PlayStation Application Weds PC to TV

Sony PlayStation 2 games may get new competition this week, when software developer BroadQ releases QCast Tuner Preview Edition, which streams PC audio and video to a television set with the help of a Sony PlayStation 2 console.

QCast Tuner, priced at $50, takes advantage of a newly released $40 Sony PlayStation 2 network adapter add-on that links PlayStation 2 video game consoles to the Internet for online gaming. But instead of linking PlayStations 2 to the Net, BroadQ connects to music and video files on your PC through a direct ethernet connection or via a home network router.

The service targets the 10.5 million North American PlayStation 2 owners who also have a PC, says Richard Doherty, research director at the Envisioneering Group.

Bundled with QCast Tuner is SnapStream Personal Video Station from SnapStream Media. The software provides "trick TV" functions to PCs equipped with TV tuner cards, so you can find TV programming, schedule a recording, and play back TV content on your PC or over a network.

The preview version of BroadQ's software is scheduled to be available on EBay and through a Yahoo Storefront accessible via the BroadQ site. A final release of QCast Tuner is expected to ship this year, and will be provided as a free upgrade for QCast Tuner Preview Edition customers, says Mary Browning, spokesperson for BroadQ.

Drawing Interest

BroadQ is the first of several firms developing tools to link TVs to PCs. Microsoft, Sony, and Intel showed off prototypes of products marrying the PC to the TV in a product fair at the Intel Developer Forum last week, says attendee Doherty.

Also shown at IDF was Sony's RoomLink, which links PlayStation 2 video game consoles to PCs for video and audio playback. Intel is reportedly working separately with Microsoft and Sony on similar devices. However, Doherty says BroadQ has a head start with its release.

PlayStation is the most popular video game console seller with 33 million PlayStation 2 owners worldwide, according to Envisioneering Group. Nintendo trails with about 4.5 million users, which is slightly more than the 4 million Microsoft Xbox users.

But analysts say the real Holy Grail for video game console makers is linking users not to a PC, but to subscription-based online gaming networks. All the major game console makers are readying such online capabilities. Microsoft plans to launch Xbox Live, its online gaming service, in the fall.

Features, Omissions

To use QCast Tuner, you must run the software on both a PlayStation console and PC. QCast Tuner scans your hard drive for media files and indexes them in a central location. You browse and select files to play on your TV, using a simple PlayStation 2 interface from QCast. A selected file is streamed from your PC to the PlayStation 2 console, and played back through your TV.

On the downside, BroadQ cannot play any audio or video files PlayStation 2 doesn't support. This limits audio files to only MP3-formatted files and various flavors of MPEG video formats and DivX. Apple QuickTime and Windows Media format files will not play over the PlayStation 2 console.

Doherty claims the video quality rivals most TV tuner cards that require RCA or S-Video. That's because TV tuner cards are susceptible to a PC's electrical interference that can sometimes retard video quality when linking to a TV.

BroadQ is considering a feature to let you share music and video beyond a home network and onto the Internet. But copyright restrictions could get in the way, Browning notes.

"We take piracy concerns very seriously," Browning says. "We don't want to find ourselves in the same mess that SonicBlue has." Sonicblue and its ReplayTV 4000 device are the target of a lawsuit by movie studios that allege Sonicblue promotes copyright infringement by enabling customers to swap stored TV programs digitally.