Slashdot Mirror
NBC Direct Launches With Free Downloads
thefickler writes "It's here, and it's no joke. NBC has launched NBC Direct where most shows can be watched online and some shows are available for full episode downloads. This comes after NBC decided to pull out of iTunes." For now it's Windows only, XP or Vista, IE 6 or 7.
Finally, someone understands that the times when we've got time to watch old TV episodes, we're not likely to have internet access! I've often found myself traveling (train/plane) and it's been a perfect time to watch, but have been thwarted because of streaming-only services.
:-(
Of course, the Windows-only DRM makes this totally useless to me at the moment. Actually, can anyone think of any examples where a service promised Mac/Linux versions "coming soon" and it actually happened? I sure can't... That's DRM for you.
--
Educational microcontroller kits for a digital generation.
Until there is support for Firefox, Mac, Linux etc...
"we've got trenchcoats and bad attitudes" - John Constantine, HellBlazer
If its DRM restricted its not free. In beer or in Speech. Windows DRM means you have to pay for Windows which means that somewhere MS Gets a cut. So yes, your paying for it. And yes, Apples's DRM is no Better. I maintain my stance DRM has no right to exist, and DRM should be resisted by any means necessary. I want to live in a DRM free future no matter the cost.
Isn't that a bit like coming in first place at the Special Olympics? You've "won", but you're still retarded.
Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats.
Link to the site itself since TFS doesn't include one.
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
Yeah, this will keep me from the torrents.
X Browser not compatible
X Must reside within the U.S.
Oh well, what did I expect?
And this is exactly why the writers are now on strike. They get nothing from the distribution online while the broadcasting companies gets all the income generated from ads, etc. But even worst: they get nothing from the distribution on DVD in some cases.
It's time to realise that Abble's products are the biggest abomination these days. Just say NO to the dumb iAbble way!!
Because NBC's content is so good it is worth the bandwidth to download it.
"Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
Hello NBC,
I'm from Europe and I have one XP and two linux PCs. And your marketing department seems to be utterly clueless as to how they ever could target me via advertisements on a webpage or embedded in a video. And selling your old TV series to European TV stations years later does no cut it.
Yet any localized Google homepage shows me unobtrusive ads that are relevant to my search queries and geographical location. Times are changing NBC. Adapt or die.
Signed,
A user from Europe who wants to buy cheap American stuff.
I just watched part of 'Life' in Firefox without any problems. So the the claim for IE only is false.
Three years of Slashdotting and I finally get first post. THERE IS A GOD.
Things only happen at the right time (10:42)
CC.
TaijiQuan (Huang, 5 loosenings)
I'm glad they finally have an option for download! Because the online episode player on their site is horrible. It only has HD available which means you need a 2mbit connection to watch episodes without stuttering. I have 512k DSL and often watch episodes from the ABC and FOX websites with no problem, but watching anything from NBC was impossible. I saw episode 4 of Life on TV one night and decided I liked it enough to catch up on the first 3. Each 42 minute episode online took around an hour and a half, because of all the stops and starts. Uuugh.
Is this what they're talking about:
http://www.nbc.com/Chuck/video/episodes.shtml
Quality is crap in fullscreen, even though there's a 2" margin on each side of the screen in that mode. It played a 30 second ad for "Scrubbing Bubbles" shower cleaner before letting me watch it (fine with me). I then tested the use case of "I missed the last part of this show" and tried to get toward the end. This resulted in the ad playing again, twice.
Good luck competing with BitTorrent on that. It would take 30 minutes to BitTorrent an HD version of that show, transcoded into a 350MB XVID file in 480p quality. The file would be entirely free of commercials of any kind.
If they want to make this work, they need to offer shows for download in an unencrypted format. Feel free to play a 30 second or even minute-long video ad before allowing the download of a show. Feel free to add commercial breaks to the file. Feel free to require registration and include your zip code, such that local ads can be provided. But don't try to enforce any special player requirements, DRM, or mandatory commercial watching. Don't make me watch it in a web browser, or with a border around it (each additional inch of TV screen is exponentially more expensive). Make sure the video is at least 480p.
Do this and you won't have anyone downloading the ad-free version of a show on BitTorrent/p2p.
What has *science* done?!? -- Dr. Weird (ATHF)
Before some else complains about it, I should note that I can't download the episodes in Firefox. But the streaming working perfectly fine. So it seems like it is only partially IE dependent. I'm curious if the streaming will work on with a MAC or Linux, or if it is Windows only.
they still restrict to regions so you have to proxy to get access to them and they do not seem to offer the FIRST episode or pilots. Its not FREE to all.
http://www.rense.com/general79/wdx1.htm
by not having to pay any royalties to the writers!
So here are your downloading options...
1) Goto BitTorrent... where new shows pop up right after they air, download speeds are insanely fast, there are no ads, there is no DRM, and I can get video that will play on whatever computer or device I want.
2) Goto NBC... where new shows pop up at 2am, I'm downloading from one source, there are ads, lots of ads, there is DRM, lots of DRM, and I can only play video on a Vista or XP computer.
NBC doesn't seem to realize that a conveniance based model has more opportunities for growth. Time after time the internet has favored those who have figured out how to make a profit by catering to conveniance.
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
In the article it does say they are rolling out support for the other platforms soon, its just a matter of time. So it's not like another BBC, the software for other platforms is coming soon. Which frankly I think is perfectly fair, they were working to a tight deadline before christmas so they've fulfilled their needs for the largest target market and now they're moving on to the smaller operating systems.
Yeah. For all values of "now" in this millennium.
Not sure where the Windows/etc. requirements came from, but I'm viewing it perfectly right now on my Mac.
Using Leopard (10.5) and OmniWeb (based on the Safari engine), in case that's significant.
"Microsoft killed my company, I hold a personal grudge. I don't use Microsoft products and neither should you."-JWZ
Well, I suppose you could trace through the execution of what Linux would do on paper since it's open source. But I don't think that would really work.
It's only available in the USA, it's IE only and uses Windows Media DRM. I wonder how difficult it will be to find an open proxy in the US, download the files with IE and then strip the DRM. Anyone know what quality these videos are? Am I better off just downloading some HDTV or DVD rips via bittorrent?
By reading this signature, you hereby agree with the content of the above comment.
Fortunately I was not currently drinking my coffee when I came upon your post. :)
...but still a ways to go. Before everyone jumps on the bandwagon about it being Pro-IE/Pro-DRM, at least give credit to the fact that its yet another step in the right direction with offering downloads.. They're trying it out, and I think will find it will be a success... Perhaps next ABC/CBS will follow this lead and knock out a little more of the restrictions, say opening to any browser, or removing the DRM. When it comes to big corporations, changes come small and slow. This is defiantly a good thing, lets just hope it continues down this path.
Since just a handful of American companies control most of the Old World markets, you as consumers are pretty much screwed (and probably won't be getting any 'free' legal downloads).
If NBC makes good money selling decades-old content to European stations, then it's hardly NBC's problem, and will probably stay that way forever. Kind of reminds me of all the French people badmouthing McDonnald's, yet the local branch still posting the record profits somehow.
Excellent timing! The perfect time to launch this is during a writers' strike where they are trying to be justly paid for such downloadable content.
Kind of makes a mockery of the studios argument, namely: giving this stuff away free on the net is just worthless promotional material. If that's truly the case, why not just give it away free? i.e. no DRM, and no region nor software restrictions.
Or might it be that the studios are... lying?
Isn't that a bit like coming in first place at the Special Olympics? You've "won", but you're still retarded.
Meh, I hope you recycle your trash as well as you recycle jokes.
You just got troll'd!
Once again, a TV download/streaming service that blocks out Canadian viewers, even though we get all shows broadcast at the exact same time as the US. Maybe I would watch the shows legally if they let me.
Back to Torrents...
The advertisement sure as hell works but the video doesn't
Oh Crap, I'm an optimist.....
I know a lot of Australians who download content illegally simply because it isn't available any other way at the time (if we want to wait 12 months we might get it then). The telivision channels have begun combating this by showing shows within a fortnight after America, but its still not the norm.
Watching the first episode of Heroes via Firefox (it's using flash).
Help! I'm a slashdot refugee.
* Requires Windows, not even a Mac will do ...
* IE only
* Full of DRM (the reason for the first two)
* Full of ads
I just don't see how NBC could have fucked up more.
Actually, from some reports of it working for other people on other systems, more like "for all values of 'now' in the null set"
There's really not much reason for these major networks to go through iTunes. All of them, including NBC, have offerered significant amounts of streaming content on their own websites for quite a while now, in decent, very-tolerable quality, (usually comparable to that of SDTV or VHS), even if it's not HD. It's obvious that the major networks are not incompetent when it comes to new forms of media distribution. The major challenge for them is protecting their revenue, seeing as how ads make up nearly all of the major network revenue. Although I do agree that DRM is often fundamentally unfair to the consumer (in cases of music and movies, etc. where you already paid for your stuff), I do think that it is approriate for the sole purpose of discouraging average consumers from easily disabling or blocking ads that are used to generate revenue for *free* content.
If I have to purchase Windows to play these then it's not a free service. It requires setup costs and maybe hardware.
It's only free if I can utilise the files on my existing hardware and OS.
Great I thought, and then had the wind taken out of my sails. They refuse to display the clip if you are out of the region they define. Despite that it would be used I think by people on vacation who don't want to miss their favorite show. Sum of my experience:
1. Watch TV! Yay!
2. But it's NBC! They have a lot of programs and they all suck! Honestly I wanted to watch Stargate Atlantis or some kind of scifi-y thing. Nope. They got ten cop shows though. Fine I pick the updated Bionic Woman I haven't seen before.
3. Figure out their convoluted interface, okay. Very spiffy but what I really want is to quickly find out what the show is about then watch it, y'know? Looks like they must spend a lot of money to add shows to this system.
4. They don't have the first episode of the series! Arrrgh! No matter of clicking little arrows will show it!
5. Pick a chapter. Wuh? This isn't a DVD!! Will I have to click each chapter as they finish? (Cringe!)
6. Okay here we go, I clicked the first chapter of the first clip I could find. ARRRRRGHH!! I'm in Japan and instead of a video, the video pane shows a message saying they refuse to show the video!! AAAAAACK!
7. Goodbye NBC.
You don't have to buy the hardware!
In theory you can execute any free as in freedom software in your head!
It is not theoretically possible to render DRM content in you head, that's the difference. And it's a BIG difference.
This difference means that you can construct you're hardware or virtual machine.
You the client, cannot render data from a server, if the server doesn't tell you how to render it (That's pure logic). If the server tells you how to render it, it can't prevent you from copying it!
DRM relies on the fact that you don't know what you're doing!
Looks like a pretty bad joke to me....at this rate, by the time yesterday's big media companies get it right we'll have all forgotten who they are.
Caveat Utilitor
Real geeks run simulations of advanced CPU's decompressing video in their heads! And juggle at the same time!
As someone who doesn't own a TV, these studios who are putting their worthless claptrap online keep making it harder and harder to ignore them.
- RG>
Hey pal, this isn't a pleasantforest, so don't waste my time with pleasantries!
They still don't get it. Making it freely available is only a fraction of the puzzle.
No DRM and the biggy... no damn proprietary player. Let the users play it with the player of their choice.... so use an open format for the video.
Digital is, by definition, imperfect. Analog is the way to go.
watch a huge jump in NBC stock on monday for pulling this off?
Go Writers! Strike strike strike!
I mean, it's not like they could take away the reason to use P2P to get shows if you live in a slow-assed country, or one that don't air their shows in the first place.
It's not like they can use the opportunity to provide even ad-supported services to spread their material to those.
Nahh, let's just lose profits to them instead.
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
I tried to leave feedback on their feedback link. Except it is just a survey of what you watch. I ended up reporting a video playback problem on their Technical Support link to let them know I wouldn't be installing software specific to one website.
It was me, I did it, I moved your cheese
It doesn't work on all Windows version either! I run XP Pro 64 bit and it no worky. Of course I am am sure there are hundreds of slashdot users looking around for that surprised look they just know is around somewhere!!!
"My immediate reaction is "WTF? What kind of moron doesn't make things 64-bit safe to begin with?" Linus
- Hackers Find Way to Strip NBC's OpenCASE DRM
- Security Agency Finds Gaping Hole in NBC Direct
It's a perfect time for being wasted.
A perfect time to watch the stars.
- Burden Brothers, "Beautiful Night"
Sort of a slashvertisement but it's related to the topic here. Microsoft, being the douches they are, give you a perfectly fine piece of hardware in the 360 but lock it down so you can't view anything but approved videos on it. They put in the really cool feature of streaming off of your PC but again, the PC needs XP, has to be running MediaPlayer 11, and using proprietary MS formats. Sucks, right? But no longer.
Using this neat little program, you can host videos on your PC and use it for the share connection rather than mediaplayer. Videos are transcoded to an acceptable MS format on the fly. The only drawback is that transcoded files have to be completed before search features will work -- no fast-forward or rewind. You can work around that by force-starting the encode cycle and then renaming the resulting cache file and playing it directly.
An installation guide.
The TVersity software download.
Granted, you'd probably find yourself having less of a headache if you just built a dedicated media center PC and sat it next to the Xbox. Myself, I just find the thought of having to buy duplicate hardware offensive.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
YOU SPECIFICALLY AGREE THAT THE SOFTWARE MAY DELETE FILES AND CONTENT FROM YOUR HARD DRIVE(S) AND OTHER COMPUTER MEDIA.
Now, they'll say this just pertains to the content you download from them, but the wording is disconcertingly broad, don't you think?
NBC had a chance to become not an American broadcasting company, but a global one, with the use of the Internet. But they decided to restrict their service to US-only.
Why the hell, NBC, do you think people download shows, rather than just TiVo them?!
Would it be too onerous for them to find sponsors in target countries that it's not worth the effort? It would devalue sales of series to foreign broadcasters, but not incredibly so for the forseeable future. Offer downloadable 720p and 480p XVids containing appropriate commercials, and offer them promptly, and you'd expand your audience significantly.
...not. "by any means necessary..."
Non-obligatory Sports Night Quote: "And because I love you I can say this: no rich young white guy has ever gotten anywhere with me comparing himself to Rosa Parks. Got it?"
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
Could you put something up there that folks might actually want to watch? Oh, I don't know...something like a top ten hit show that isn't a game show or football game? Seriously, who's interested in a canned version of Monday Night Football? And sorry, as much as I love Howie Mandel, I'm not going to go hunt down a startup non-iTunes portal just to watch a silly game show. I'd watch a 40-year-old episode of The Gong Show or even Simon's Greatest Diss Hits from American Idol, but there's no way I'm getting excited about Deal or No Deal. Sorry.
_ _ _
About the most originality that any writer can hope to achieve honestly is to steal with good judgment.
—Josh Billings
I thought that Hulu was meant to be NBC's new video service. How is this different, other than being out of beta and windows-only?
I keep my current signature as a reminder, because I now work in an industry that has all kinds of DRM. I work with the knowledge that my code will very likely be restricted by copyright and DRM.
I keep it to remind me not to become complacent, to further a DRM-free world if I can.
But, consider: Would you take this to the extent of not buying any DVDs? After all, they contain DRM, even if it's been cracked wider than the Goatse Man's ass.
Would you avoid going to movies, or watching TV, because the same companies do DVD releases? Would you avoid, say, cable Internet in favor of DSL, just so the cable companies don't get a cut? (Realizing that if they do, it eventually ends up in the entertainment industry...)
I'd say, the root of the problem is the existence of huge corporations, little mini-states unto themselves. You've pretty much already lost the DRM issue. Pay attention in the 2008 election, get a candidate to say he'll revoke some parts of the DMCA if you can, but I don't think there's much else you can do, unless you're willing to completely boycott technology. (Hey, did you know that by visiting Slashdot, even if you Adblock the ads, you increase their user statistics, which means they can sell more ads, even to companies who support DRM? Some of them are Flash-based!)
Now, as for MS getting a cut, if my computer already has Windows on it, MS already got a cut.
On my desktop, my parents paid to send me to college, and the college subscribed to the MSDN Academic Alliance. So there was a "free" copy of Windows XP Professional for me to burn. Sure, it's not free, but I already paid for it by going to that college, so at that point, a boycott buys me nothing.
On my laptop, it's a work laptop, and I need a few pieces of Windows software in order to work. The cost of Windows and this software (including Visual Studio for the debugging) is nowhere near significant when you factor in the other costs in completely non-free hardware and software. Basically, if I want to work in the industry I'm working in, I already have to have a copy of Windows.
I still refuse Windows DRM, by the way. But we have a word for you: fundamentalist. The world doesn't have room for fundamentalists, be they Christian, Muslim, or GNU. (Or Microsoft, either.)
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
I maintain my stance DRM has no right to exist, and DRM should be resisted by any means necessary. I want to live in a DRM free future no matter the cost.
"By any means necessary"?
"... no matter the cost"?
You're not alone in opposing DRM, but what are you going to do, barricade yourself in a church tower with a Remington 700 and start plucking off studio execs one by one?
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
Someone said that the box everyone clicks away at the installation of IE somewhere says that you are only allowed to run IE in Windows. But if you need sth. that is only available to IE and can't or don't want to run a full virtualized Windows...
So does NBC work in IE + Wine?
Thx
If they'd give the writers a cut of the profit they were making on those ads, I might consider sitting through them. But they claim they aren't making any money! Riiight.
I thought Hulu was NBC's platform for internet based video...
> For now it's Windows only,
Then for me and my family, it's not here.
1) it doesn't run on my Mac.
2) I am not going to go out and buy ( and install) Windows (along with its various regular patches) to watch an NBC show. The shows just aren't that good.
This all comes back to control. NBC thinks it should have absolute control of how/when/where you watch their shows. The public has said they don't want that anymore (DVRs, BitTorrent, iTunes are all examples of this). But NBC still insists on absolute control. Their solutions: a streaming approach (I tried it once and it was so painful I will never, ever, go back) and now a crazy heavily DRM'd download approach that won't play on the most common video player (iPod).
I would think the recent DRM content that has been declared dead (by both Google and MLB.com) shows that DRM content means we, the viewers/buyers of this content, have zero control over it. "I'm sorry, we decided you should no longer be able to view this content." means you lose everything just like that. Some (like Google) at least offered a refund/credit. Others (like MLB.com) said screw you.
Ultimately, this again fails to take in to account the one we call "the viewer/customer". To me, it shows that NBC still doesn't get it in any way, shape, or form. They still believe they can force us, their potential viewers, to conform to their needs rather than the other way around.
I want to watch the TV shows on my iPod. If you think I will buy another player to watch your shows, you are crazy. That's like asking me to buy Windows so I can watch your shows.. oh wait, that's exactly what you told Mac folks to do.
End result: I am less and less inclined to watch NBC shows (period). Of course, NBC will blame the strike, or piracy, or lord knows what else instead of recognizing their own corporate stupidity.
If you're going to accuse people of repeating something, you might want to think twice about beginning your accusation with a trend-word used ad nauseam by geek posers.
Why We Fight
Also check out Unitedhollywood.com
See, this what I hate about people who bitch about the so called Apple Monopoly. NOw there are even FEWER option that reach the most people. IN fact, now people will have to go by OS and hardware.
There seems to be system requirements that they're not telling us about. I'm using FF with IE Tab and my Windows Media Player is version 10, yet the site still tells me I don't pass the media player requirement and gives me the option to download and install it. Maybe they have a customized version of Windows Media Player 10? Whatever, there are just too many hoops to jump through here IMO.
Heard any good sigs lately?
That is fine, bit torrent will allow the rest of us on platforms OTHER THAN the "ME TOO" crowd. NBC is beginning to realize that if they don't come into the future now, they won't be allowed in when the geeks take it all. :)
It's all fun and games 'till someone loses a testicle.
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing. Emo Philips
Yesterday I sent an email enquiring why Windows OS and IE were stipulated when I could watch Windows Media files on Linux with Firefox. I received this reply. Dear Sid, Thank you for your email regarding 4oD. Unfortunately we cannot say when the 4oD service will be available to users of other platforms, including Mac OS and Linux. The problem is, our content providers (e.g. the production companies who make our shows), insist on using a DRM licensing system. The DRM (Digital Rights Management) system basically protects the video content from duplication and broadcast outside the UK & ROI. Currently they insist on using Microsoft's DRM, and because of this we can only support Microsoft operating systems. Linux currently has no such DRM system available and so our content providers will not allow us to support the Linux operating system. Macintosh do have a solution, however the closed DRM system used by Apple is not currently available for licence by third parties and there is no other Mac-compatible DRM solution which meets the protection requirements of our content owners. Unfortunately, we are therefore unable to offer 4oD and other video content to Mac users at this stage. We are sorry to disappoint on this occasion and assure you that if changes throughout the industry happen, as we would like, we will ensure the support of other operating systems. If you require further information, feel free to email me back or visit http://help.channel4.com/4oD/ Regards, Jack Harrison Channel 4 Customer Support Please read our Terms and Conditions at http://www.channel4.com/4od/terms.html We've updated our website! Check out our new help section and FAQ's for all the things you've always wanted to know about our channels. http://www.channel4.com/help Channel 4 take no responsibility for third party websites Original Message Follows: Type=Email Category=vodfeedback Name: Sid Boyce Problem Summary: 4oD Case: Comments: After seeing 4OD mentioned on TV, I thought I would give it a try. As far as I could gather, the content is in Windows Media format which I am quite capable of watching using the Firefox browser under Linux - I do this all the time with content from other sources, so there is no real need for C4 to specifically support Linux of Firefox. I was greeted by a screen saying that my operating system and browser are not supported and I need Windows XP/Vista and Internet Explorer. This does not make sense and seems very much akin to the BBC's original idea of disenfranchising viewers who do not use software from Microsoft. Why can't you serve Windows Media content to other than Microsoft-based platforms? This appears to be filtering bias rather than practicality. Session Log: http://kana2/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBCGI.EXE/,/?St=46,E=0000000000044184530,K=563 9,Sxi=0,T=SESSLOG
There's a small point which has to be brought up :
- In order to get multi-platform, running also on Linux a Firefox, such a service has to follow open standards
And the key point is, once the media follows open standard you can pretty much to anything with it.
By sticking to their current technology (probably something Active-X based requiring WindowsMedia plug-ins) they are limited to 1 single platform.
By moving for something more publicly documented (MPEG-4 comes to mind, because it recently has gained popularity thanks to the iPod, PSP, etc.) it not only becomes acessible to alternative platforms (Linux, Mac OS X, or even Haiku and Amiga OS), it also enables a lot of more original usages that wasn't initially though of :
- downloading it, saving it into a flash medium and using it on portable device offline, while on the move.
- either playing it along subtitles pulled from opensubtitles.org in a player that can accept addional subtitles like VLC (and unlike the current solution) or even remixing subtitles directly into the file (using tools like virtualdub).
Lots of possibilities.
All this doesn't necessitate that the publisher uses huge additional amounts of resource for each of the additional groups of each 1%, above the 95% that all use the same basic platform.
All this requires is that the publisher moves to something more standard and the various groups will sort themselves using available tools.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Basically, I downloaded, installed required components, rebooted (required), and automatically ran NBC's beta program. Then, it said XP or Vista required. I went to my %temp% folder/directory. There was a WinZip self-extraction folder/directory with the extracted files. Copied that to somewhere. Closed the error message to abort the installation. Went back and ran the psetup or something (don't have the program anymore to check and I did in a VMware v4.5.3 W2K guest image) and that installed NBC's program. I tried to run the program, but kept getting Storefront Offline error. I guess that is why it wants XP or higher. :P
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
What they don't realize is, if you make the official channels for distribution good enough, no one cares about anything else.
Considering that these are mostly ad supported videos, wtf are they afraid of? That someone will rip out the ads and distribute the video? Most people just want to watch the shows, this is turning into some kind of arms race just to see if they can actually lock the entire platform.
Finally, someone understands that the times when we've got time to watch old TV episodes, we're not likely to have internet access!
but:
Of course, the Windows-only DRM makes this totally useless to me at the moment.
Is it progress when they learn one obvious thing but forget another? Is there any reason to believe that they'll add Linux and Mac support sooner than other services remove DRM? Apple has at least said they want to remove DRM; I don't see these guys as even claiming to want Mac/Linux support. (They're Old Big Media, so of course they don't get it. They think all-the-world's-a-Windows-PC.)
Meh
Of Code And Men
"Meh" is as much a trend as "ad nauseam", "poser", and accusing someone of using a trend.
Procrastination -- because good things come to those who wait.
lol, nice one.
You just got troll'd!
...to be able to watch these videos while using Opera on Linux? Oh yeah, that's right. http://www.thepiratebay.org/
No Mac support?
I'm not sure who's smoking what, but I just watched the first 30 seconds of episode 207 of Heroes, on my PowerBook (G4) in Safari 3 on Leopard.
That's not bad, actually.
I don't know why the article said Linux support was missing. The shows appear in a Flash Player in your browser. I have Adobe Flash Player 9 installed and it works just fine for me Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon). I have the non-free codecs installed, though I haven't tested whether these are needed.
Not only did it work, but I found that it had good quality picture. The compression artifacts are only obvious on dark parts of some pictures. Stutter was rare, even on the "fullscreen" mode, which was crisp at approximately 800 pixels wide and didn't appear stretched.
Overall it was a quite enjoyable experience. I watched a few episodes of a new show and liked it. They inserted four or five promos for other shows in there, but they were brief. I assume that more ads will be forthcoming, since NBC will need to make some money off these.
-Jon
The BBC is a public institution, answerable to tax payers (license payer is an euphemism: the license is a tax enforced by the governemtn and the judicial system). As such it has to fullfil certain obligations, like not screwin Linux users.
NBC is a private company, if they are stupid enough to dismiss OSX and Linux that is their prerogative.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
[...] There is no single entity that is guaranteed to make money from my purchase of a TV. In 2009, over-the-air television broadcasts in the United States using free-as-in-speech analog methods will terminate. Instead, people in the United States will have to buy Dolby brand equipment to hear the sound of a television broadcast, and they will have to buy MPEG brand equipment to see the picture. Dolby Laboratories and MPEG-LA, among other companies, control essential patents in the ATSC specification that replaces the NTSC specification.
If your elected officials do a poor job of representing you, you could always defect to Liberia or join the plain people.
</sarcasm>