Cable Television Companies should be very worried (Netflix, streaming television)

[pretendastronaut]

The Netflix streaming would be nice but they need to expand their partnerships, I have a Sony Blu-Ray player and a Panasonic Blu-Ray player, neither of which stream Netflix despite being top of the line players. I have no interest in getting a PS3 or XBOX360 just for the streaming, I already have a Wii that barely gets played. I don't know about the HD streaming of Netflx but I won't bother to watch a movie that isn't in HD anymore.

 

I posted this in the Netflix thread recently, so sorry for the repeat, but the issue with Netflix's streaming is that the studios didn't want any part of it, so Netflix worked out a deal with the Starz channel to stream the content it had access too. They backdoored their way in, intent to get the studios to realize this was a viable method they needed to work with. The studios were supposedly going to punish Netflix and Starz for this, but as with the Warner Bros announcement yesterday, it appears Netflix's gamble is starting to pay off. So hopefully their catalog can grow quite a bit, but it won't be without limits for awhile as studios and content providers try to protect their existing models of PPV and DVD sales.

[Invader3K]

If the networks do drop OTA broadcasting, I have to imagine it will be quite a few years down the line yet. I wouldn't be worrying about that at this point.

[MJLiverock]

I have a Sony Blu-Ray player and a Panasonic Blu-Ray player, neither of which stream Netflix despite being top of the line players.

On the Netflix site it has a list of compatible Blu-Ray players. Here's the Sony model:

 

Sony Network Blu-ray Disc player

Model: BDP-N460

Experience Blu-ray Disc™ movies in Full HD 1080p quality with HD sound plus instantly stream entertainment from leading internet providers with the Sony® BDP-N460 Network Blu-ray Disc player.

There's also a Samsung, LG, and Insignia model. Not sure if those are the only ones or not.

They also stream on Internet Connected TVs from LG and Sony in addition to TiVo's HD DVR.

Sony must be a new addition to the list as the previously Netflix didn't have an agreement in place with Sony when I bought my first Blu Ray. That was what annoyed me with the whole thing since Panasonic and Sony are much higher up the food chain in quality and cutting edge than the other brands. Samsung isn't bad, their company philosophy is to be a close follower to Sony and Panasonic, sort of let them come out with the new highest quality feature rich gadgets and then follow up shortly after as soon as prices come down a bit for the components and all the bugs are worked out. Insignia is pretty much a low end cheap device make and I would never own any LG consumer electronic device, way too many issues with their TVs and phones.

 

 

My problem with almost any streaming is video quality and screen size. Watching MLB or football on my computer while a 60" LCD and a 42" Plasma are available just isn't going to cut it. I have run my computer to both and the video quality is usually poor but I haven't upgraded my laptop to HD output yet. Buffering and such is pretty annoying as well. My coworker watches MLB games on his work computer occasionally and even with our T1 line the video buffers fairly often.

 

Until the pipe providers, (DSL, Cable, etc.) can provide enough bandwith consistently to avoid latency(i.e. skips and jumps) and buffering the market for streaminig will be hampered. As more and more people hop on the net to watch even an episode of something on Hulu or even YouTube clips the bandwith of the networks will be stressed even more which will ironically tick off more and more people as they try to use the streaming services. This latency and capacity is what is keeping true IPTV from rolling out everywhere.

 

Think of it this way, when you search the web and say stop on a Brewerfan site and load a page you may sit there reading it for 30 seconds or more, meaning the network doesn't have to keep sending you bits of data, or if it loads a little slow it doesn't matter too much. But with video any disruption in that continous steam of data results in a skip or buffer. With static things like pages the network can fit your Brewerfan page data in between your neighbor's ESPN page data and another's CNN page but with video it doesn't work, the stream has to be a continous unbroken string of data. As more and more people are trying to pull those different continous streams through the pipe it starts getting clogged.

[Brian the Automator]

I wouldn't bank on those sketchy sites that illegally rebroadcast TV channels. The quality is low, the availability is iffy, and I'm assuming that they're the kind of fly-by-night. If you want to deal with that kind of hassle, by all means, go ahead.

 

I use a combination of digital cable and a PC to watch TV/movies. I rip/download/whatever movies to my PC, and download TV from Usenet (sometimes Bittorrent). Whatever shows are available on Usenet/Bittorrent, I download (commercials are cut out of them by whoever uploaded them, so that's a nice advantage) and have them sorted automatically to TV show folders on a USB hard drive.

 

I use a VGA cable to output my PC onto my TV (and an audio line out) and use either Windows Media Center or XBMC as a nice interface to load TV, movies, music, and photos.

 

I use the digital cable for live TV (sports, etc) and the DVR on it for any shows or one-off events that aren't available online. Yeah, I still have to pay for cable AND internet, but I don't think I'll ever be able to get rid of cable without sacrificing something I normally watch or dealing with a whole lot of hassle.

[FVBrewerFan]

I guess it comes down to preferences, and our individual living situations. I'm guessing some of you are single, and that makes it easier for you live without cable. Being married with kids, it's not realistic for me to expect all of them to share a computer or two to watch movies, find certain web sites to re-broadcast TV shows, etc.

 

Bottom line, cable allows me to put real time broadcasting through my entire house to 7 different TVs. The main 60" TV is HD, and I simply don't want to watch anything that's NOT in HD unless I'm forced to do so. (Some of the Brewer games...and that's very hard to take.) Plus, more and more games of any sport I'm interested in are on ESPN, the NFL draft, etc.

[RyDogg66]

Yeah Ive got 3 kids so sometimes it stinks not having cable, but we get a lot of stuff (videos) from the library.

[mothershipconnection]

Not only that, I am lead to believe by talking to others that I could potentially surf the web and stream other things through the PS3 and onto the television, rather than the computer.

 

You can stream YouTube and Netflix, but that's about it, because...

 

Hulu for example blocks the PS3. Other streaming video sites have talked about it as well. And given how java intensive the MLB site is you might have problems since Sony doesn't do updates as quickly as PC browsers would. Now you could find an old PS3 and load linux on it if you feel so inclined and that would eliminate all those issues but its still rather clunky.

 

...PS3 doesn't allow you to install plugins, flash, or anything of that sort. So you're kinda limited on what you can watch. Now, there is a way to use your Windows 7 PC as a media server and play through PS3, but I haven't really tried that out yet. Still, this would have to be downloaded files, not streaming content. You can only watch YouTube because it, as I understand, works like a smartphone application, rather than working through a bonafide flash player. Now, in the past you could get around all of this by installing Linux on your PS3, but I believe the newest firmware versions have now put an end to all of this.

 

The PS3 does or did at least require a disc to use Netflix at first. This was going to be fixed in a patch, but I don't know if that patch is out yet.

 

PS3 still requires a disk because Microsoft has an exclusivity deal with Netflix that makes 360 the only machine that can have built-in Netflix streaming capabilities. From what I hear, it will be very easy for PS3 to do the same thing through a simple update, but they can't do it until Microsoft's deal expires.

 

All this said, your best bet is to buy a laptop with a good video card and HDMI out and just run that into your TV. I kick myself for not doing that, as I'd love to get mlb.tv and use my plasma as a monitor, plus I could watch hulu and nbc.com. I can still do VGA to component video for like a $20 adapter, though, so perhaps I'll think about that next season.

[bork]

I'm guessing some of you are single, and that makes it easier for you live without cable. Being married with kids, it's not realistic for me to expect all of them to share a computer or two to watch movies, find certain web sites to re-broadcast TV shows, etc.

Between Qubo, PBS, and videos, my son's a happy camper. I guess part of it is that I grew up without cable and only had it for a couple years while in an apartment. So I'm just used to broadcast TV. Actually, it seems like I watched more TV when I was single. We're too busy to watch TV.

[NeedMoreFans]

If the networks do drop OTA broadcasting, I have to imagine it will be quite a few years down the line yet. I wouldn't be worrying about that at this point.

I keep seeing commercials about this. I don't think the FCC would ever allow this. Free television is a matter of public safety. TV and radio are by far and away the quickest way to spread emergency information, such as weather warnings and other vital news. Yes, there could (and would) still be free local TV, but there would have to be some sort of emergency protocol if this would ever happen.

[Schlitz001]

The reason I won't buy a Blu-Ray player is because I can stream movies through Netflix on my Xbox 360. The picture quality is great and plenty of movies are available in HD. It's only $8.99 per month. When baseball season rolls around I use an HDMI cable to connect my computer to my TV and watch MLB.TV in HD. It stutters sometimes and there is a delay, but it's good enough for me.

 

Blu-Ray is great for some, but I'd rather rent the movies without leaving the couch. Plus I hate to have discs cluttering up my living room, especially when I probably won't watch them again.

[Menotti80]

Sorry this is a bit off topic, but I was watching the bucks game last night and it said that FSN is now broadcasting in HD 24/7. Does this mean that all brewer games in 2010 that are on TV will finally all be in HD?

[Invader3K]

Not necessarily. If you noticed with the Bucks game last night, it wasn't in true HD. There were bars on the sides, and the game's actual aspect ratio was traditional 4:3, not the widescreen 16:9. So they could continue doing the same with Brewers games, even if the "HD channel" is now full time.

 

I would expect more HD Brewers broadcasts than last year, though. Hopefully FSN has acquired the equipment and bandwidth capacity to allow for that.

[thebruce44]

stream2stream.com (i believe) will take care of all your brewer game watching abilities. i am yet to try it out, but my friend watched the Brewers game anytime he wanted to because it picks up stations other people are watching and puts it on your computer. I guess it's technically "stealing" but the technology exists, and if it's live streaming, I don't know if it matters.

Can you ask your friend because I can't figure out how stream2stream works at all. You have to find stations I guess and there are non listed on the website.

[1992casey]

Is it kosher to watch Brewers games through these alternative services? The reason I ask is that in the past, we've requested that members not to post how to avoid paying for broadcasts. It's kind of the same thing as our rule about trading copies of copyrighted material.

 

I'm not going to hide anything or issue any specific instructions at this point because I really don't know what's legit and what isn't. We do need to take care, though. The Brewers are the reason this site exists, and we'd like to remain on good terms with them. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

[thebruce44]

I can see what you are saying Casey. I get the MLB package every year with Comcast because I like to watch the games on my DVR and big screen and don't want to mess with mlb.tv. I will buy it again and recommend others do. But the concept of that stream2stream program seems interesting and I do think that type of thing is going to be more and more popular.

[dadofandrew]

Needless to say, I don't see cable or satellite TV's demise anymore than the long predicted VCR/DVD killing of movie theaters.

 

Anyone who watches live sports or current news will have cable. A basic package is barely over $1 a day. There is an avenue for streaming, but for all but a few, it'll be in addition to cable/sat.

 

I can see it hurting the premium options, like HBO and such, in a few years.

[MJLiverock]

The Wii will be the next device added to Netflix list of streaming machines this spring. There is a NY Time article about it and if you go to Netflix site you can request a free disc to allow the streaming once it is available in the spring.

[Invader3K]

I'd have to think streaming via the Wii would not be that great. 480p resolution and Dolby Pro Logic sound at best? No thanks.

[RobertR]

I'd have to think streaming via the Wii would not be that great. 480p resolution and Dolby Pro Logic sound at best? No thanks.

OTOH, it appears to be free and convenient to those that already own a Wii. More convenience over quality, for certain. How many people in this country have switched to Blu Ray players? I tend to think we're overthinking how the vast majority of people watch television and this will fit in.

 

Heck, is this the time to pimp Netflix for having a bunch of the Criterion collection available for streaming?

 

Robert

[utdfan]

http://gizmodo.com/5451239/xbox-live-may-kill-cable-with-live-streaming-sports-from-espn

 

This could be really interesting. I know ESPN is on of the main reason people wouldn't consider dropping cable or satellite. I'm guessing it will start out with mostly the stuff you get on ESPN 360. But, if they eventually get all their main programing and live games I would definitely consider ending my cable subscription, especially considering I can get every tv show I like over Netflix or Hulu. I don't now how this will play out but it could be huge for ESPN. I think there are many people who would pay a reasonable fee for something like this, especially if it had some type of on demand feature where you could watch whatever whenever.