From: "Glenn Meadows" 

Sounds like a competitor to the "On Demand" that Comcast (and
probably other cable systems) are rolling out now.

I was over the C.O.O.'s home a month ago, and he has the Comcast Digital
cable box, with the HDTV connected, and the full "On Demand"
HBO/Show/Cinemax package, and he could pick from over 150 different movies
to watch at anytime he wanted, all for a flat fee per month.  He picked one
to demonstrate the sound system he just put in, and it started about 10
seconds later, and then he was able to FF 8 minutes into the movie to get
to the part he wanted to use for the demo.  Worked about as effectively and
fast as direct FF on a DVD.  The bandwidth is there to do all of this.

I believe that Comcast has virtually finished their upgrade to all fiber
backbone in our area.  Don't know how close it gets to the home drops, but
I do know that their downstream speeds for cable modems is now pushing
8mb/sec.

--

Glenn M.
"Tony Williams"  wrote in message
news:43540652{at}w3.nls.net...
> Geo wrote:
>> "Tony Williams"  wrote in message
>> news:43506b6f{at}w3.nls.net...
>>
>>
>>>See my reply to Rich. Region-free DVDs are mainly popular outside the US
>>>where there's a significant advantage to owning them - not having to
>>>wait in line behind the US for new DVD releases. This time around the US
>>>won't be in such a special position so the rules have changed.
>>
>>
>> Yes but unlike elsewhere the media companies are in control of the
>> lawmakers
>> here so it won't be easy to get region free dvd players or any other
>> hardware required to escape their control.
>
>
> My point was that that control hasn't really been challenged yet because
> there was no perceived inconvenience to US customers. If the new DVDs have
> restrictions that people find unreasonable then there'll be a battle. With
> a bit of luck we'll get a more workable definition of "fair
use" instead
> of the vague guidelines that are all which seem to exist at present.
>
>>>>Either that or the underground filesharing networks are
going to become
>>>>popular in a very big, very unstoppable way.
>>>
>>>I think that would be a bad outcome for everyone concerned.
>>
>>
>> Like it or not, it's the future. The big media companies are history,
>> product placement in the media is going to become the norm and
>> distribution
>> via the net will replace the media distribution channels cutting out the
>> middleman. That's why the media companies are going after the file share
>> networks with such vigor, it's competition (as in a distribution channel
>> they don't control) they are trying to eliminate not piracy.
>
> Understood, but if piracy becomes the norm then it will damage the
> industry and everyone loses. By attempting to squash the competition from
> filesharing networks instead of working with them the media companies are
> being extremely short-sighted.
>
> I was at a friend's house the other day and saw a demo of a file-sharing
> system being developed by a local startup. Basically, you go to their web
> site and browse through a set of movies which you can then play using a
> BitTorrent style streaming system. The movies were high-def and played
> without a hint of jitter/buffering on a bog standard cable connection.
> That's the sort of thing the media companies should be supporting and
> making money from, but instead they're more likely to try and shut it
> down. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
>
> --
> Tony

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