[opendtv] Re: B&C: Set-Top Box Proposal Pulled From FCC Meeting

From: Craig Birkmaier <brewmastercraig@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Sun, 09 Oct 2016 08:57:26 -0400

On Oct 8, 2016, at 7:36 PM, Manfredi, Albert E <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

If this type of collusion is "perfectly legal," that does not mean that it's
good for the consumer.

Duh.

The idea of building an incompatible TV receiver, and then colluding to make
it work at all, is precisely what your limited little streaming boxes are
doing, even if this will take forever to sink in, Craig.

Wrong. These boxes are more compatible than anything that is built into your
TV. Roku just announced new boxes with 4K and HDR support.

These boxes use industry standards Bert. They are not using proprietary
technology like Flash. The issue is getting the content owners to agree to
license their content for these boxes. This is happening very quickly, now that
the industry is moving to Apps.

Do you remember Movie Beam? It was a failed Disney/PBS subscription
service that required a proprietary box. US DTV had a proprietary STB too.

Not totally comparable. These schemes did NOT expect you to only use their
choices.

Really?

The limited little streaming boxes instead prevent you from seeing the very
vast majority of what exists on the Internet, and the expectation is not that
you would also have other streaming boxes or PCs attached. So it's a
different reality.

These little boxes could care less about "the very vast majority of what exists
on the Internet." They are not web browsers, they are connected TV devices,
designed to stream entertainment content to your TV.

You seem to be living in a different reality. "Hmmmmm... I wonder what the
weather is like in Prague today and if there are any Oktoberfest festivals this
weekend?"

False. They use the specialty stream those little boxes demand.

No Bert, they use industry standards.

This is the service CDNs provide.

Nope. CDNs just operate the streaming servers and edge servers for the site
owners. Most of the larger sites - Apple, Amazon, and Netflix outgrew the CDNs
and have built their own server farms; they may still use CDNs for edge servers
in some parts of the world. Both the site owners and CDNs do create multiple
stream versions to deal with network optimization, and in a few remaining cases
to deliver non-industry standard FLASH streams.

And yes, I can access WWITV sites if they don't rely on Flash.

With AppleTV? I don't believe you.

Apple TV does not have a web browser Bert. But my iPad does, and I can use
AirPlay to watch non-Flash streams on Apple TV.

No Bert. Net Neutrality says you do not discriminate. PERIOD.

False. Neutrality applies to the distribution pipe. It does not force
Internet businesses to sell to everyone.

We disagree. If you deny service to certain devices you are not neutral.

False. Not doing business with someone is the opposite of collusion. When
every content owner acts together to deny service to certain devices it's
called collusion Bert.

Regards
Craig

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References:
- [opendtv] Re: B&C: Set-Top Box Proposal Pulled From FCC Meeting
  - From: Manfredi, Albert E

[opendtv] Re: B&C: Set-Top Box Proposal Pulled From FCC Meeting

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