How to watch web content on your HDTV

The problem with long-form video content on the web is that most people watch it on their laptop or desktop PC (or iPhone).  Yet because of things like screen size, eye fatigue, and force of habit, we generally prefer to watch long-form content on the television in our living room; the so-called '10 foot experience'.

Don't get me wrong.  There are plenty of people (particularly kids who have grown up consuming content on their PC) who are watching long-form video on their computers and cell phones.  And in 10-20 years, they may constitute the majority (in that timeframe, the lines between computer and television will also have continued to blur).

But how do we get all of the great long-form video content from the web to that centerpiece of the living room that holds a near monopoly on long-form viewership for the vast majority of the population?

Unfortunately, there isn't a great, clean answer today.  There are companies like Microsoft, Apple and others that are building software (Windows Media Center) and hardware (Apple TV) to help make the transition.  But these projects haven't made really significant traction.

Ultimately, the game consoles (XBox, PS3, Wii) may end up being the trojan horses that accelerate the consumption of long-form video content distributed through the web to the television.  But even these platforms (today) have their drawbacks, tending to take more of a walled garden / proprietary approach to the content that flows through their box to the television.

I would love to buy a cheap box (a la Roku) that has great, intuitive software that allows me to easily navigate and find all of the interesting content on the web (short-form and long-form) sitting 10 feet from my television.  It may even feel like programmed content, and completely hide (or make secondary) the source of this content.  The service that I have seen do the best job of this lately is called Boxee.  I have tried Boxee on a laptop connected to my living room TV (already too high a hurdle for the vast majority of the population, I believe), and it's pretty cool.  Although it was much cooler when it had content from Hulu.  I'd like to see a service like Boxee ship on a cheap device (maybe a stand-alone set-top box with CableCard slot so I can replace my crappy Comcast box) that gives us an easy-to-use, intuitive on-ramp to web content on the television.  Ideally, it comlpetely blurs the lines between what's the 'web' versus 'TV' (note that the web and TV are now being delivered over the same coaxial jack in my wall), and lets me enjoy all of this great content on a great big TV through a few clicks of a button on my TV remote.

Until then, I'll continue to try out Boxee.  Here's a short video from the company that gives you a sense for how it works.  Enjoy!  Here's a link to another video that shows you how to install Boxee on your AppleTV.  Let me know if there's a solution you've seen that does what Boxee does in a cheap box with a built-in CableCard reader. In the meantime, for the right price, I'd be happy to come over, hook up your PC to your TV, and get Boxee running so you can experience a bit of the web on your HDTV.