Kylo browser brings the web to your TV without the squint
Summary: Kylo brings the web to your TV without requiring you to squint. Is there a need for this type of offering with tablets going mainstream and game systems already offering a built-in browsing experience?
Hillcrest Labs has announced the launch of Kylo, a free web browser designed specifically for surfing your computer from your TV. Using a Mozilla-based browser, Kylo lets the millions of users who are already connecting PCs and Macs to their TVs now view web-based content from their couch, without squinting. The "no squint" technology is made possible via an optimized presentation of web sites for viewing from the couch, and is completely cross platform for both Windows and Mac users.
I love the concept of Kylo and have seen a few different implementations over the years, with my favorite being Boxee. The biggest issue around this type of offering is which content will actually be delivered. The fan favorite tends to be Hulu, and with Hulu still not delivering its own box, we're forced to use Hulu via a browser-based RSS feed option. Boxee continues to go back and forth with Hulu on officially supporting the feed, and according to Hillcrest Labs, their Kylo offering was showing Hulu perfectly until they went officially live. Since that time it seems to no longer play Hulu and there's no word on if this is because Hulu is now blocking Kylo.
Check out a couple of screens of Kylo in action below:
With the iPad, HP Slate and other tablets coming to market, is there going to be a need to view the computer on your TV?
UPDATE: Kylo is still not able to play Hulu content. The interface is fantastic and in some cases faster and better than Hulu's, but when you get to the final stage of actually pressing play you're greeted with the message below:
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Talkback
Need? Not really
it's certainly a convenience.
Do we need yet another nonsense browser?
Couple that with the Gyration keyboard and mouse/wand combo.... you can sit on the sofa and browse like the couch potato king.
RE: Kylo browser brings the web to your TV without the squint
but also has hulu admitted to blocking content, or is just
this a last minute glitch in the software.
The only known instance of deliberate blocking is boxee
and I believe they tried to remove ads or alter the videos
too.
For the last 4 months we have been developing a video
solution for the apple
iphone,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rdb0eKhmH4Q
it allows browsing for and playing videos from your home
network. videos can be played in their native formats.
One of the servers we support is called playon, for
sometime playon has allowed xbox and ps3 owners to
watch hulu videos, hulu makes no attempt to block that
content.
Playon also will work with settop tv boxes.
Aside from playon another server is tversity, our app works
with playon and tversity and some other apps also work
with tversity.
Point is hulu has not tried to prevent this, why would
they,both tversity and playon preserve all ads embedded in
the video.
Now that we covered the backstory, here is why I suspect
the problem is with kylo.
First of all the only way hulu is probably blocking the
browser is via the agent string which can be easily
manipulated. Our app for instance passes the agent string
to a bridge on your network, the string can be whatever we
make it.
Secondly, Hulu can be very very sensitive to network and
bandwidth. Sometimes videos play perfectly sometimes
they don't. hulu is also constantly changing and switching
content around. Cacheing content except what is in a users
saved queue is not a good idea with hulu.
Any browser would have to take into account all these little
quirks and my guess is kylo did not spend nearly enough
time in QA.
So until Hulu comes out and admits to blocking the
content I would not jump to conclusions.
RE: Kylo browser brings the web to your TV without the squint
RE: Kylo browser brings the web to your TV without the squint