With ABC.COM doing better and better VOD each year, who needs TiVo?

[MediaLivingRoom]

ABC soups up online video player
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN2245011620080522?feedType=RSS&feedName=technologyNews

[Sparty99]

To answer the question of the thread, anyone who wants to watch an ABC show on an actual TV.

[wmcbrine]

Who needs TiVo? Well, let's see...

1. Can't skip commercials
2. Still not HD
3. Have to be at the computer
4. Might want to watch something that's not on ABC

And most importantly... ABC's player DOESN'T WORK on my computer. It did, back when I first tried it (and yeah, it looked great); but, far from improving it, they broke it. Nowadays, I just get a message that it's only for Windows. :down:

[MediaLivingRoom]

It could be like people moving from land lines to cell phones. People move from home TV's to Laptops, PDA's and maybe iPhones (if Flash Video as allowed)....

[DancnDude]

Who needs TiVo? Well, let's see...

1. Can't skip commercials
2. Still not HD
3. Have to be at the computer
4. Might want to watch something that's not on ABC

And most importantly... ABC's player DOESN'T WORK on my computer. It did, back when I first tried it (and yeah, it looked great); but, far from improving it, they broke it. Nowadays, I just get a message that it's only for Windows. :down:

To be fair, #2 on your list was in the article as one of the improvements to the player this fall.

[dylanemcgregor]

Have to give a :up: to the closed captioning though. Hopefully other services start including this as well. I don't use this feature, but I know it is important for lots of people.

[shady]

Most of the programs I watch aren't available on the ABC viewer. That's why I need tivo

[MickeS]

I have used both NBC.com's and ABC.com's VOD the past few weeks to catch up on shows, and I enjoyed it. Of course, it sucks that it's only on the computer, and it sucks that you're forced to watch commercials (although AdBlock Plus blocks ABC.com's commercials! :up:, NBC.com doesn't work if the ads are blocked), but it was easy and free at least, and the commercial interruptions are much fewer than on live TV.

Hulu.com is also pretty good, and they too provide closed captioning.


Still, I much prefer to watch it on my TiVo on the TV.

[rodalpho]

Commercial skipping is 50% of the reason why DVRs are useful to me, the other of course being timeshifting.

[MediaLivingRoom]

Considering that most new LCD TV have a HDMI, VGA inputs and the cost of a cheap PC with VGA is about $399 with a monitor. http://www.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/hot_offers_dt?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd

I plan to connect the cheap PC to my LCD tv and see if www.hulu.com and www.abc.com and others will work just as good.

[rainwater]

It could be like people moving from land lines to cell phones. People move from home TV's to Laptops, PDA's and maybe iPhones (if Flash Video as allowed)....

People are watching much more content on portable devices for sure although most of it is very short/non-HD content. However, I can't imagine my family gathering around my Nokia n95 to wach Lost when I could easily watch it on our 50in plasma in HD. But maybe that is just me :)

[magnus]

And ofcourse there are the commercials... don't like 'em.

People are watching much more content on portable devices for sure although most of it is very short/non-HD content. However, I can't imagine my family gathering around my Nokia n95 to wach Lost when I could easily watch it on our 50in plasma in HD. But maybe that is just me :)

[tirofiban]

Me. I need Tivo.

[MikeMar]

ummmm how about a slow dsl connection???

any sort of streaming video is pointless and I'm not going to download every show I want, would take forever (even if it was in HD)

[nirisahn]

ummmm how about a slow dsl connection???

any sort of streaming video is pointless and I'm not going to download every show I want, would take forever (even if it was in HD)

I have broadband, and it's still not smooth to watch. If I want to watch it at the default size (fairly small) it plays smoothly. If I go to medium size picture it starts hesitating ever so slightly. If I increase the picture to full screen it gets very jerky.

TiVo on the other hand is gorgeous all the time and is attached to a "52 plasma HDTV. How can video download from the internet compare?

[MickeS]

I have broadband, and it's still not smooth to watch. If I want to watch it at the default size (fairly small) it plays smoothly. If I go to medium size picture it starts hesitating ever so slightly. If I increase the picture to full screen it gets very jerky.

Sounds more like an issue with your video card. The ABC.com streaming video didn't work at all in anything but the smallest size on my onboard video card, but works good on my add-on card. DVDs and XviD and DivX played fine on my onboard-card though.

I don't know if a cheap PC like the one MLR mentions above can do video from ABC.com, much less the HD.

[RonDawg]

Another issue that is not mentioned, but will have detrimental effects on streaming video, is how long we will have the reliable broadband speeds necessary for VOD to work properly.

There are concerns that internet traffic is growing past the ability of both technology and funding ability to keep up with the demand. There are fears that the "Information Superhighway" is soon to become "The Information Traffic Jam."

Supposedly, in 2007 YouTube ALONE used more bandwidth than the entire world did back in 2000.

Sorry, but I'm sticking to ordinary TV and TiVo. VOD is good if you were unable to record the episode for some reason (forgot, didn't have a working TiVo at the time, or didn't get that channel) or if you accidentally deleted it and want to see it again. But not for ordinary TV viewing purposes.

[MickeS]

I just watched "Lost" in 1280*720 "HD" on abc.com.

It doesn't come close to the quality of the real HD on my OTA recordings. It looks like a decently upconverted DVD, maybe.

These will still be good alternatives as back-ups if I missed a show, but as a replacement, it doesn't cut it.

[wmcbrine]

There are concerns that internet traffic is growing past the ability of both technology and funding ability to keep up with the demand.Pfft. We've been hearing that for decades. Seriously, it's not gonna happen.

[RonDawg]

Pfft. We've been hearing that for decades. Seriously, it's not gonna happen.

What makes you think that is NEVER going to happen?

Just like with highways, there is only so much capacity. And just like with highways, in order to increase capacity you have to build more, or use the available space in a smarter manner. For highways that could mean congestion pricing (already done in places like London) and the mandating of multi-occupant vehicles in order to use certain lanes. For the internet that could mean the throttling down of bandwidth by individual users (already happening) and possibly charging users extra if they exceed a certain set amount (a few mobile broadband plans do that).

The real threat is going to come when developing nations and their people have greater access to broadband, now you have more people sharing the same resources.

[MickeS]

What makes you think that is NEVER going to happen?

Just like with highways, there is only so much capacity. And just like with highways, in order to increase capacity you have to build more, or use the available space in a smarter manner. For highways that could mean congestion pricing (already done in places like London) and the mandating of multi-occupant vehicles in order to use certain lanes. For the internet that could mean the throttling down of bandwidth by individual users (already happening) and possibly charging users extra if they exceed a certain set amount (a few mobile broadband plans do that).

The real threat is going to come when developing nations and their people have greater access to broadband, now you have more people sharing the same resources.

There is currently so much unused fiber that this won't be a problem for a long time at the very least.

[keepthewebopen]

Pfft. We've been hearing that for decades. Seriously, it's not gonna happen.

It's already happening. I'm not willing to pay for the kind of connection you need to watch high quality streaming video. Relative to an episode of state of the art media congestion pricing is in effect.

[BiloxiGeek]

ABC soups up online video player
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN2245011620080522?feedType=RSS&feedName=technologyNews

I need TiVo, not all TV is ABC. Doctor Who, National Hockey League, Mythbusters and Dirty Jobs just to name a few.

[gastrof]

Two words-

Quantum processors.

[smak]

There's more than 5 TV channels is a good answer.

-smak-

[mtchamp]

There is so much junk out there, it takes a TiVo to find it, record it and store it. I might watch it a month from now, but at least I get what I want in my personal now playing list. TiVo is about content search and control to satisfy the unique taste of the individual viewer. Couldn't be without it.

[astrohip]

Short answer: convenience.

Set the TiVo, watch when I want, nothing else required.

Download on the PC, hope it works (tried it today--couldn't get it to view smoothly at work, with a T-1 line), hope captions display, hope the connection stays on, yada yada.

Or turn on the TV, press play.

[MediaLivingRoom]

I think the next thing is a PC that will download the Flash Video from www.(anystudio).com to be stored within (Adobe Media Player - http://www.adobe.com/products/mediaplayer/) and viewed later. I find that connecting HDMI laptop to the TV works great.

[MediaLivingRoom]

People are watching much more content on portable devices for sure although most of it is very short/non-HD content. However, I can't imagine my family gathering around my Nokia n95 to wach Lost when I could easily watch it on our 50in plasma in HD. But maybe that is just me :)

I find that most people are in the same room but are surfing the PC and talking about what they find on the Net. Then either my wife watches a TV show online on her laptop and I watch another show on my laptop. If we want to watch together, we plug in the HDMI cable from our latop to the TV.

Simple.

[MediaLivingRoom]

Try this as a test on your TV. it's should be true 1080p. So yes it's a work in progress.

[jmoak]

Me!

...unless ABC will let me download the program and convert(re-encode) it to the format of my choice.

I don't have a net connection everywhere I go.

but I DO have my portable hard drive everywhere I go!

Stuck on the tarmack for three hours? Time for a Dr.Who marathon!
;)

[flaminio]

I'm not willing to pay for the kind of connection you need to watch high quality streaming video.
This is what I get with my standard Comcast:

http://www.speedtest.net/result/276142261.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

It's plenty fast for watching Netflix Watch Now movies. Not sure if that's "high quality", but it looks good enough for me.