Still got a TV ….

27/03/2009 by Bertha.

or a radio, or a Hi Fi for that matter?

The world of “Cloud” entertainment is coming to a computer near your soon and yes, it will change the way you use your TV, radio and Hi Fi.

Not many people can have escaped the adverts (sorry “public service announcements”) on BBC about the iPlayer. For those of you who have missed out its a way of listening to radios shows and watching TV shows which have bee broadcast over the last 7 days. What you may not have known is that all the main TV channels also have their equivalent of the iPlayer. ITV have the ITVPlayer, Channel 4 have Catch-Up, Channel 5 have Demand Five, while even Sky have joined in with SkyPlayer.

What about Radio though? Here the market is even more open with the BBC (see iPlayer above), local, national, international and Internet radio stations fighting for your attention. In fact the main problem is fonding which of the thousands of stations you actually want to listen to.

A good place to start with is Windows Media. Want something more local? Try a Google search for your local favourite - Trax FM here in Doncaster transmit via the Internet in parallel with conventional broadcast.

OK, so you might want something different. Why not make use of a “streaming” music site like WE7 (big fans of this one here at Bertha Central). All you get is a quick advert of a couple of seconds before each track and they have just about everything you could want available. Try the Noel Coward selection HERE as an example of the more obscure tracks available.

It’s not just old stuff either. The latest releases are available just waiting for you to listen all day. The Killers 2008 album Day & Age can be heard HERE.

Not content with all of that? Don’t blame you - what about the video???

Try YouTube for the best in all things video (though only in 10 minute chunks). Admittedly it’s not so good at the moment as they are having a spat with the UK record industry but it’ll get sorted soon I’m sure. Fortunately it’s not all music, how about Extreme Shepherding? Click HERE, give it a watch - mad, computer aided but still good and till next week try and work out which bits are real and which needed help from a computer!

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