[mythtv-users] Is skipping ads really a good idea?

David Brodbeck gull at gull.us
Tue Jun 19 21:16:44 UTC 2007


On Jun 19, 2007, at 1:26 PM, Michael T. Dean wrote:

> We're going to need some significant upgrade of infrastructure to
> support that.  I saw an article a couple of years ago saying that
> NetFlix shipped in one day more than twice the data that could be
> carried by the internet (and that was with SDTV DVD's).
>
> Short of using some "almost" on-demand technology (i.e. multicast to
> everyone and let some IPTV DVR record it for later playback), we're
> probably going to have a long wait for 'net-based on-demand TV.

Maybe.  But compare to the way music is distributed.  Sure, if you  
add up all the bits on all the CDs sold in a day it probably adds up  
to some massive number.  But people have shown they're willing to  
trade off quality for convenience, and the result has been a trend  
towards compressed music formats that download quickly.

Likewise, I doubt anyone's going to be shipping DVD-quality MPEG2  
files around the Internet.  They'll use another form of compression  
that trades off quality for a smaller file size.  Videophiles will  
probably still insist on getting real DVDs for the better quality,  
just like audiophiles still insist on vinyl LPs, but they'll likely  
be a minority.

Some kind of local caching would help, too, and it could be cable  
companies will get into this act so that they can still keep their  
fingers in the content pie.  Otherwise they'll be stuck simply  
providing network pipes, and that's a low-margin business.




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