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P2P Television?

Posted by timothy on from the boob-tube-idiot-box-plug-in-drug dept.

An Anonymous reader submits a link to this "very interesting article on TVP2P," writing: "While the author doesn't really mention "P2P," think of the permutations of having TV's becoming Napster-like file servers. The tech can't be too hard to work out, since CATV systems are now piping Net access into millions of homes (anyone doing this hack yet?). If you thought the RIAA raised hell, wait until the MPAA and the relevant TV lobby groups figure this out. Of course, if history teaches us anything, they won't figure it out until way after the genie is out of the bottle ..."

3 of 158 comments (clear)

  1. Well... by Ooblek · · Score: 5, Funny
    This wouldn't be that impressive. What would impress me is if they could figure out how to make Barney the killer purple dinosaur pop on the screen and scream, "Don't touch!" every time my daughter toddles up to the TV to push the buttons.

    Wow, there is never anything to watch on TV, so now there won't ever be anything to download either.

  2. Re:SonicBlue? by b_pretender · · Score: 5, Insightful
    It has to do with barriers to entry. Right now, the large television networks control all of the radio towers, cable networks, etc. Replacing this with a p2p rig would allow Joe-SixPack to produce his own television show to compete with what's on the telly.

    That's not going to fly by the networks. At the very least, the cable companies that offer highspeed access will put a stop to it. They need to get their cut of the telly pie.

  3. This could be done today... by NanoGator · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's not quite the same as what the article suggests, but I do think a reasonable P2P 'TV' network (it'd really be a PC network...) is rather plausible.

    I have a Pentium 2 400 machine in my bedroom. It has a Hauppage WinTV card ($49, $99 for stereo) and the PicVideo Motion JPEG Codec. It can capture at 640 by 480 @ 30 fps without breaking a sweat. I use it as a VCR. The data rate's pretty high, I usually compress it to DivX later if I want to keep the show. I wouldn't put this stuff out on Kazaa, though, with my 256kbps limit.

    However, I live in a pretty big complex that is laid out rather nicely for 802.11. I could see a few people taking really old computers, turning them into virtual VCR's, and making the shows available on 802.11.

    One guy could be capturing That 70's Show, while the next guy is capturing Enterprise, all at near-broadcast quality!

    The reason I'm mentioning this is that I expect one day there'll be a huge 802.11 network built. (Or something like it...) It'll start with an apartment complex sharing an internet connection. Then they'll share their files. Then they'll connect neighboring complexes.... and so on. There won't be any charge for bandwidth other than electricity.

    I have a feeling that the way the internet is going, individuals will build something like this so they can break away from the WWW. Maybe I'm just fantasizing, but who knows? Sharing TV shows, like the article describes, could be the killer app that gets this type of thing launched.

    --
    "Derp de derp."