Proposed Standard Would Address Video Buffering

Lucas123 writes "Sony, SanDisk and several other technology providers have formed a group and proposed a standard that would use predictive software to pre-load content onto mobile devices in order to preempt buffering issues due to bandwidth bottlenecks, which industry experts say will only worsen over time. 'Intelligently coordinating content delivery in advance to local device storage lets consumers enjoy their video, games, periodicals, books and music when they're ready,' said Susan Kevorkian, a research director at IDC. The proposed standard also raises the question: do we really want Amazon downloading everything it thinks you want to your tablet?"

Comments

Intelligent delivery in advance lets consumers...

[c0lo]

... eat their data quota in no time. Consequently, telcos will get enough money to pay us royalty for our patented technologies.

Bandwidth caps & charges

[werdnapk]

Are these providers going to cover the charges associated with downloading unneeded data to consumers devices?

Re:Bandwidth caps & charges

[alostpacket]

Do you work for Sony or SanDisk? Because I was gonna come and post the same question only to find my post has already been preloaded on to Slashdot. :\

Re:Sony? Standard?

[naz404]

So the solution to not having enough bandwidth is to chew up more bandwidth by pre-loading content which you might not need?

Have a seat over there

[JumperCable]

do we really want Amazon downloading everything it thinks you want to your tablet?"

It's all fun and games until you visit 4chan and get something preloaded you don't want.

Re:Have a seat over there

[TheLink]

Then they'll just preload you into jails because of your precrime with preadults :).

After you prepay for that privilege of course.

Re:Sony? Standard?

[Kjella]

Cost and availability of bandwidth varies extremely much depending on where you are and by what way you're connected. I recently bought Fifa 11 for my iPhone (1$ sale on valentine's day, massive bang for the buck) and it was 800 MB+, way more than my 500 MB/month quota. There is an unlimited plan but it costs hellishly much and the phone doesn't let you download apps over 20 MB via 3G anyway. Was that a problem? No, because i downloaded it over my wifi which is hooked up to a 25 Mbit line with no quota.

While it is in range of my wifi, I wouldn't mind if it loaded up on content I'd want to watch. I just don't think there's any automated system intelligent enough - or rather clairvoyant enough - to actually be useful. I could see it for stuff I was subscribed to, like "When there's a new episode of the Simpsons and I'm on wifi then automatically predownload" sort of thing but not in general. That is, if such a service existed.

Re:Bad idea.

[hairyfeet]

Uhhh...you DO realize you have fallen for a classic Windows urban legend, yes? Superfetch will automatically hand memory over to programs if they request it, so all you are doing is making sure you have a pile of empty RAM for...what exactly? Just to say you have it?

And Readyboost uses a flash drive for a cache and is completely optional so A.-You won't even have it if you don't specifically choose to use it, and B.-a flash drive has faster random reads than any HDD so you are just making sure your random reads take longer again...why?

I would suggest you read about SuperFetch and ReadyBoost rather than act like it is still 1998 and the only thing that matters is how much free RAM task manager says it has. Unless of course you just WANT your PC to be slow for some reason, and if that is the case carry on!