{"id":46,"date":"2003-05-30T09:45:30","date_gmt":"2003-05-30T09:45:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/viodi.com\/classic\/2003\/05\/30\/030500tv\/"},"modified":"2023-08-13T18:27:18","modified_gmt":"2023-08-13T18:27:18","slug":"030500tv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/viodi.com\/classic\/2003\/05\/30\/030500tv\/","title":{"rendered":"TV Internet – A Real World Review \n \n "},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Click<\/a> Quick Jump Menu to this Month’s Articles Fiber to the Home – Finally TV Internet – A Real World Review FCC’s Impending Cross-Ownership Ruling Mouse Ears or Rabbit Ears Call for Papers May, 2003<\/b> <\/p>\n

TV-Internet \u2013 A Real World Review<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

by Ken Pyle<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0 <\/p>\n

NTCA\u2019s Fiber: Opticmize Your Network<\/a><\/em> gave me the rare chance for me to stay in a real hotel, as compared to my normal mode of leaching off friends. This hotel had a very interesting configuration with regards to Internet access, as it had Wi-Fi in the lobby, dial-up and high speed Internet via the television in the guest room. In a rare moment of pecuniary craziness, I decided to splurge and spend $9.95 (excluding tax) to surf the net with the convenience of remote control – what a waste of money<\/strong>! <\/p>\n

So, I noticed the hotel levied a toll for all calls outside downtown Pittsburg. A quick calculation and the high-speed Internet over the TV seemed like a pretty good deal. They had a free \u201cwalled-garden\u201d area to give guests a feel for the service. This area provided information on the local weather, local restaurants and other things that would be of interest to a person from out-of-town. Sign-up was pretty straightforward as all billing is direct to the hotel. One good thing<\/strong> is that the user interface is tightly integrated with the existing VOD and navigation methodology, such that it is easy<\/strong> for someone who is familiar with ordering a movie to order up the web on TV.<\/p>\n

The downside is that, once you are online with this system, you might say that surf is not up<\/strong>. It had been a long time since I spent a significant amount of time using an Internet-enabled set-top box and I was disappointed to see the system deployed by the Hilton was more difficult to use and less capable than technology I evaluated two years ago. If I had not already had experience with this sort of service, I would have probably given up after 10 minutes and asked for a refund.<\/p>\n

Some of the problems<\/strong> I experienced included:<\/p>\n