From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx> Date: Fri, 5 Nov 2010 16:30:24 -0500 Subject: [opendtv] Re: News: The death of Cable TV I wrote: > But the media from Google TV is very different than from > an ATSC tuner, even if many of the programs are the same. > The ATSC tuner receives the linear and local programming > while the Google TV portion accesses programming in a VOD > manner. Bert Responded: "Well, you know Dan, as one who has been watching just about everything "on demand" for ... decades, I don't see all that much difference. Yes, I make a conscious "effort" to set up the recorder. If I had a TiVo, I wouldn't even need to do that!" Perhaps I'm a very poor writer or I assume too much. I thought the term for recording a program from a linear stream received at home and then watching it later was "Time-Shifting", not "on-demand". When I use the term Video on Demand or VOD, I meant I can call upon a program from a website or from a dedicated service. But perhaps I have wrongfully gathered these definitions or perhaps I assume we all use these terms this way. You then used the example of the episodic drama "House". Sure, that is available on the ATSC and VOD (if you'll allow me to use my definitions for now). But few sports and live news programs are streamed or available VOD (I realize a few are). So that is why I think ATSC and VOD have a place in the modern entertainment system. Until the ATSC is streamed and most programming available online, I find them very different. If we get back to the term VOD, I do not consider recording an ATSC program VOD because I cannot view it I do not know that it was available or I forgot to record it (this happens often for me and even TiVo wouldn't help). If available on the web, I would have a chance to watch it on demand. So I see Google TV as a good thing, so long as the media conglomerates will allow it. So I see a big difference. Dan