[mythtv-users] Network terminals, regulation, and regulation avoidance

[Brian Wood]

On Tuesday 15 September 2009 12:51:18 Eric Sharkey wrote:
> On Tue, Sep 15, 2009 at 2:34 PM, Brian Wood <beww at beww.org> wrote:
> > We'll get there, eventually. Can you imagine if every subscriber with a
> > cable modem started streaming video during prime time? I suspect the
> > cable companies's infrastructure would cave in fast.
>
> We have the technology to do this now.  It's called multicast routing.
>  When I was in school I had access to MBONE and it worked.  People
> were streaming video on internet tv channels 15 years ago.

I know, I was one of them.

>
> More and more people will start using Hulu/You Tube and other
> services.  The cable companies' infrastructure will creak and groan
> and start to cave.  Before the collapse, the providers will finally
> get off their butts and start rolling out real IPv6 and multicast
> support.  With enough users available to finally get access to
> multicast content, Hulu/You Tube/Whatever will finally start to use
> these types of connections to efficiently broadcast HD streams to the
> DVRs of the world.  There is no "prime time" any more.  Just scheduled
> broadcasts.
>
> At least, that's my prediction.

That, or something very similar, is what will veentually happen, but the cable 
companies give a whole new definition to the word "inertia".

First they will try to get laws passed so they don't have to do anything, when 
that eventually fails they will do the logical thing.



-- 
Brian Wood
beww at beww.org