I was reading the VLC thread by Privateer and though about the future of web media
The problem with tv companies finally switching to players on the web to also show their shows pay or free as well as the movie services is that they have a few flaws and and some of the aspects done better by the non legit stuff on the web
- The quality, The own legal streams out there are terrible quality really, some are ok but most are bad and the non legit stuff out there has far better stuff of recently shown tv shows even so they stumble here becuase people like to watch quality looking stuff
- To many formats and media types and players and not just the type of player but different variations of the player meaning if indeed the web became an alternate to your tv in the future you would need 20 players on your computer to watch your different stuff
Some use a version of a flash player, currently non legal recordings of shows use things like veo and all you do is load the page have the flv player and your away but the quality is only fair but it can be very good if the effort is made and this sort of thing is all right and has potential and you do not need any media player bar flash on your computer and they can prevent the stream being recorded.
If they improve the quality it is an option
For me though the best base for all these companies and media should run with is flash for small things like trailers and all that, like what gamespot do with their new player but when it comes to full 1 hour shows and movies they should all try and use one format and one player, they could have different security access rights etc but there should be a uniform medium for the web and not this silly stuff like the bbci player that cant currently even work on a number of platforms other then xp 32bit.
The people they should either talk to, use or have similar to is Divx, Their web player with more work could have different skins and is the perfect blend (for me) of quality and file size..
Non legal shows and movies appear on stage 5, some are fair quality but on average going full screen on a 21 inch widescreen lcd you can get perfect quality tv shows at around 300-500 tops mb and movies that vary but also good quality and has the right amount of settings and you can just press play and it loads while it streams straight the way even on a 2mbit connection
These web stream shows etc wont work unless the quality is there and people do not have to have a Clockedone style desktop full of players
Oh, I think people should also be allowed to store the shows for say a week
If they wanna avoid pirating, just give it to us for free. High quality, big-ass filesize, the works. Stick an advert in the middle of it - Ill happily watch a 30 second add if it means I dont have to toss about with fake torrents etc.