Tivo, the company famous for introducing the DVR, are branching out into internet TV streaming with the launch of the dedicated set-top-box called Qplay.
The $49 box and associated app, collects and manages video streams from around the web, and around the world into an easy to manage playlist. It also promises to let users share content, or what they call ‘Qs’, publish video or run their own TV network.
The box is on sale from the official website and can be controlled via an app running on the iPad or iPhone, and lets users seamlessly sync and switch between watching on a mobile device or TV screen.
So far so old hat. The device appears to do whats already achievable using a selection of devices, apps and Youtube. It appears that the only real use is to watch internet content on the TV, which puts it right up against the cheaper Chromecast and seemingly much more functional Roku TV box.
The Qplay is the size of a small HD and comes without a remote as the app will control it. Once content has been sent to the TV, the device can go back to being used as a tablet or phone as the content is played from the cloud. Video streaming services like Hulu and Netflix are not available at launch, which makes the device a video playlist watching device similar to visiting Youtube. Although to be fair, the premise seems promising by being able to collect video from different places and feeds and curating it into a Q.
The device is the brainchild of former TiVo CEO & founder Mike Ramsay and James Barton who launched the first digital video recorder 15 years ago. Ramsay said of the new device, “If you look at the state of Internet video today, it’s a mess. It used to be you had 500 channels on TV and nothing to watch. Now it seems like you have 500 apps on your tablet and you go from one app to the next as you search for something to watch.”
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