Archived from groups: alt.video.ptv.replaytv (More info?)
I am frustrated with my cable bill and I have been shopping. It looks
like the DVR is going to be a standard offering with cable/satellite
offerings and they seem to be pretty cheap. There is no big cash
outlay and that is the thing that keeps RTVs a niche market.
If you could lose the cable bill RTV looks more attractive to folks on
a liimited income.
If the company really wants to suvive they should sell content and
compete nose to nose with the cable/satellite pig. I hate paying for
several hundred channels that I never watch. I would be very happy to
simply buy my programs ala carte and have them sent to me on the net.
The software to do this is already resident in 4500 to current RTVs.
All RTV needs to do is to license the programs and they could sell
them over the internet. It would work something like you go on the net
with your PC (or even the RTV itself), select shows you want to see
from a catalog and have them sent to you IVS. Since the head end would
be a broadband node they would come a lot faster than you get when the
uplink is slower than the downlink but since you are storing them in
your RTV, speed is really not iimportant. You can still get your
network content normally off air.
You could buy a lot of shows for the $70-90 you pay for cable these
days. Perhaps some "basic" content could be bundled in your regular
service with tiers for more expensive offerings and faster delivery
times. This won't be attractive to people who just sit in front of the
TV flipping channels but most RTV folks watch things from the replay,
not live.
I am frustrated with my cable bill and I have been shopping. It looks
like the DVR is going to be a standard offering with cable/satellite
offerings and they seem to be pretty cheap. There is no big cash
outlay and that is the thing that keeps RTVs a niche market.
If you could lose the cable bill RTV looks more attractive to folks on
a liimited income.
If the company really wants to suvive they should sell content and
compete nose to nose with the cable/satellite pig. I hate paying for
several hundred channels that I never watch. I would be very happy to
simply buy my programs ala carte and have them sent to me on the net.
The software to do this is already resident in 4500 to current RTVs.
All RTV needs to do is to license the programs and they could sell
them over the internet. It would work something like you go on the net
with your PC (or even the RTV itself), select shows you want to see
from a catalog and have them sent to you IVS. Since the head end would
be a broadband node they would come a lot faster than you get when the
uplink is slower than the downlink but since you are storing them in
your RTV, speed is really not iimportant. You can still get your
network content normally off air.
You could buy a lot of shows for the $70-90 you pay for cable these
days. Perhaps some "basic" content could be bundled in your regular
service with tiers for more expensive offerings and faster delivery
times. This won't be attractive to people who just sit in front of the
TV flipping channels but most RTV folks watch things from the replay,
not live.