Indians have limited entertainment opportunities – eating out , visiting a Mall , watching a movie are probably 3 of the top entertainment activities for an average Indian metro family.
Movie tickets in India are expensive in most of the new Cineplex – a show at PVR can cost anywhere from Rs 250 to Rs 1000 per person depending on the type of auditorium. So going out with a family of 4 can be a tad expensive.
There is an interesting alternative that is emerging. Most Indian families in Metros have graduated to having large format LED / LCD TV’s and every household has a few smartphones and definitely a Tablet. The broadband and Wi Fi is also a default in over a few million households. These are the existing ingredients that you need to tap into to augment your experience of watching movies at home.
Lets look at an interesting device that Apple launched in India recently. As you see this is a cute device that fits in your palm. Its small but powerful and can really energize your home entertainment . Lets take a look at a few interesting things that you can do with it.
Most of you would have a Windows or Mac PC at home. With iTunes you now have easy access to download songs, movies, Videos, games to your PC / iOS devices. These can be streamed to your TV . Even if the PC is in the bedroom and the TV is in the front room it works beautifully.
We can make this simpler – if the movie is downloaded on your iPad or iPhone then you can stream it directly to the TV.
The device goes well beyond watching Video. There are other advantage too e.g. you had a large family function and you want to view all the photographs together as a family on your TV. You can download the photos to iPhoto on your Mac / iPad and then choose a background theme / music and run all the photos like an AV.
Its also a lot of fun for kids as Angry Birds, Temple Run and all the other games downloaded from the App Store can now be played directly on your TV through an iPad or iPhone.
If your TV is not web enabled and you want to watch movies from Youtube – its easy to do that with an Apple TV.
The device is also of interest to music enthusiasts. All the songs downloaded on your Mac / Windows PC can now be played on the TV , if you have external speakers / Home Theater system attached to the TV the experience can be stunning.
So what does it take to make this happen ?
Existing Systems – LCD / LED TV with HDMI Port , Wifi @ Home , Existing device ( Windows / Mac PC with iTunes or any iOS Device)
New Items Needed – HDMI Cable , Apple TV. Indicative cost for both these is less than Rs 10,000/-
Few Additional Points to note
1. If you need to download from youtube & watch – Wi Fi bandwidth needed to stream is a minimum of 2.5 Mbps.
2. If you want to stream content from your home PC , iPad , iPhone – then all you need is a Wi Fi Network.
3. If you do not have a Broadband at home – you can still crate a Wi Fi Zone by using a product like the D – Link companion DIR – 505 ( Indicative Cost Rs 1700)
4. The movie / video being streamed will be at a HD resolution
Its an interesting project to get your kids excited in the summer vacation , you can get started right away and enhance your experience at home. For more details here are some useful links
For more details on this Innovative product here are some useful links
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/AppleTV_SetupGuide.pdf