With broadband connections rising in the United States and YouTube kicking off the share your video genre of Web sites that now has dozens of copycats, consumers have become more accustomed to watching TV, movies and videos on their computers. Additionally, with the dropping price of digital cameras and video cameras, and the video and photo features in cell phones, we now witness a whole new generation of consumers that are creating, editing, sharing and consuming media content online.

Pay-per-view options via Amazon and iTunes deliver video instantly to your computer as opposed to the now dated act of getting in the car and heading to the local video rental store, or waiting for your Netflix movie to physically show up in the mail. Netflix offers a wide collection of streaming video content but rarely provides newly released items for instant streaming.

Realizing consumers’ needs, Hollywood is now listening. They’ve Studio executive have slowly warmed to the idea of putting full shows online within 24 hours of the original air-date on traditional TV. This recent UK article shows the dramatic spike in online views of video based content, further reinforcing how much consumers want this option. With more than 80 sites available to legally stream movies, TV shows and short video clips now, clearly the shift to online content viewing is happening now and fast.

All of this is great news for consumers as it makes entertainment easier and cheaper, however, being stuck to your desk, office or kitchen table with a laptop is not the most enjoyable way to watch his newly available content. Having a dedicated computer to soley serve as a multimedia station for most, is a burden they’d rather not deal with. The set up, the proximity to the TV and figuring out how to use it and where to put it, can cause a huge headache. Anyone who’s taken the time to hang their flat panel TV on the wall and fish the cables down through it to have a clean look knows parking a computer tower under it is not the most aesthetically pleasing option.

There is now a better option available.

IOGEAR has introduced the Wireless Audio / Video Kit, which is changing how everyone views multimedia content from the Internet. A simple, clean and no-hassle hookup with no cables will have the video transmitting from your computer to your HD TV up to 30 feet away.

Now you can easily enjoy your HD TV from the comfort of your couch with the near limitless content available online. Unlike digital video recorders which cost several hundred dollars and require a monthly service fee, once you purchase the Wireless Audio / Video Kit it’s yours. The only other requirements are a TV and a broadband Internet connection.

Use the Wireless Audio / Video Kit for more than just streaming video. Easily show videos you’ve made on your camera after you’ve transferred them to a computer, or setup a slideshow of still photographs on your computer to be displayed when you aren’t watching videos. This technology easily converts your TV into a digital photo frame!

Showing you just how easy it is to connect your PC to TV can be opens a whole new world of exciting possibilities, entertainment and cost savings for you and your family. The added benefit of embracing one of the newest and fastest growing digital trends also means quicker delivery of media and instant gratification.

Internet on TV is a trend that still at the beginning stages of explosive growth and IOGEAR is at the forefront, bringing you cutting edge technology to allow full enjoyment of everything the Internet has to offer and will offer for years to come.

You can pick up or order a Wireless Audio / Video Kit today at Best Buy, Micro Center, Fry’s, Amazon or at our own IOGEAR store.

The Wall Street Journal recently published a story predicting that the larger big-ticket technologies will remain on the shelves and consumers will instead go home with the latest gadgets this holiday season. As this article and other industry experts predict, the average consumer will purchase more affordable gadgets and less ‘blockbuster’ devices this season.


So what does this mean? Well, consumers, like you, are prepared and willing to spend $300 or less on tech gadgets this year. With most of today’s most popular consumer electronics (CE) products falling into this price category, it looks like everything from netbooks, to the latest e-book reader and high fidelity speakers might top 2009 Christmas shopping lists.

As we reflect on these predictions and the recent CE trends, we believe that IOGEAR’s Wireless Audio / Video Kit (MSRP @ $299.95) is a perfect fit for this year’s gift exchange.

We offer the Wireless Audio / Video Kit which allows users to stream both audio and video content (up to 720p) wirelessly from their PC to their TV up to 30 feet away. Users can eliminate unnecessary cable clutter and enjoy the best of the Web on their larger TVs from the comforts of their couch. This solution truly gives you or the person receiving this gift the ability to stream wirelessly from PC to TV a reality.

What other gadgets are you looking to put under your tree this holiday season?

Cheers,
The IOGEAR Team

It’s no secret that the Internet is now a vast source of entertainment. It’s where we find, share and store pictures, home videos, movies and TV shows. However, we can’t always crowd a group of people around a small laptop screen to share our pictures, videos, favorite TV show or movie with friends and family.

Many companies are starting to see the value of offering online entertainment, but it’s how consumers view that content that is becoming increasingly important.

Some of the big cable giants are starting to offer more online content to paid customers but that comes with hefty monthly fees that can add up. And while Internet-enabled TVs aren’t new, they’re getting increasingly popular but are still limited to what content you can have access to. Recently, it was rumored that Apple might take a gamble and manufacture its own Internet-enabled TV that could eventually work in tandem with all Apple products.

We previously reported on a Yahoo! study showing the increase in online video viewing – so the questions are, how much online content are you watching, and would you like to have it viewed on your big screen TV rather than your small computer screen?

Cheers,

The IOGEAR team

Is your small screen shrinking? That’s the question asked of you in IOGEAR’s latest commercial airing on the popular site Hulu.

As people continue to turn to the Internet to view content, they turn to Hulu, one of the most popular sites for entertainment content.

You may remember, Hulu’s own funny commercials featuring Alec Baldwin and Seth McFarlane were a hit when they aired during last year’s Super Bowl.

We thought this would be a perfect place to share with Hulu users just how much better their viewing experience could be with our Wireless Audio / Video Kit.

As you probably know by now, the Wireless Audio / Video Kit helps take you from the small screen to the big screen by wirelessly streaming content from your PC to your television.

What’s your favorite part of the commercial? We really got a kick out of the opening scene.

Cheers,
The IOGEAR team

Over a six-week period, hundreds of gadget-loving people became fans of IOGEAR on Facebook in hopes to win our cutting edge and ground breaking Wireless A/V Kit. The Wireless A/V Kit utilizes Ultra Wideband technology (UWB) to broadcast HD video signals from your home computer or laptop to your HDTV up to 30’ away, changing forever how you enjoy online, streaming content.

From network television sites to funny YouTube videos, streaming video content right to your television has never been easier, or without as much clutter. The Wireless A/V Kit will finally allow you to bridge the gap between your computer and TV without the fuss of running cables, and enable you to enjoy movies, videos and more from the comfort of your couch, not stuck behind a computer desk.

Of the hundreds of fans, we randomly chose Joey Milici to be our winner! Joey, you are in for a real treat and hope you are ready to change how you look at your computer; its just become a home media and entertainment center. Don’t worry about hooking up cables, cutting holes in your walls or even buying a dedicated computer Joey, your existing computer and our Wireless A/V Kit will bridge the gap to your television and bring the Internet into your living room, where it belongs.

A recent study by Yahoo finds that “daytime video streaming is right up there with nighttime in terms of the number of eyeballs.” The study found that peak hours for online video viewing are between 12:00 and 3:00pm and again between 9:00pm and 1:00am.
We’ve been staying on top of this growing trend on how viewers are spending more time watching online video as opposed to traditional television programming. With consumers spending more time viewing content online, it makes sense to offer something for them to easily enjoy their entertainment from the screen of a large HDTV versus a small laptop or desktop monitor.

We are pleased to offer a product that easily allows these millions of viewers to access the content on the Internet through their TV with the Wireless Audio / Video Kit. (Check out these two contests where we are giving one away! Laptop Magazine, FaceBook)

IOGEAR’s Wireless Audio / Video Kit allows users to utilize their HDTV as if it is a computer monitor without the hassle of excess wiring, as it connects wirelessly. To read a step-by-step analysis of how it works, please visit this CNET piece.

For more information on the Wireless Audio / Video Kit setup, please see the description here.

When do you spend the most hours watching online video?

Cheers,
The IOGEAR Team

The living room truly is where families live today, not like before when it was only used to entertain guests or watch the occasional television show. Nowadays, the living room serves as a sanctuary of sorts; part media room, home office and gaming center. Due to the number of devices connected to each other, it can be somewhat difficult to enjoy all of them in a clean and simple fashion. IOGEAR’s revolutionary HDMI Control Center aims to alleviate some of the confusions.

Introducing the HDMI Control Center to the home market allows consumers to utilize the living room television as a centralized connection point; leveraging both HDMI and USB-powered devices to gain instant access, enjoyment and the freedom of complete user control.

Setting the device up is fairly straightforward. On the back of the HDMI Control Center is a gray area for console where you connect the HDMI cable from your television or monitor to the unit along with the USB-powered wireless keyboard with built-in trackball,. Simply connect the rest of your devices via HDMI and USB for quick and simple setup.



How does it work?

Use the HDMI Control Center to connect and control the following, and enjoy all of them at full 1080p HD resolution.

• Home Computers
• Media server
• Blu-Ray / DVD players
• Gaming consoles (Xbox, Playstation 3)
• HD Set-top Boxes
• Digital Video Recorders

A quick tap on the hot-keys on the wireless keyboard will allow you to quickly switch to your desired devices and IOGEAR’s Display Emulation Technology means it will remember the screen resolution and parameters for each specific device, so you don’t need to adjust your TV each time.


Utilize the USB ports to connect a USB hub or other USB peripheral devices such as external drives or digital cameras. Because you are only sharing a screen session, you can run different applications on your computer and your media server while recording to your DVR all at the same time. The HDMI Control Center comes as a complete kit, ready to install out-of-the-box with everything you’ll need. Clean lines and brushed aluminum on the front fascia will match any home décor and an included headphone jack should be all you need for a little more privacy.

You can view part one here.

The way we watch TV shows and movies has changed dramatically over the last few years. Gone are the days when TV Guide dictated what time you must be home to catch your favorite show, or make a trip to the store to buy or rent a movie. Broadband Internet access has been made available nearly everywhere in the USA and media sites are putting it to full use, allowing you to stream content right to your computer and TV, enabling you to watch your favorite shows such as: Lost, CSI, American Idol and House whenever you want.

YouTube was one of the first aggregate sites that allowed streaming video (via the Flash plug-in) that didn’t take forever to load. While their primary focus has been to showcase user-generated content, and they now actively remove illegally-shared TV shows and movies, major studio executives often use it to show trailers of upcoming movie. Many try to create viral videos in the marketing world, and some are done so well that they gain cult-like status. Dozens of similar sites started to show up that offered the same concept, just in a different package. Vimeo, Viddler and MetaCafe are three of the competitors that compete directly with YouTube. While all have pretty strict anti-copyright rules, they also have the ability of being able to enjoy an entire show, since most limit content to 10 minutes.

The concept of legally watching video from over the Internet is now starting to see backing by the major studios. Ironically, watching shows on most computers isn’t ideal, not when a 42” or larger HD TV is hung on the wall. Just as the movie and TV industry has realized viewers want to watch programs when they want, the tech industry has realized these same viewers want to watch programs where they want. Connecting a computer to a television is a task that not everyone is comfortable with. Factor in unsightly cables and the need to locate a computer fairly close to a television, and it’s not hard to see that this is not the best setup. IOGEAR’s award-winning Wireless Audio / Video Kit eliminates the cables dangling from your television and takes the guesswork out of connecting your computer to the TV with the Only a few minutes to hook up and configure, this kit will allow you to wirelessly stream 720p HD video from up to 30’ away.

To take full advantage of streaming content to your television, there is a near endless list of sites to legally watch video from. Joost was one of the first Internet TV aggregate sites on the Internet, but required specific hardware to operate properly, limited selection of shows and an endless amount of bugs. While they tried to figure out how to best deliver their content, Hulu quietly snuck onto the scene. With a proper blessing by some major studios to broadcast media, it quickly became the go-to site to get caught up on TV shows and select movies. Most television episodes will show up on Hulu within 36 hours of their original airdate along with out-takes and cast member interviews that normally wouldn’t be seen on cable television. First on Mars, Fancast and Fora are similar aggregate sites that focus on content from a multitude of different sources.

Traditional broadcast television quickly caught on that this was no longer a trend and wanted to attract more viewers by putting some content right on their own sites. The big four, ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox, all stream some of their primetime shows shortly after being aired. Most premium cable channels also stream their more popular shows, like USA, A&E, History Channel and Food TV, allowing viewers to watch their favorite shows on their own time, no longer being restricted to the air time or waiting for a rerun. Best of all, it’s legal! Not only do the television networks gain more viewers, it’s almost an excuse to not illegally acquire content anymore. Furthermore, it’s somewhat of an incentive to stop paying for cable since you can stream the vast majority of shows, and now enjoying them from computer to TV is a reality too.

Streaming content has become so popular that dedicated sites now offer full shows, avoiding the high cost of being on television or worse, not at all, it exposes viewers to a whole new genre of video. Standouts include Revision3 and CNET-TV, both offer content that is enjoyable to watch but would more than likely be passed over by the more traditional networks. There are actually more than 80 Web sites to legally stream movies and television shows from, along with sites that generate content solely for broadcasting via the Internet.

Now is the time to enjoy the shows you already watch, when you want to, and on the TV of your choice, free and legally. Make sure to check out part 1 of this series which highlights the advances within the hardware side of the Internet TV revolution.

Entertainment in the home has been going on for as long as man could make sounds by beating sticks onto walls. We generally associate home entertainment, as we know it today by starting in the last 19th century with the phonograph. Commonly called a gramophone or record player, these devices started to appear around the 1870’s and played recorded sounds, something almost mind-blowing for the time. Users were limited in the selection of sounds and spoken word titles available though and for the most part, this cutting edge technology was only enjoyed by the wealthy.

The radio came about just before the turn of the 20th century and then subsequently allowed families to enjoy music and spoken word in the comfort of their own home; the need to go to an auditorium was no longer needed. Best yet, no records or cylinders needed to be purchased, the sound was transmitted live, a totally new concept for the time. This led to a whole new way for families and friends to bond, crowded around radio sets and often involved several families since the new technology was expensive. Above and beyond that, the availability for live news and weather events to be broadcast, as they were about to happen, would end up forever changing our lives. We could now get news and information the day of, not the day after from a traditional newspaper.

By the 1940’s the television had made it’s mark, once again revolutionizing how families enjoyed entertainment. With live and recorded broadcasts, families could now see what they had been listening to on the radio. The television changed our lives so much, the invention of the TV dinner was introduced soon thereafter to encourage people to eat a meal easily in front of the television as not to miss out on anything.

Audio quality continued to get better throughout the century, and more portable. By the 1940’s reel-to-reel tape had been introduced and was implemented in every big record company to make masters. Record players were in nearly every home by the 1960 and by the mid 60’s the 8-track tape was introduced. This new pocket sized audio format was slightly larger than a pack of cards and greatly more portable than a record. It also didn’t suffer from the same common problem of records, scratches and dust. The 8-track was such a hit that it had started to become a standard option for the automotive industry, as a way to listen to recorded audio on the roads.

The 70’s brought us the cassette tape, a smaller and more portable audio format that allowed for easy home duplication and recording. The cassette tape player became the standard for automobiles and home stereo systems through the 1990’s and led to such amazing products as the mid-80’s Walkman, forever changing how we enjoy music on the go.

1975 was also an evolution in home entertainment when the Betamax was introduced, an economical way for home users to watch, record and watch video again on their own television. 1976 brought the Betamax rival, VHS. This spawned a rather large format war that VHS ultimately won, and started new businesses that allowed the rental of videotapes, rather than purchasing them outright.

The early 80’s saw a huge change in how music was delivered, this time by the Compact Disc, or CD for short. This more refined technology delivered cleaner sound, more space and no need to flip a tape. The sound also didn’t distort after repeated plays, a common problem with cassette tapes when the ribbon would stretch. This new format was expensive and didn’t catch onto the mainstream consumers until the late 80’s, by the mid 90’s though it had become the defacto standard for how to listen to high quality music.

While the VHS tape forever changed how we enjoyed video at home and the Compact Disc gave us the best sound quality, 1995 introduced the new standard in video, with CD quality sound, the DVD. Bringing a new quality of video with unsurpassed sound, the DVD is still a major player in today’s home video market. Like the video cassette rental stores of the last decade, the DVD has led to the introduction of online rental sites, like Netflix, which allow users to have movies delivered right to their home for enjoyment.

Throughout the 1990’s and into the 21st century home televisions continued to evolve, getting thinner, bigger and with better displays. The two most common models are now LCD and Plasma, both feature high-definition displays, often referred to as HD displays and are considerably thinner than the predecessors. These new displays often include hookups for more than just a DVD player though, the ability to use the television as a monitor for a home computer system is also built into most set designs. Now home entertainment isn’t restricted to broadcast television or recorded media on DVDs or CDs, families can stream internet only radio and television stations right to their HD television and surround sound systems.

Moving forward, Summer 2009 will see the introduction of a new technology from IOGEAR, the Wireless Audio / Video Kit will wirelessly connect a home computer or laptop to a television set. This cutting edge technology will mean no wires are needed and the computer, coupled with a broadband Internet connection, can now bring countless new ways to be entertained at home. With two simple parts to the kit, one to be plugged into the computer, the other into the television, setup couldn’t be any easier, and the lack of cables means a clean, simple design.

The second decade of the 21st century is almost among us, the future is still untold, but if things continue to evolve and revolutionize how they have for the last 100 years, and at the pace they have for the last 20 years, we are clearly in for some mind-blowing, cutting edge home entertainment.

After providing a solution for your wire clutter problems on a previous post, we found great interest on the topic; judging from the amount of web traffic sent to that blog post. Here, we expand on the idea of de-cluttering with 4 ways to help move towards a de-cluttered digital life.

1. Wireless VGA – Connecting to your display wirelessly

Whether you are giving a presentation or watching a movie on your computer through a projector at home, you can finally put away that extra long VGA cord. This handy device not only reduces clutter, but adds at least ten points to your coolness factor . Learn more from the video.

2. Use Existing Wires

Using the existing electrical power lines in your home or business you can do some amazing things:

-       Stream music to any room, a great way to create a holiday atmosphere

-       Network your computers without a degree in Computer science

-       Extend a Wi-Fi network to the furthest part of your home or business

3. KVM – Easy Switching and File Sharing Between Two Computers

If you have a PC and a laptop on your desk, a KVM switch will reduce the clutter on your desk while allowing you to control both computers with the same keyboard, video display and mouse.

4. Portable Media Server – Free Your Photos, Songs and Movies

Getting photos, songs and movies to play from your PC onto a TV, HDTV or display usually means hauling a computer around and dealing with a mess of cables. With the Portable Media Server, not only do you eliminate the need to lug a PC around to enjoy your content, you can take your entertainment on the road!

What are your favorite tips for de-cluttering your digital life?