At IFA Philips unveiled new services and features for their Smart TVs. The Cloud TV service will let you stream TV channels via the internet, and with remote recording you can schedule recordings even when you are out of the house.
Philips’ Cloud TV and remote recording
Philips had a couple of new products to unveil at IFA 2013, but they also had new features and services. Cloud TV lets you stream TV channels over the Internet; both free and paid channels.
Philips’ Cloud TV
Philips says that they currently have 100 TV channels on board and we saw a demonstration with one of the BBC channels. At the moment a few major TV channels are available to stream, but most of the channels are niche channels. The Cloud TV platform will be rolled out to several European countries very soon, with local TV channel offerings.
Philips’ Cloud Explorer
Philips also launched the new Cloud Explorer app, which provides access to your Dropbox. We are not quite sure why it is called Cloud Explorer instead of Dropbox, but as Philips said it makes sense to access for example photos and videos from Dropbox on the big screens. Cloud Explorer will roll out to all of Philips’ Smart TVs very soon.
Lastly, Philips released its remote recording and multi-room functions. Both were actually presented along with the new 2013 TV line-up this spring, but they are now rolling out to 2013 TVs via a firmware update. Remote recording lets you schedule TV recordings even when you are out, via the Philips MyRemote app for iOS and Android. Multi-room lets you stream a TV channel or a TV recording from one TV in your home to another TV, for example the bedroom TV.