The Future of What’s on TV
The current TV show is one that is delivered over cable, antenna, VHS, DVD, DVR, etc.
Several TV show distribution models have been kicked around lately. What are they? How do they work? Why should I care?
The last question is the most important. X amount of money is spent on making TVs and movies. The new distribution models may take some of that money away producing fewer shows who using the existing models. Even with cable channels making shows now, there are only Y number that are worth watching. With the cable channels making their own this increases. The new distribution systems will increase this number, but an interesting show may not show up the old way.
So how might TV shows “get delivered” and how does it work?
IPTV is basically Internet TV. IPTV means Internet Protocol TV. A company like Apple makes a website and a box. Let’s call them iTV and iGotTV. You get a set top box (iGotTV) like from the cable company and you need a high speed internet connection. You use the iGotTV box just like your cable box now. Use it to change channels and view TV shows. This basically replaces the cable company, but there’s a great opportunity here. The TV channels are running a very old model and they decide what’s on each channel. Because the iTV is computer based channel you can mix and match TV shows to create your own channel. Or buy your TV based on the individual shows. A good example is Dr Sue on the Oxygen channel. It isn’t shown here or I have to pay for 5 channels just to get one TV show (what a waste). Now with iTV I can get just the show or even individual episodes that I want. This would also be a prime target for watching movies.
DVD TV is where you receive the new episode of a show in the mail on DVD. Again you circumvent the TV stations. This has not been done yet, but I think it’s only a matter or time. NetFlix would be a prime candidate for shipping CDs. They have an existing customer base, distribution model, and pay system.
Internet downloads are not really a technology. It’s something you can do today. Apple iTunes is selling TV shows for their video iPod. Again, a high speed Internet connection is needed. You then blug the small box, a little bigger than a cell phone, into your TV to watch it. Other people use BitTorrent and share TV shows that someone else recorded. This is more technical and you probably want to plug a computer into the TV to watch. You download the show over the internet by whatever means and view it by playing it on the computer, using the TV instead of the computer monitor.
File System Metadata Database
I can’t let this problem go. The feeling that the file system is wrong and could be more useful. ID3 tags of MP3s are a good start, but every kind of file needs this summary type metadata; TiVo files, mpegs, Word docs, etc. Some file formats have this but not all of them and not consistently. Also, you can’t search for this data with Explorer. It would also be helpful if there were a programmatic interface to the metadata that could be used from a command line or COM object.
I see that my Cannon Powershot added a column called Camera Model to Explorer, so there must be a way to add columns. Tortoise adds things to the right click in Explorer including overlay pictures, so that is possible. I saw a TiVo metadata extractor the other day. There are open source databases that could be used.
Files shouldn’t be organized by folder primarily. This should just be another piece metadata. Like a filing cabinet. However, when you look for something you may not remember what folder it’s in, but you can say it’s a photo taken from christmas 2005. If you’re very organized you put it in that folder. But I think you shouldn’t have to be so organized. Let the devices tag the data and put them anywhere on your computer. The Explorer should show you pictures based on a query on the metadata (you don’t see the query). You drill down through the categories that are available. Tagging similar to what’s on blogs like for Technorati might be very useful here.
GI Joe
I was one of the many kids in the early ’80’s who rushed home after school to watch Transformers and GI Joe. As an adult it’s interesting to watch these again and try to remember what all the fuss was about. And more importantly to meet that little kid again whose reactions are still there.
This article to describes the run of GI Joe and a little Transformers. And my futile comment to the censers of the past it refers to at the end of the article: Very short years after watching this cartoon we were required by the public school system to read much more very disturbing stuff written by much more disturbed individuals than 1980’s GI Joe. Can you say Edgar Alan Poe, George Orwell, Lady Chavelies Lover, Wuthering Heights, The Old Man and the Sea?
Oops, What did I just do?
I’m sure everyone’s done this. Some inadvertently click or drag & drop in the wrong place seeks to reconfigure the appearance of the whole program. For example, in Word drag one of the little vertical bars away from the menu and it becomes it’s own floating window. This is a major source of error for me and a drastic stupidity in design. There is no way to lock the appearance against irrelevant mouse clicks.
Let’s apply this feature to another product, cars. Nearly every car has an adjustable steering wheel and to adjust it you pull a lever, move it to the desired place, and it clicks in. Now, remove the lever so the steering wheel can be adjusted any time you want. We’ve all adjusted the steering wheel at one time or another, but that’s usually 10 seconds out of how many hours of driving; hundreds (12000m/45mph=266h) a year? Would you want this feature or would you jam a screwdriver in the steering wheel well to keep if from moving around?
Letting you reconfigure the interface drastically without a lock is the same thing. Maybe worse, because some parts of the window with these features are UNMARKED. You can click and drag on some area and suddenly realize the window comes off, resizes, becomes tabbed, etc. Also, in high end professional software like programmin, CAD, graphics design there can be a hundred icons, window bars, buttons, etc., each with a different action.
It should be a requirement that the appearance of the application is static, locked, unless a switch is thrown. Then you can move anything around. Someplace consistent for every applciation. It could be right next to the minimize button in the upper right corner.