HDTV Almanac - Reader Mail: The Future of Cable TV

[alfredpoor]

I get a lot of email from readers, and occasionally I share our exchanges here. This week, I got a particularly interesting message about this week’s post about “Online Streaming Grows“: You close with the statement that a cable or satellite TV service should be figuring out what to do when their current business falls [...]

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[GiovannaVisconti]

A very interesting discussion between you and the Los Angeles reader, Alfred.

One thing I can assure you both: New York City will be pulling up the rear in ANY and ALL such changes--whatever they turn out to be--dragging its proverbial ball and chain.

Giovanna

[alfredpoor]

>...New York City will be pulling up the rear in ANY and ALL such changes.

I don't know if that's true; Areo has launched and it's only available in the New York City market. The Big Apple continues to be the home of some innovation.

Alfred Poor
HDTV Almanac

[GiovannaVisconti]

"The Big Apple continues to be the home of some innovation."

Only insofar as restaurants, churches, etc., are no longer allowed to deliver free food to homeless shelters or others in need because the salt content of that food may be too high! Perhaps that innovation will spread nationwide.

As to Aero, I must say I only know about it because I read about it HERE!



Giovanna

[alfredpoor]

"I only know about it because I read about it HERE!"

I'm glad to hear it; that's why I do this! <g>

Alfred Poor
HDTV Almanac

[GiovannaVisconti]

Amen, Alfred. HDTV Magazine has been very helpful to me in many ways. Not to mention it's been a very interesting read.

Giovanna

[Roger Halstead]

As you already know I'm not a real fan of streaming video and see some major problems for it in the not too distant future as more and more people start using streaming. Expanding the Internet is going to have to stay ahead of load or it'll quickly turn into a disaster. Then you have companies throttling users and it doesn't take many TV programs or movies to use up your quota. I like satellite, mainly because even with several receivers I often find I need to pick up programs in the second or third time zone. Only broadcasting a program once would require I purchase 5 or 6 receivers. Stream, when it works well, can be done at 2, 3, or even 4 at a time per computer with the buss being the limiting factor with today's multi core CPUs

However, you really need to price hard drives. Due to the flooding in Malaysia last fall that shutt down most of the industry, last November and December high capacity HDs (1 and 2 TB) were running 4 *or more* times the price they had been last summer. Quality 2TB drives had been down to the $80 range were then selling for over $400. The current price is now about twice what it was and they should be back in the normal price progression by summer. That size lets you build a considerable library *if the streaming allows it*, but it does little for simultaneously recording programs. As I said, the buss speed is pretty much the limiting factor for loaded, 4, 6, or 8 core machines with 64 bit operating systems and 8 or 16 Gig of high speed RAM. So far the fastest I've come up with has been a 3.7 Gig, 4 core CPU with 16 GB of RAM and at least two video cards (take 300 plus watts each). Needless to say it also makes a great gaming machine, but is not exactly an econo model.

Now if I could just record in HD on the computer off the satellite. 8 Gig DVDs are now reasonable and they are available up to 25 Gig (which are not reasonable yet) 4 of the computers here have at least 8 TB of storage, which was purchased before the price went back up. Maybe a short tutorial in purchasing drives would be in order because not all HDs are created equal, even from the same manufacturer. Most have at least 3 or 4 different quality drives and then add in the newer solid state drives which are still quite expensive and very small compared to the standard mechanical HDs with 120 or so Gig running between $200 and $300...or more, but boy are they fast for booting or loading programs.

[GiovannaVisconti]

I had said previously that I think I'm staying with my Blu-Rays and a quality playback device (Oppo in my own case) and a top-notch flat panel. After reading your post, I'm CERTAIN OF IT!

Very informative. It also sounds like you already have quite an interesting system. I'd never be able to afford anything even close. Then, of course, we come to the actual streaming itself. Satellite--even if it worked exceptionally well--is often unavailable in New York city apartment houses. Single-family dwellings, yes, but many apartment houses don't allow it. No dishes attached to the building and that sort of thing. In fact, in an area like Queens New York, one can smile bemusedly at all the dishes (Dish Network and DirecTV) lined up in a row along the roofs of various row houses. You can often count eight or ten of them in the space of just two or three houses! I've often wondered what that cluttering might do to the signal on any ONE of the dishes.

But even if the cluttering doesn't degrade the signal judging from some of the information in your post, in an overcrowded area like New York (even putting aside potential throttling and the other issues you point out), quality streaming might likely be a headache to put it mildly.

Anyway, thanks for all the info, Roger. Very appreciated.

Giovanna

[alfredpoor]

Roger, you make good points. Let me present two observations.

First, I remember when people started streaming audio over the Internet. There was no way that the system had the bandwidth to handle that geometric increase over the text-only email that it was designed to handle. (If you needed to send an enormous picture file -- say a couple megabytes of data -- then you should send it the proper way, using a direct modem-to-modem connection.) All this Internet radio stuff was going to ruin the Internet for those of us who had come to rely on it for serious business applications. Obviously, that sky did not fall, and the Internet has managed to keep pace. Yes, there seem to be some "last-mile" problems, especially with shared networks such as cable, but I suspect that there still may be some "dark fiber" installed out there that can provide additional capacity. And I doubt that Google and others would risk their entire Cloud business model to a system that was about to run out of capacity for any reason, including streaming video. (Keep in mind that Google is actively promoting and expanding its streaming video business.)

The other point is that you are working from an acquisition model. You want to download and store all the content that you might ever want to watch or watch again. You talk about building "a considerable library" of content. There's nothing wrong with that approach per se, but it is a totally 20th Century mindset. There is a fundamental shift taking place where access trumps ownership. For a huge portion of consumers, they don't care whether their music and movies are on a disc on the shelf, or stored in their computer, or in an SD card in their phone or MP3 player, or off in the Cloud somewhere. All they care about is that when they turn on the tap, they want the music or movie to run into the sink. (I'm going for a "mixed metaphor" award here, so bear with me.) And that's what's fundamentally different about what you want from what they want. The sad truth is that there are more of them than there are of you, and the balance is shifting daily. The major vendors will continue to shift their focus to the demands of the majority. I don't expect that you'll get left out for a long time; you can still buy vinyl records, for example. But I clearly see the future as moving away from servicing your model.

Alfred
HDTV Almanac

[GiovannaVisconti]

But I clearly see the future as moving away from servicing your model.

Yes indeed, Alfred. Been watching it move away for several years! It's obvious that you're right.

However, since I'll be long gone by the time this model is truly, fully, smoothly implemented what I really need to do is be certain my affairs are in order and my 20th century collection(s) find a Smithsonian kind of home after I've left the building!

Right now, though, I just don't want to depend on the cloud for films and/or music that's personally important. Yep, as a child of the 20th century, I still have to hold it in my hands and touch it, and FEEL that it's "MINE."

Giovanna