Bell Canada launched a wireless set-top this week from Motorola as part of its Fibe TV service. Subscribers can connect up to five TVs wirelessly through Bell’s whole home DVR service. The wireless client boxes are available to buy for $199, or to rent for $7 per month.
Bell isn’t the first operator to go wireless. AT&T introduced a similar Cisco box in 2011, and it’s reportedly been popular among U-verse subscribers. I have to admit, though, I find the promoted outdoor use case a bit odd. If I was one of those people on an HGTV show who entertains scores of friends and family every weekend, then maybe I could see installing a set-top on my deck, but the reality is, I’m not. And few people are.
My guess is more people just like the ability to do away with extra TV cords, even in guest rooms, basements, and the home office. If – and it’s a big if – the video quality is reasonable, then why not go wireless?
On the other hand, maybe a tablet serves the same purpose. More and more TV is headed to the second screen. If it’s wireless IP video you want, why not just pick up the iPad? Or even settle back in front of a table-sized PC?
What I love best about Fruit & Fibe is the bundled battery pack for outdoor viewing.
I presume for this to be at all viable for most people you have to be using h.264. AT&T encodes their HD channels at ~7.5Mbps which MIGHT work over a reasonable Wi-Fi connection, while the 15-20Mbps Comcast uses for their MPEG-2 HD channels would be much more iffy.
Which means we won’t be seeing this approach soon for the traditional MSO’s–Comcast, TWC, Cablevision et al.
Ever try and watch TV outdoors? I have memories of pre-cable days when all you needed was an antenna. Not an optimum experience unless you get the TV– and yourself in a very shaded area.
I’m with Mari – it’s an odd use case – nighttime would be the only time it would work and then, well, why?
“Ever try and watch TV outdoors? … Not an optimum experience unless you get the TV– and yourself in a very shaded area.”
Shaded island in the middle of the pool. Room for bar and large flat screen. Groups can watch from reclining floating pool lounges.
I have set up a TV outside now for about 3 years. I used an older 26″ flat screen that wasn’t being used and used a Slingcatcher that his year I swapped out for a NeoTV and it works well. Living in Nor Cal we don’t have the bug problems many other areas have and we can sit outside at night and enjoy a baseball game. We often sit outside (a small family) and watch TV. While not as good as watching inside on the larger TV enjoying a nice night outside can’t be beat.
I know a lot of people see the fancy TVs on the outdoor shows and think you have to spend $$$$ to buy one. But sites like Amazon have great prices on waterproof/dustproof covers you can put on a flat screen to cover it up when not in use. I just built a waterproof box to store the power strip and NeoTV and it seems to work fine for the last 3 years.
I have the Uverse/Cisco Wireless box. I also have a TV mounted on my covered back porch. We’ve really enjoyed the TV on the porch.
The best thing about this box is we have three areas in the house that sporadically need a TV box and only one of these areas has a TV outlet. (guest room, basement, and back porch) This box allows me to bring TV to all those areas.
The bigger issue I see here is cable-co hatred of running cable inside homes. I don’t have any first hand knowledge of this, but I could see a point where AT&T is going to force this box on you if you need a drop run.