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Poll: Are You Moving Your Media Viewing To Your Mobile Devices?

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Hulu released its App for the iDevice platform yesterday and announced that it’s subscription service will be available for $9.99 a month. You can currently apply to enter the Beta. But that’s only the beginning of this post and it certainly is jut another in a long line of Internet based media viewing solutions. Supposedly the trend is for folks to move more and more of their media viewing (movies, TV primarily) away from their TV screen to their mobile devices, or to some combo of gadgets and big screen. And of course that raises issues of competition, pricing, etc…

I’m personally way behind the curve here as I just don’t have much time for lots of viewing in my life, but I know others who stay on top of every twist and turn with every service and every option. Hulu’s free web service has become an everyday thing for several folks I know who have busy schedules and would rather play catch up on their computer than set the DVR. And let’s face it, there are a lot of bets being made that this supposed revolution is going to mean money changing hands. Or at least passing through some different hands.

So, I’m curious how about how GBM readers think about this new feature of media viewing. Are you changing your media viewing habits and taking advantage of these new services? Does the boob tube still rule your viewing choices? The poll questions below will only be a part of the answer, so give us some more perspective in the comments.

[polldaddy poll=3412279]

12 Comments

12 Comments

  1. RandySpangler

    06/30/2010 at 7:09 am

    I, too, don’t have a lot of “sit down and watch TV” time and I am not one to have the TV on while computing, talking on the celly, tapping out IMs, listening to Pandora, whilst hanging out with my homies.

    Having said that, it would be really cool if people could send a link to a video or episode (even directly to the exact point in the video) so that I could watch the relevant portion.

    I am too old to be a trend-setter :-)

  2. Mark

    06/30/2010 at 7:20 am

    Gee, I’ve been using Slingplayer for how many years now? The only thing that’s really “new” about any of this are the number of people letting themselves be suckered into paying for it.

    • Warner Crocker

      06/30/2010 at 7:27 am

      I probably should have made this clear in the post, but your comment points it out well. Slingbox (which I have an do use) still relies on a cable or other provider to bring a signal to your living room to then be ported out over the Net.

      Maybe I’m splitting hairs, but I see that as different from Hulu, or Netflix, or other Internet only based services.

      • Mark

        06/30/2010 at 1:04 pm

        Ah, ok, I see what you’re getting at. Even with that definition, however, I was watching tv shows via some Sprint subscription program, the name of which escapes me, at least three years ago. The media has been there for those who wanted to pay for it for quite time, the change is that it’s become more universal and isn’t so much a selling point for any given carrier, at least for smartphones. Despite their efforts, carriers are more or less “dumb pipes” for smartphone owners.

  3. TateJ

    06/30/2010 at 8:46 am

    I use Netflix, iTunes or Amazon for viewing almost everyday. With Netflix and Amazon, I like that I can start watching on one device and finish on another device.

    That being said, I still love the big flat screen TV in the basement. I don’t see myself ever usingthe web as my sole source for media viewing.

  4. Roberto

    06/30/2010 at 1:36 pm

    I download a lot of stuff from EZTV to watch on my PSP or home set.

  5. Stuart

    06/30/2010 at 1:37 pm

    I rip DVDs or download content to watch later on my mobile. I leave the Internet viewing to my laptop. I really don’t want to pay twice (or more) so I am hoping that some tablets and laptops will get the mobile digital tv receivers so i don’t have to worry about bandwidth.

  6. Ben

    06/30/2010 at 4:41 pm

    I don’t watch much tv, and what shows I do like to watch I can just get from torrents.

  7. Nameless

    06/30/2010 at 7:09 pm

    I either sit down in front of my desktop and its 21″ FD Trinitron monitor, or bring out my 14″ Gateway E-295C if I’m somewhere else and want to watch video. Pocket computer video viewing only takes 5% of my video viewing time, if that, and it’s generally because I don’t have the E-295C with me.

    This mostly has to do with the prevalence of Internet streamed video and odd video packages like .MKV that have multiple audio tracks and soft subtitles all in one file. Only a select few Windows/Linux/Mac OS X media players can handle the latter very well.

    The other factor is that I don’t have very large memory cards. My PSP is stuck with the 1 GB Memory Stick that came with it (I need a 32 GB one badly), and I only have a 2 GB SD card for my hx4700 and no CompactFlash cards (which don’t have the address space limitation that the non-SDHC-compliant slot in the hx4700 would have to contend with). My PCs, on the other hand, have gigabytes upon gigabytes of hard drive space.

  8. double_o_don

    06/30/2010 at 7:18 pm

    All of our 20-something kids seem to use online services at least as much as traditionally delivered (cable or sat) TV content.

    My wife and I however are still quite happy with the functionality of DVR.

  9. sbtablet

    07/01/2010 at 8:09 am

    I don’t watch a lot of TV, but I never want to watch in the evening when my family is home and together. When I do watch, I almost always stream video from Hulu. No download to fill up my hard drive. It works very well, and I can catch up three or four episodes at a shot. I can even plug my computer into my TV if I want to watch on the big screen. I do that now and then.

  10. Chad

    07/04/2010 at 7:56 am

    I’m doing what I’ve always done… Download what I want to watch and reencode it to what ever format is supported by the device I am carrying

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