Television on iTunes

[Mr_Pleasington]

Thanks for pointing this out, Jeffe.  I don't have video iPod so I paid no attention to the downloadable videos...until this.  Then I saw Battlestar Galactica was availabe and I was able to see the one episode I missed which means I can finally watch all the rest of the season I have on DVR.

Hot!

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

that seems to be what people are doing with it, which is great. Sometimes a storyline can hurt TV viewing bad. Imagine missing a few episodes of 24, a lot of folks just might quit watching until they can get the other episodes because its so linear.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

I don't think the issue is *just* download speed, nor do I think it's *just* cost.
It's also that TVs are bigger and look better. Let's face it, with the Superbowl or any visual movie, it's going to look better on a  52" TV screen than it will on your 21" monitor, and you can have more people over to see it with you. Sure, they could make monitors that big, but it'd be pointless. I don't need a giant screen like that to write in word.

[Spriggan]

Well SE, and I haven't read any of the other posts in this tread but yours, we're already starting too see broadband video on TVs with thinks like Comcasts "On Demand" and both Microsoft and Apple seam to think that having your TVs all wired to a central PC is how it's going to be in the future.  That doesn't mean you'll be using word on a 52" TV, but you could be playing WOW.  And, just as a note, my Lappy has an S-Video out and it's about 3-4 years old so this isn't anything new.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

It may not be new, but it's not common. And I think it will be a long time before that happens.

[Spriggan]

I didn't say it was common, but I could see it being more common in 4 years or so.  It really depends on how quickly Apple movies with their exclusive Disney content on their iMac Media Center or Microsoft with what ever they come up with.  If there's an easy to use system, like On Demand in Cable Boxes, people will get it.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

Honestly I seldom watch my big tv anymore. I'll watch movies on my laptop though.

Just an aside but I read this today in the WSJ

Warner Bros. plans to sell TV shows and movies online in Germany via P2P. In2Movies, to launch in March, 'will feature movies dubbed into German, including "Batman Begins" and "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," for a fee that Warner says will be similar to the cost of a DVD. It will also offer television shows like "The O.C." and locally made programs and movies. Users, who will have to register for the service, will be able to keep the movie indefinitely. But instead of getting a movie from a central server, pieces of it could come from other people on the network who also bought that movie.' The president of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group says, 'Studios can't just turn their backs and hope "P2P" is going to go away tomorrow.'"

[Peter Ahlstrom]

If the cost is similar to that of a DVD, then what's the point?

[Spriggan]

Convince.  Look at Drive-through RPG they sell PDFs of books for the same price you'd get a hard-copy for and yet they do good businesses.