OMG Nintendo

PlayOn is a company that basically sells relatively cheap ($39.99) technology that lets folks use their PC as a media server for purposes of streaming content to their television sets. Some versions of the PlayOn launcher let you tether the signal to one of your video game consoles, essentially turning it into a set-top box through its browser. Today PlayOn announced the release of a beta version of its streaming software for Wii and you may find it's worth your time and money.

All the PlayOn software requires is that you have a PC in the house on, have your Wii pointed at http://www.playon.tv through the Internet channel, and a connection that'll support at least 1.5 to 2.0 Mbps. Download the PlayOn software, make sure you have WMP 11 installed for... some reason, and then start streaming away. Right now you can easily access a very Wii Remote-friendly YouTube interview, Hulu, the CBS library, CNN, ESPN, Netflix streams, and more through the PlayOn open architecture widget.

My home connection meets the PlayOn requirements and I found my streams smooth and pleasant to watch. On my HDTV there was some slight pixelization of picture even on content marked HD, since most web content now only goes up to 720p. There would be occasional moments where you could really tell it was a stream, like slowdown or stuttering, but these moments were brief even during streams of hour-long shows like Star Trek. There were no issues with timeouts, videos not loading, or videos displaying incorrectly.

You can try the PlayOn launcher for free for 14 days before deciding whether or not to drop some money on a full license for the software. If you do, you can use the same license to stream media through your PS3, Xbox 360, or a host of other devices. I actually have to consider this a really good value, especially when you consider how many households have Wiis but not other systems yet. Give it a try, play with it, and see if you think it's worth your time. I'm not sure if I'll be using it enough to warrant buying the software license yet, but the thought has certainly crossed my mind.