It’s interesting to fathom how far TV has come in the decades since its inception circa 1940. From furniture-based behemoth to portable lightweight, from black-and-white to color to 3D, from antenna to cable to digital streaming, from standard-definition 4:3 to ultra-high-resolution 16:9, from mono sound to multi-speaker high-def surround sound, from cathode ray tube to plasma/LCD flatscreen, television has moved swiftly from local curiosity to media powerhouse. Its evolution is shaped by many factors, from the movies to live sports to the digital revolution—and now we’re in the midst of another spike in TV evolution. And it could be the biggest spike yet.

I’m talking about nothing less than TV’s evolution away from the TV.

This column is a natural evolution from last month’s installment, “Cutting Cable” in which I talked about considerations to keep in mind when you’re pondering a move away from that long-time method of content delivery, cable television. There’s no question that many people are frustrated by the high prices and voluminous crap that comprise the cable-TV and satellite-TV experience. But there’s a smaller—but growing—subset of people who are evolving past the very notion of set-based TV. To anyone who is enjoying a rich media experience on a tablet device such as the Microsoft Surface or the Apple iPad, that large flatscreen set in the living room is getting less and less use. Such is the case in my house, and in the homes of many of my tech-minded friends.

It’s a convergence of digital subscription services such as Netflix and the rise of ultra-portable computing that’s giving rise to this new mindset. In early 2013, Netflix was the most used app on mobile devices.

(Read the rest at Residential AV Presents: Connected Home.)