SyncTV: first TV download service I might actually use

[Lysander]

http://www.synctv.com


why I'm so excited about this is that they aren't making you pay a fee fore each episode, or offering it for free but at the expense of bloated DRM and custom clients that suck and ads everywhere. What they're offering is $2-$4 for a channel, and on that channel is all sorts of programming.

So, in other words, it's the subscription model of standard cable, but brought to the internet, and--most importantly--you can choose what channels you want. I refuse to pay for cable, for that reason alone; you're paying $50 up for five channels that each have one or two marginal shows and then 63 channels of utter shit.

Sure, the computer isn't the optimal viewing platform, but an HDTV is, which can be hooked up to a modern Vista PC with a compatible video card. The service seems really geared towards home theater markets, too; they talk about having it having DVD or higher quality and in surround sound. Hell, that beats cable right there; Comcast digital cable is compressed and squashed beyond belief with macroblocks everywhere.

The issue, of course, is bandwidth. Even so--I was going to buy an HDTV anyway, so you get that, and the ability to actually watch TV shows on it without it being ruined by compression artifacts, plus the, at most, 10 dollars a month for accessing the shows, and you've still got a good $40 a month or more left over that you can poor into getting a blazingfast internet coonection. Of course, then you're not saving a whole lot of money, but faster internet > cable any day of the week.

They're also not clear on how the content will be played back--is it a custom client? Or can I play it in winamp?--or how restrictive the DRM is going to be. And, they're being quiet about what TV shows will be made available on the service--and selection is the most important part of this. What good is the perfect business model for products I don't want? They've already got showtime, though, and that's just for the beta, which *I* think is promising, and they're Pioneer, not some vague startup, so I imagine they won't have too big a problem negociating contracts with other channels.

So, I am going to keep a very close eye on this. If you, like me, are frustrated with the throwing-good-money-after-bad mentality of modern cable companies, you might want to as well.

[Jack Straw]

So, I am going to keep a very close eye on this.

I, on the other hand, will be turning a blind eye to this.

TV sucks, no matter how good it looks or sounds. Do you really want that cunt from "Will and Grace" snarking at you from your rear speakers?

[bruce]

I refuse to pay for cable, for that reason alone...Sure, the computer isn't the optimal viewing platform...I am going to keep a very close eye on this.

But...but...but....

Lysander is blind LOL!! LOL. ?

Bruce

[Lysander]

Nice. Do you people like sit there and wait for me to post a thread so that you can turn it into a Lysander is blind LOL!! trollfest? I can take a joke as well as anyone else on here but Jesus Christ, I can't remember the last time I started a topic that didn't immediately get derailed into nonsense. If you have nothing better to do than ruin topics, fine; I like to think I do have more worthy distractions than trying to start discussions no one wants.

Aaaanyways, Jack: this is exactly my point. No, I have no interest in Will and Grace and in fact I hate it. This goes for about 85% (a figure I just pulled out of nowhere) of content on TV. But, for that 15% of content I do like, I'm willing to pay 15% of the cost of cable TV to watch them. Which is what this does, at a higher bitrate, and with the ability to catch up on episodes I've missed or watch when it's convenient for *me*, as opposed to some 70+-year-old network executive who hates me. This also works in the favor of content producers, if this takes off in a big way, 'cause now there's no more vying for time-slots which has killed countless fine shows--Firefly and Arrested Development being two examples that immediately leap to mind.
For me, the two most important questions will be what gets put up (and, as a corilary, how they decide to group things into "channels") and where the ads come in. Saturate the page with ads, fine. Hell, even do popups, I don't care, I'll just block them. Even put grainy ad video in the movie window of the client while my movie is downloading, that'I can live with that--but they had better not include the commercials as part of the video. If they think I'm gonna pay for the bandwidth it takes to download a dozen 1080P HD commercials they'd better rethink that strategy right quick.

Of course, I would also dig it if they'd include a just-audio option to save on bandwidth costs, but, you know, that is just my problem. I accept this.

[Jack Straw]

Nice. Do you people like sit there and wait for me to post a thread so that you can turn it into a Lysander is blind LOL!! LOL!! trollfest?

I tried to at least make a point and take it to a little bit higher mental plane.

i agree it wasn't so sharp a point you could gouge someone's eyes out with, but i'm trying here.

[Bugs]

Isn't Lysander only "legally" blind? I've known a few people who are legally blind and can't drive, but they can still do things like watch porn, look at porn on the computer, etc.

Edit: Oh, and to contribute to the thread, I think this is an excellent business model. It's essentially a la carte cable tv programming. But the devil is in the details, as always.

[Lysander]

Jack: I know, 'twasn't mostly you I was yelling at, I responded directly to you below the whining.


Bugs: I'm actually apparently unique--I can see colors, differentiations between light and dark, and movement. Out of the corner of one eye, 'cause it's sewn three quarters of the way shut 'cause otherwise I can't blink due to excessive gloccoma bulging the eyeball. Tried a tube to drain out the other eye and it killed what little vision I've got in that one eye.


But it's basically just useful for first-person shooters before 1995 and Destroy All Humans! Can't read, or "watch" movies. I just use the term anyway because there is more important shit in life than getting on somebody because they asked me how the movie was that we just "watched" because "zomg i didnt watch it u r teh descrimnatory111!" I want to find the idiot who came up with that bullshit PC term "differently abled" and tear his liver out.

[hygraed]

Sorry to keep dwelling on it, but do you actually see movies and TV shows you "watch?" Like, are you able to get the general gist of the action on-screen by watching the shifting colors and stuff, or do you "watch" them purely audially?

[AArdvark]

I've been collecting old time radio shows for a while now. I bet you could get into those, if you don't mind everything being in the 1940's. More music videos please.

BTW: Do you assign different reading voices to everyone's posts here? Like different ring tones. That would be cool.


THE
DROID CHATROOM
AARDVARK

[Bugs]

For what it's worth, I'd rather be blind than deaf. I'm halfway there anyway, with my shitty vision (but vision nonetheless - i take nothing for granted.

To not be able to hear music? That shit would drive me insane.

[Lysander]

Heh, yeah, I know. Honestly all things considered I'd rather be blind than deaf any day... but, fuck, it does get in teh way... i dunno, it'd be less of a problem if people weren't so fucking worthless 'cause I have to rely on them a lot more, can't do a lot of very simple things for myself, or if I can, they take longer. Sorry to go off on an angstfest like that, let's just say that I have so many trust issues I could write a book.

'Vark: Nah, same voice for everyone. I could probably set something up if y'all posted with different fonts or colors or something but htat takes too much effort form e to really want to bother with. Hygraed: naw, it's purely audio. Occasionally i'll run spacebattles on extreme-slow-mo to try and get some sort of idea what's going on but that's about the extent of my movie "watching."