What Is IPTV?

many people are looking to cut ties with

their cable TV and while netflix is

certainly a great alternative

it still doesn't quite fill the void for

certain needs like daily news or live

sporting events so what do you do

IPTV is most likely your best answer but

what is it exactly

to put things simply IPTV is live TV

over your internet connection and has

been around for some time now

recently IPTV has become a lot more

accessible with the emergence of set-top

boxes like the fire stick and Apple TV

and can be simply downloaded as an app

with no fuss

with that being said there are certainly

a few disadvantages versus sticking with

your regular cable service the biggest

one being your Internet's capability as

you may have already experienced video

streaming can succumb to certain

connection issues especially when using

a wireless setup

before you decide to make the jump to

IPTV there are two forms I beat Eevee

that you should really consider the

first option would be streaming over a

local area network better known as your

house and the second would be on a wide

area network or what most now refer to

as the cloud devices like the HD homerun

are designed to work on your local area

network and act as a basic-cable or

digital box so to speak by simply

connecting this device to your router a

live signal can be broadcast from any

compatible wired or wireless device that

is connected to it the HD homerun comes

in different flavors like the prawn

which will let you watch live cable TV

or the OTA live which lets you watch

local TV through a basic antenna the Eva

just recently started a live streaming

service as well that adds cable channels

to their OTA devices or a monthly fee

an added benefit of using HD homerun and

other devices like it is that you will

not have to pay for a cable box rental

fee as it has the capability to run on

most media players and PCs though you

will need to purchase a cable card in

order to watch cable TV and that will

cost you around two to four dollars a

month I would say going this route

probably has a decent do-it-yourself

factor as it's going to require a little

bit of setup to take advantage of

everything it has to offer

while there are ways to set up a DVR so

that you can record TV shows HD homerun

offers the DVR service with a $35 annual

subscription in order to use bear in

mind that you will be required to use

your own storage and depending on the

device you use there also are different

ways in which you will be required to

set things up

this route for people who want to get

the highest performance from their live

TV over the Internet the device will

also be a better solution for a full

house of Internet users as broadcasting

a signal through a local network will

not affect the connection in the same

way the second option will the biggest

downside to this option comes with

simultaneous viewing as price determines

how many tuners you can use at one time

the most basic device only gives you two

or Cody or a Plex user then you are

especially in luck as this device

supports both applications in a plethora

ways that I plan to cover now onto the

second option which is the live TV over

the cloud at the moment several services

which now include YouTube and Hulu offer

IPTV services with most starting at $35

a month and offering around about

40-plus channels with local channels as

well

most services offer unlimited

broadcasting on any compatible device

and on top of that you can get free DVR

and on-demand services the biggest

caveat will depend on the service you

use and this is especially important for

sports fans because not all services

support streaming at 60 frames per

second frames per second determine how

smooth live streams will look in action

so if this is something that is

important to you make sure to do your

research for each service to find out if

this is supported

another big factor will be your internet

service as most IP t cloud services

require at least a 25 megabit connection

or the highest streaming resolutions and

frame rates available we will be trying

out some of these new services and

giving you a basic overview to make sure

and stay tuned for this as well

hopefully you now have a broader

understanding of IPTV and at least have

an initial plan of action on how you can

incorporate this into your entertainment

setup of course you will be getting into

more details about IPTV moving forward

so make sure and stay tuned for the

incoming information for now this is the

core your resident entertainment techie

signing now