from youtube
can look pretty damn good, such as this one
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1F5VXvew2sc>.

"Ivan" <ivan'H'older> wrote in message
news:8341

> On my 22" HD monitor some of the live streaming clips at 720P from youtube
> can look pretty damn good, such as this one
> <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1F5VXvew2sc>.

I agree, although the movement is strangely flickery or "jumpy" (I guess
that's what you should expect with 25fps progressive), and there are clear
compression artefacts (see the closeup of her arms, at around 3m 30s).

My network is reporting a bit rate of around 7Mbps (jumping between about 5M
and 10M). That would be over the top for quite a proportion of broadband
users.

SteveT

"Steve Thackery" <nobody> wrote in message
news:nz2d
> "Ivan" <ivan'H'older> wrote in message
> news:8341
>> I agree, although the movement is strangely flickery or "jumpy" (I guess
> that's what you should expect with 25fps progressive), and there are clear
> compression artefacts (see the closeup of her arms, at around 3m 30s).
>
> My network is reporting a bit rate of around 7Mbps (jumping between about
> 5M and 10M). That would be over the top for quite a proportion of
> broadband users.
>
I'm using a 10M virgin broadband connection and have to say that from what
one would call a normal viewing distance at full screen, some streaming
stuff can look at least as good, if not superior to some of the so called
broadcast pictures that people appear to be perfectly happy to put up with,
I certainly think that if they can get some decent 'universally available'
broadband infrastructure in place, then it's definitely the way that
broadcasting is going to go, (watch what you want, when you want) the reason
I suspect why the BBC and other broadcasters appear to becoming so
involved.