Sahrin
join:2004-05-15
Houston, TX | Unfortunate, Unsurprising This obviously sucks for consumers, but is largely unsurprising. The best solution to this is for TV makers to put a virtual HTPC (thinner than current solutions, obviously, but thick enough to handle HD decode and media browsing/streaming) in every TV - along with a commodity OS (don't really care which - iOS, Android, WinCE, WinNT) plugins are offered (again, either on commodity platforms like Flash, HTML5, Silverlight or on exclusive-proprietary ones) for download for customers. The networks could obviously offer a commodity application for free (if they so chose), Comcast could offer one for their customers who would transition from "cable" to "IPTV" customers over generic broadband (could be Comcast, could be someone else). They would offer a rebate to customers who use their broadband (or maybe a surcharge? Who knows with those guys)?
I don't understand what the downside is for Comcast here. The networks already allow streaming of their content - does Comcast really get that much extra security (and copyright deniability) by putting an extra $300 box in every home? I want to say it's just engineering inertia. |
