[opendtv] Re: Adobe in Push to Spread Web Video to TV Sets
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 21 Apr 2009 08:22:03 -0400
At 11:40 AM -0400 4/20/09, Manfredi, Albert E wrote:
I'm not sure what was newsworthy about that article, to tell you the
truth. Anyone who does any web TV viewing has long been aware that you
need several different software packages to view this stuff, including
Flash, WMP, Silverlight, decreasingly QuickTime, and some proprietary
decoders such as the one used by ABC. And every time I spend time trying
different sites, I find more changes and more software requirements than
I used to need.
The point being made here is that the Internet is leading the way
with software codecs that can evolve in a mixed hardware environment;
as Kon pointed out, software can take advantage of various
acceleration techniques that may be available on a hardware platform.
This is a significant shift from the dedicated hardware approach used
in most walled garden TV distribution platforms. I have no problem
viewing either h.262 or h.264 streams on this MacBook, but my
Scientific Atlanta HD DVR is hopelessly locked into the past, and on
occasion, like Saturday night, it locks up, just like a computer - we
had to disconnect power to the box Saturday night to get it to reboot
properly.
And once again, Bert has made a common mistake, talking about
QuickTime as if it were a video codec.
QuickTime is a digital media architecture which provides the
framework to support a wide range of digital media applications and
tools. QuickTime supports a wide range of video, audio and still
image codecs, and supports the ability to transcode from one to
another.
The iPod and iTunes rely upon the QuickTime architecture (on both
Macs and PCs) to handle the range of audio and video processing tasks
needed to import, export and play audio and video content. QuickTime
is an essential tool for digital media production, providing the
framework to support a wide range of professional tools including the
codecs needed to support both prosumer and professional video formats
- for example, Panasonic has relied on QuickTime to support AVCHD
(prosumer) and AVC Intra (high end professional HD acquisition).
It comes as no surprise that Bert does not understand this, lumping
QuickTime in with Silverlight and Flash. Both of these compression
formats could run under QuickTime if Microsoft and Adobe CHOSE to
develop plug-in codecs for QuickTime. But this does not let THEM
control the end-user experience.
For close to a decade, Apple has been working to support industry
standards via QuickTime. Apple played a key role in the development
of the file format for MPEG-4 and in the development of the h.264/MP4
part 10 (AVC) codec. And today, Apple uses industry standard MPEG
developed codecs for the content it distributes via the iTunes store.
Of course Bert does not see this huge market, because he is focused
on the software codecs needed to surf the web, rather than the codecs
needed to support the most successful online digital media content
store in the world.
That's part of the nuisance of viewing TV online. It's not at all
unusual to discover that one of your sites suddenly decided to upgrade
its software, so you have to spend time searching for and loading the
new software. RAI recently went to Flash 10 and abolished its WMP
options. The upgrade to Flash 10 wasn't even a straightforward upgrade.
I had to go to the Adobe troubleshooting site to discover that in some
cases, it would only install correctly if you first manually uninstalled
the older version. ABC keeps updated its proprietary viewer again some
time ago, so that too would become a chore if I really cared.
And all of this comes back to the CHOICE of major media companies to
use proprietary technologies to CONTROL the end-user experience.
These proprietary formats would not exist were it not for the greed
and misplaced vision of the media conglomerates, who are desperately
trying to keep the consumer under their control.
In short, this is exactly what is WRONG with pretending that TVs should
be more like PCs. It's more the other way around. If TV on the web
expects to be successful, it's high time they quit their silly
shenanigans and agree on some common and somewhat stable standards.
There is NOTHING wrong with a properly designed digital media
architecture that can be upgraded easily by plugging in new software
components. Apple has created a legitimate and profitable media
marketplace built upon the QuickTime architecture and industry
standard components. Billions of songs and hundred of millions of TV
shows and now SD and HD movies are being SOLD via iTunes. Funny that
Bert has completely misses this.
TVs are starting to become digital media platforms, NOT PCs. Apple TV
is a decent example of what can be done to bring the digital media
content available from the Internet to a TV in your family room, just
as the iPhone and iPod Touch are good examples of how the Internet
can be harnessed to bring digital media content to the
mobile/handheld market.
Note the emphasis here is on MARKET - real companies making real
profits distributing their content to new platforms. And now Apple is
doing it again with the APP store, which will soon pass the Billion
milestone in downloads of free and paid APPs in its first year.
Perhaps Bert should pay more attention to real success stories,
rather than the shenanigans of the media conglomerates as they flail
around trying to control something they don't even understand.
Regards
Craig
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