Reviews:
 ·MSN
·Brand X Internet
·DSL EXTREME
3 edits | This is about the future. Many of you are asking the question: "Why would I want to watch TV online"? Simple. As an example, last week I missed 24 on TV. I was out. I forgot to record it. No problem! The next day I went to the Fox web site and watched it online.
Yes, the picture was a bit small, because my computer is slow and causes the picture to stutter when displaying flash full screen. BUT..I'm dealing with that by building a new computer. Should I also say that despite the limitations, I enjoyed watching the episode and am grateful that Fox allows me to watch it on MY time?
Don't you all get it? Big cableco and telco wants to nip this in the bud! They saw what happened to radio when Ipods and Internet radio came in. Do any of you remember how BAD Internet radio sounded ten years ago compared to how good it sounds today? In 2000 I had just got 768/128 DSL and was paying 50 dollars a month for it. The service was so bad that I had difficulty listening to a mono 24kbps Real Audio stream (remember Real Audio? UGH!). It stuttered and cut out all the time. Now I can listen to Radio Paradise with near CD quality stereo for days at a time without a single stutter-on a 6 mbps DSL that costs 20% LESS then that 768 DSL did.
Yes, today's online video stutters and has issues-but do you really think it will be that bad a few short years from now? MPEG-4 is just coming into vogue, and it offers DVD quality at HALF the bandwidth of MPEG2. Yes, it requires more CPU power, but my new computer will be a dual core Pentium-with 4 gB of RAM-replacing a single core AMD Athlon 3200. How many of you will be using the same computer five years from now? I'll wager that less then 10% of you will.
This is what the cablecos/telcos are so scared of-their business plans as they are today have no future tomorrow.
The worst possible thing that could happen to them is to be relegated to the provider of a dumb pipe-just like the phone company was in the 1980s when it became strictly a dial tone provider.
So, they do a two pronged assault-first they cap users, claiming network congestion-when the truth is that THEY have PLANS for that extra bandwidth-they want to sell it to you AGAIN! Why charge once when you can charge TWICE!
Remember a couple years ago when the telcos and cablecos wanted big sites like Google to pay them for transport? It was quickly shot down as unfair. Now the two crooked companies have discovered another way: charge the CUSTOMERS twice! Rather then give them the bandwidth to access the sites they WANT, instead CAP them and then force them to get the stuff at THEIR site-at an extra cost!
Don't kid yourself- this has NOTHING to do with any bandwidth issues- it has 100% to do with GREED! |
