Internet Televison Content Coming of Age 141
Thomas Hawk writes "The Washington Post has an article out this morning on the assortment of internet based TV choices that are popping up providing additional and competing content to the major studios. Most of these providers are operating more as content collectors or aggregators than actual content producers."
Hooray!! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Hooray!! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Hooray!! (Score:2)
Re:Hooray!! (Score:2)
I'm a big fan of my old college football team, and this year they've begun offering video streaming of their saturday football games. It costs something like 9 bucks a month, but the quality isn't bad and it means I can watch games that normally I wouldn't be able to. So - they're tapping a market that thus far hasn't been available.
Now if I could just pay a little more so they'd win each week, that'd be even better!
Re:Hooray!! (Score:1)
Akimbo et al provide downloads to a set top box. Playing is from that box to your TV. Quality is not 320x240, but more like what cable or dish provide.
Re:Hooray!! (Score:2)
Between DaveTV and Akimbo (Score:1)
Re:Between DaveTV and Akimbo (Score:1, Insightful)
Forget that, why can't they just make it web based with open standards video files that I can either download or stream inside my browser?
CSPAN.org (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:CSPAN.org (Score:3, Interesting)
college sports... (Score:1)
Re:CSPAN.org (Score:3, Informative)
Re:CSPAN.org (Score:1)
Its been done. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Its been done. (Score:2)
Re:Its been done. (Score:2)
but what did homestar do to make you say this?
Re:Its been done. (Score:1)
Whats Red Vs. Blue?? (Score:1)
Re:Whats Red Vs. Blue?? (Score:1)
Re:Its been done. (Score:2)
Why would you be a proponent of only 2 shows? If the president's on, you're screwed!!
Halo3 Tv (Score:1)
Several years from now:
-You pop in your Halo3 disc into your XBOX2 and lo
Re:Halo3 Tv (Score:2)
Finally (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Finally (Score:2)
About time (Score:2, Insightful)
FM from Internet Radio Recipe (Score:1)
2) Distribute content over internet or via CD-ROM
3) Take advantage of LPFM [howstuffworks.com] by running the station from hundreds/thousands of different nodes - all broadcasting under low power rules, yet dense enough to provide good coverage.
Could be something cool to do with all that old hardware, no? You'd have to come up with some pretty good synchronization software but this would be ClearChannel's worst nightmare...
Re:FM from Internet Radio Recipe (Score:4, Informative)
Also, if you start running over the legal limit, you get multipath reception issues as a receiver hears multiple transmitters on the same frequency (from adjacent cells).
Computer in car retrieves content from house via 802.11b, then content is played from cache during commute. Easy enough.
You forgot... (Score:1, Funny)
5) Profit!
Re:FM from Internet Radio Recipe (Score:2)
Methinks *that* would be the barrier.
tv as we know it (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:tv as we know it (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:tv as we know it (Score:2)
I would say we are just see that initial skin discoloration that will eventually turn into the cancer that kills it.
Re:tv as we know it (Score:2)
. . . because it's a lot cheaper than a comparatively-sized TV screen, and I can hook all my game consoles into it.
I suppose I might plug an antenna into it someday.
Maybe.
I've got precisely one friend in the area with a TV. He got it for his PS2. Now he's got a wall projector for his PS2 also, so the TV's turned into a monitor for a computer of his with a TV-out port. It's surprising how good UT2k4 looks on a TV, as long as you don't need to read text.
Who need
Re:tv as we know it (Score:2)
It's a lot cheaper than a comparatively-sized COMPUTER screen.
There.
Who needs spellcheck, I'd rather have coherency-check.
Don't forget Bittorrent! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Don't forget Bittorrent! (Score:4, Informative)
Most of those TV episodes don't include commercials or originally aired on extended cable channels like HBO. Those original providers cannot be terribly thrilled about it.
Re:Don't forget Bittorrent! (Score:4, Informative)
Due to the Sony v Universal case in 1984 (also known as the Betamax decision), it is LEGAL for someone to own one copy of an episode that was on the public airwaves (CBS, ABC, NBC, etc) for the purposes of "timeshifting" (what its called now). You are also allowed to give out a copy of your copy to someone who missed the show. This makes www.tvtorrents.net COMPLETELY LEGAL, even without commercials. (as they only have local channel shows).
Now, of course, shows on HBO or Discovery Channel are not as legal.
Re:Don't forget Bittorrent! (Score:2)
-prator
Re:Don't forget Bittorrent! (Score:2)
Pick the "crime":
--
Re:Don't forget Bittorrent! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Don't forget Bittorrent! (Score:4, Interesting)
*Yes I know your comment was sarcastic*
Re:Don't forget Bittorrent! (Score:4, Interesting)
- am a TW digital cable subscriber - only downloading shows I actaully receive.
- Tivo my shows
- Have a VCR to archive.
- Have a analog TV to firewire device bridge that I can use to cap my analog feeds.
Since the US Supreme court has upheld that time shifting is OK, I can legally archive programs that I pay for and receive in my home. However, I find it more convenient to simply download shows instead of doing the work myself. Am I still a pirate?
This questions seems more a rhetorical question whose answer varies depending on who you ask. Anyone have any legal backing?
Re:Don't forget Bittorrent! (Score:2)
ya right (Score:1, Insightful)
everyone will be talking soon... (Score:2)
I can stream 3 movies at full HDTV quality at that bitrate! I wasn't quite sold on the idea for the immediate future (was designing the system for thinking couple years ahead) but now it looks like anyone that's wil
Sounds more line on-demand TV... (Score:4, Insightful)
Vonage for TV (Score:4, Interesting)
Now is the time for Multicast...
I think it would be cool to have an opensource set top box that pulls content from something like bittorrent. Each box could serve and play, as an appliance. Let people publish content on the network and wala, true television revolution.
Could make them out of Tivo units, after replacing Linux with NetBSD.
Re:Vonage for TV (Score:2)
Yep you read that right. Despite all the research and money multicast fails to follow one of the tenents of the net, intelligence at the edge.
This is such a great oversight that is dooms multicast from ever taking off.
The future of TV is something akin to bittorrent. Intelligence at the edges that scales as audience size increases.
Re:Vonage for TV (Score:2)
As I understand it, the reason you do not want inteeligence in the middle is that the whole infrastructure has to be upgraded or changed at once. There is a lot of inertia in installed systems so changes are delayed.
Re:Vonage for TV (Score:1)
RSS + Divx = No More TV (Score:5, Interesting)
Anyway, I think there's a big potential for tcp/ip video to replace the current distribution methods. The only hurdle is replicating that passive viewing experience. I think things like RSS go a long way towards achieving this. Instead of surfing/searching for video, by tying it to RSS you could just subscribe to "channels" and have the content pulled down to your machine (or links to it) almost immediately after it's published. Tie this in with some sort of search engine or recommendation system and you have a pretty powerful product.
Re:RSS + Divx = No More TV (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.torrentocracy.com/ [torrentocracy.com]
Not to change the subject (Score:1)
Talking of changing the subject, spell Televison?? (Score:1)
Regards,
L. Ed. C.
(Slashdot ID TheScienceKid)
Homechoice in the UK (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Homechoice in the UK (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Homechoice in the UK (Score:1)
Use of new technology for old technology (Score:5, Insightful)
VoD is better (Score:3, Interesting)
I really like the Video On Demand that I get from Time Warner. I can pull up episodes from just about any popular tv show. I like the G4TechTV on demand channel a lot, as well as the comedy central one. Since I have HBO and Cinemax, I can pull up any recent movies on demand from it. The cable company already has a massive fiber and copper network, and they're finally leveraging it to provide entertainment to me!
I even have a channel (999) that let's me play GAMES on the DVR/cable box with my remote like solitaire and keeps real time stats with other people playing as well.
Digital cable and VoD is the future, not internet tv, as in streaming real media or wmv or something like that. I'd rather have my relatively uncompressed(mpeg2) content from my cable company.
Re:VoD is better (Score:1)
How can it be better? (Score:2)
If this were done over the net then i could just cancel my comcast tv subscription and sign onto time warner. But today time warner would have to invest tens of thousands to bring that service to my tv and they probably wouldn't do it.
Once we have interoperable online television then we'll be able to subscribe to channels anywhere in the world and providers will have to compete to find the best balance between ads and subsc
text/html vs video (Score:3, Interesting)
It won't be long (a few years, maybe) before good audio is generated in real time from scripts. You'll feed in the text of a script, select good voices and such, and stream realistic audio programs.
How to do video is something else. Animations currently take a lot of work to develop. Someday maybe they can be script-generated on the fly too.
In 15 years (following Moore's Law) everything will be 1024 times faster than it is now, 1024 times more powerful. What will that bring? It'll be fun to watch.
Re:text/html vs video (Score:1)
So you're saying that they'll load in 1/500th of a second in 15 years. Which, since we can't 'see' anything shorter than 1/30th of a second or so, will be instantaneous.
And I bet Realplayer will still buffer.
I know there are some more night owls in here (Score:3, Funny)
I personally welcome the idea of "TV Over IP" type providers. I'd love it if I could watch the shows I want WHEN I want, streamed or downloadable.
I'd like to think the geek crowd is also tired of having nothing but info-mercials to watch while finding the latest logic error in $openSourceProject.
Free providers (Score:5, Informative)
For a list of worldwide stations - Smart Digital Network [smartstreams.com]
America Free TV [americafree.tv]
Re:Free providers (Score:1)
Re:Free providers (Score:2)
Entertainment industry "manufactures" success (Score:2)
The entertainment industry, thus, manufactures success by choosing one of these hundreds of wannabes, and
Re:Free providers (Score:2)
Huh? (Score:1)
Maybe I'm missing something obvious, but you opt for the programming of those 2 links you provided over broadcast TV?
Huh?
Everything that's in English on those lists is either public access, some random college station, or music videos. Sure that's cool to check out every once in awhile, and I agree this is the future of TV - but THAT's your replacement for network TV?
Horray for free information.. but you gotta be kidding
I, for one, welcome (Score:2)
With my new choices, I will be downl0ad lots of different internets and chann3ls.
Quality? (Score:3, Interesting)
Most of the downloadable / streamable TV content I have seen is pretty much garbage quality-wise.
I don't think they need to do full 720p or 1080i to be competitive, but they certainly need to do better than the smudgey thumbnail videos I have seen.
Maybe taking an HDTV source (where available) then scaling it down to DVD resolutions (720x480) and using MPEG-4 compression could offer a good compromise between quality and size.
Re:Quality? (Score:5, Insightful)
HDTV presentation of crap is still crap.
Re:Quality? (Score:1)
Re:Quality? (Score:1)
Downloads play on your living room TV and the main quality restraint is your set.
Videos for music (Score:3, Funny)
It could be called "Music TV".
TV on Demand...Not for me! (Score:1, Interesting)
I would be interested in seeing sports whenever I wanted, but that can already be done with TiVo.
On demand TV would make good content seem less. Every program th
Mainstream programs? (Score:4, Insightful)
Since buying an HDTV tuner, and hooking a small antenna to it, I can get all my local stations for free - in a quality leaps and bounds better than what cable or satellite provides. So, there are only a few things keeping me paying those high monthly fees.
- The Daily Show with John Stewart. This could be easily done via Internet TV. I would gladly pay a few bucks a week/month to just get this and not all the other garbage on cable.
- Occasionally, I like to be able to get CNN. But, for the most part I use online news sources, so this is not crucial.
- Sports Programming. ESPN carries a lot of college basketball, sunday night NFL, etc. This would not necessarily transfer over to Internet TV well, because I don't want to request download & see it after the fact.. I want to see it live. Also, when you consider their push into HDTV services.. this is very hard to replicate via Internet. I don't know if this is enough to keep me paying $60++ per month. But, I would be very tempted when my college was being carried on an ESPN-HD game.
- HD movie channels. These are nice to have.. but, DVD's are an acceptable substitute. In a few years, we will have HD-DVD's, decreasing the appeal of HD movie channels.
At this point, I think that if I had the ability to access the few mainstream cable programs I want at a reasonable cost, I would dump cable TV.
Re:Mainstream programs? (Score:2)
I figure piracy is the greatest concern from networks providing content online... otherwise, I imagine PBS and community broadcasters would be happy to sell their content to whomever wanted to pay for it.
But for small commercial networks like HGTV, the Food Network and stuff, would cable companies refuse to carry them if they sold their content online? I mean, this could be the death of cable providers who aren't savvy enough to realize that more fat Internet content means more fat Internet cable users :
Can someone explain? (Score:1)
I can kind of understand why cable only networks might not (not really), but why in the world broadcast networks are not doing it is a mystery to me.
I would think it would only improve the competive position against the cable networks, and the increase their viewership, and thereby increasing their value to their advertisers.
Re:Can someone explain? (Score:1)
Re:Can someone explain? (Score:2, Interesting)
This should be a no brainer.
Re:Can someone explain? (Score:1)
Re:Can someone explain? (Score:1)
I think the standard quality we see in the aready available news clips will be fine. If want to watch a movie or fa
Re:Can someone explain? (Score:2)
Streaming content... (Score:4, Informative)
Internet (Score:3, Insightful)
Streaming TV in Myth (Score:1)
I created several text files with
wwiTV [wwitv.com] is a great site for live TV streams.
xbmc (Score:1)
this is the future boys. in fact its the past, but too few people know it
Internet TV Comes of Age When (Score:1, Funny)
* silly beer commercials
* GM trying to tell me it's truck will get me laid more often than Ford's
* vodka being touted as one of the basic food groups
* all men being depicted as morons who do stupid things
* all women being portrayed as witty, sensual, and solely interested in the man who ( smokes this, drinks that, drives this, plays that, eats here, or takes this pill)
* The confusion that sets in when a feminine pad commercial is somehow mistakenly inserted
Re:Internet TV Comes of Age When (Score:2)
It's not?
Subscription bittorrent downloads (Score:1)
ManiaTV! (Score:1)
http://www.maniatv.com/ [maniatv.com]
I watch it quite a bit actually
good stuff
Apple could do well here... (Score:1)
Home away from home.. (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:there's some good content out there (Score:2, Informative)
(I haven't quite decided if this is a good thing yet...)
Re:Too early. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Too early. (Score:1)
Re:Too early. (Score:2)
Re:No place for new start ups? (Score:2)