Give Me My TV!

  All of the big “TV” providers are pushing products that let one “control” a Cable Box / DVR resident in the home using some other device connected to the Internet. You can program the box to make more recordings or you can have the box stream either recorded or live programming to whatever device you happen to have, wherever you happen to be.
Now that sounds nice but there are a couple of things wrong with it. What happens when you can only use a cellular connection? Slow, intermittent, and possibly expensive. What about streaming from your box at home? First of all you have to have the right equipment and connect it correctly – how many people do you know who can’t get their cable box and VCR/DVD Player talking with their TV? Secondly, what is the speed and reliability of your home upstream connection?
  I’ll tell you what I want – I want what I want when I want it. I want this giant warehouse of Video/TV that lets me pick what I want to see, when I want to see it, using whatever device I choose to do so. I’ll give you some instances…
  I have this giant, virtual video recorder somewhere out on the Web that I can set up record all the programs I’m interested in. When I have a suitable broadband connection this device downloads all these recorded programs either in bulk to my local device, say an iPad, so I can watch everything at my convenience whether I later have a broadband connection or not. Presuming I ultimately end up at home I want to be able to view those same programs on my various TV’s or possibly on my home computer. All of this is interchangeable and transparent. A good example of this kind of delivery is Kindle’s E-Books. No matter what device I choose to read them I’m always at the same page of the books I’m reading.
  I get home late and want to watch the local news which started 10 minutes ago. I open the channel guide, make my selection, and it’s just like I had never been late.
  I don’t want TV delivered to my home via cable and a bunch of specialized equipment. I want virtual, on-demand TV delivered to my home or wherever else I happen to be via a broadband Internet connection so that I can use any Internet/Network compatible device to view it. The Internet becomes the common carrier and the content is the virtualized, stored, product of the provider rather than a real-time data stream. That’s how I want my TV. …11/03/13