09.14.05

IPTV

Posted in tech at 8:39 pm by mridley

I’ve been watching several IPTV programs lately. I’ve caught the past couple episodes of diggnation and I watched the first episode of Robert X Cringley’s NerdTV as well. I just went to the NerdTV site and noticed episode #2 is out, so I’m downloading that now via bittorrent. I’ve also started watching rocketboom on occaision as well.

Aside from the fact that I know you are all fascinated by my media consumption habits, I mention this because it seems to me that IPTV is finally moving from “alpha” to “beta” stage.

A lot of people have been predicting that the Internet will eclipse traditional broadcast media for a long time. The word eclipse is a strong one, but I started really taking notice back when Camp Chaos started making their flash cartoons, including of course “Napster Bad!” They were creating hysterical content that was very high quality and which would never have a distribution outlet in traditional media. I’m singling out Camp Chaos, but they’re not alone- homestarrunner has been putting out Strongbad, Red vs Blue has been doing things with the xbox and Halo that Microsoft never intended, etc.

Now with peer to peer protocols such as bittorrent and better codecs such as MPEG4 we’re seeing full length video programs as well. The production value of the independent programs such as Diggnation or Rocketboom may not be up there with network television just yet (I’m exclusing NerdTV from that list since it’s produced by PBS who does have professional resources). But the production value is plenty high that whatever it might lack does not detract from the viewing experience. And again the content is compelling and does not fit into the distribution model of traditional media outlets.

But we’re still very much in the late-alpha, early-beta phase. As far as I’m aware there are no ipodder-type applications for these video streams available yet. Or if there are, they’re not making enough noise for me to know about them which means that many others don’t as well. And in the end the computer isn’t the ideal viewing environment. It’s a great start, but I want to be able to watch this content on my television as well…perahaps through my TiVo. And I want mobile access through my Slingbox. There’s a lot of user interface and protocol glue that needs to be built. But the availability of great content and the mass desire to conveniently consume it will drive the technology. So I’m bullish that we’re going to get there.

Tags: IPTV, Diggnation, NerdTV, TiVo, Slingbox

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