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[Phoenix]

By Brad Stone
Newsweek

Sept. 13 issue - Netflix and Tivo ushered in an age of couch-potato bliss. Netflix lets its customers browse through its huge movie catalog on the Web and rent DVDs through the mail without having to worry about late fees. TiVo lets people digitally record their favorite shows and zoom through the ads. But now couch potatoes are perched on the cusp of true paradise. Soon they won't even have to stand up to trudge to the mailbox; fat broadband pipes will let them directly download movies over the Net to their television.

Do you want to know more?

Let the good times roll....

 

[SKluck]

That defeats the purpose of a lot of people getting netflix, if you know what I mean.

AND I THINK YOU DO.

 

[carpal]

I dunno, seems like a smart play to me. Always good to read about forward thinking media companies.

I thought this was the most interesting bit in the whole article though:

The TiVo-Netflix pairing will create the biggest headaches for established media giants. Hollywood will be watching closely to make sure copyright protections aren't hacked, which could lead to its biggest nightmare: high-quality versions of its movies released freely onto the Internet. But it is the cable guys, with their own budding video-on-demand offerings, who will be in the hottest seat. Cable customers could prefer the larger Netflix selection and download movies to their TiVo boxes using cable's own pipes. (The downloads will likely take several hours.) Unlike the phone companies, which are regulated as "common carriers" and forbidden from discriminating against customers or content, cable firms don't have to accommodate their rivals' traffic on their networks. But if cable closes the door to the Netflix downloads, customers could migrate to the phone industry's broadband offering, DSL.

 

[SKluck]

"The downloads will likely take several hours."

Come back in 2 years when we all have 10mbit pipes, thx.

 

[mashoutposse]

"The downloads will likely take several hours."

Come back in 2 years when we all have 10mbit pipes, thx.

???

Still faster than the United States Postal Service.

 

[carpal]

Come back in 2 years when we all have 10mbit pipes, thx.

Right. Forward thinking.

Everyone knows this shit is inevitable anyway. It's just interesting to see things start to take shape. I'm not planning on being able to download the latest releases in a couple months or anything.

 

[SKluck]

Meanwhile sucking all your bandwidth. Depends on how they use it though. They could just do a system like "Thank you for choosing Mary Kate and Ashley's Magical Adventure, your movie will be ready in 12 hours" Or something. Though how would it work? They would have to limit how many movies you can get a day/week. You can't just download them nonstop. You could get like 10 a day.

Not a terrible idea, but its not a replacement for the service they have, IMO.

 

[Phoenix]

"The downloads will likely take several hours."

Come back in 2 years when we all have 10mbit pipes, thx.

Ah so THAT's why there are so many people downloading movies via bit torrent and other methods!

 

[DarienA]

This definitely has some strong possibilities and with pipe management and emphasis on downloads during downtime this would still be faster than mail.

This is a good idea.

 

[mrklaw]

scheduled delivery would mean it would download overnight or something. Prolly include bandwidth sensing stuff so it doesn't use it when you are using it.

Business model likely the same as netflix - let you keep 3-5 movies on the Tivo. Watch and delete one and the next is piped down.

Nice idea IMO. And Hollywood doesn't need to worry about 'perfect' digital versions on the web. If this is movies already on DVD, then its much easier to rip a DVD than extract from a Tivo.

 

[B'z-chan]

You know this is reminding me of that horrible divx crap that came out years ago sans the disc. Good idea though none the less. It would probably make me want Tivo a little more if it was actually like the DVD's and stuff, with special features and all the icing.

I'll be leary of this one and continue to use Netflix for the time being.

 

[pnjtony]

i wonder about the 3 to 5 days cause i've heard with TiVo that you can burn movies and tv shows you record to DVD-Rs

 

[DarienA]

i wonder about the 3 to 5 days cause i've heard with TiVo that you can burn movies and tv shows you record to DVD-Rs

Out of the box? No. With more than just a bit of tinkering? I think so.

 

[OmniGamer]

Netflix+Tivo=Sony's (old) plans/promise for PS2?