Sports, Yes, But Not on My Monitor

Reader watches video on a PC-connected large screen television.

[Response to Finally, a Killer App for Broadband from September 18, 2002.]

[September 23, 2002]

Dear Editors:

Your article on "SOD" (Sports on Demand) failed to present the work around for watching content over a broadband connection. Video cards of at least 32 megabit and with a s-video output now allow us to view live video content on our "big screen" televisions.

No one needs to huddle around a 15-inch monitor. We can now huddle around the entertainment systems in the comfort of our living rooms. My current setup is a 36-inch TV monitor hooked up to a spare 500 Mhz computer. The computer is connected to the broadband router via an 802.11b USB wireless adapter. The video card is an ATI with 32 megabit of memory. Both keyboard and mouse are also wireless. When latency is low, I usually receive picture quality that is close to or sometimes better than broadcast.

Would I watch a movie over broadband? Certainly, but it must be a movie that is not readily available. Otherwise I could just drive down to Blockbuster and get the latest release.

So, Internet-based SOD makes sense to me.

Regards,

Anthony Manns
Tampa, Florida