Google pitches online TV

[QueOnda]

Interesting... http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...212447028.html

[jm9843]

Sweet, SageTV v8. Maybe v9 if the Fiber product is 8.

[stanger89]

"...the latest efforts are aimed at offering conventional channels, allowing consumers to flip through channels just as they would on cable..."

They better offer some sort of DVR if they go that way. I "recently" found something similar, it sounded pretty interesting only to find out that it provided it's content in "linear" fashion with no ability to timeshift. Well that's just a dealbreaker, I'm not going to pay for a service where I (potentially) have to stay up into the wee hours of the night or leave work to watch something I want to see. Come on, it's the 21st century, even in the 80's/90's we had VCRs.

[pjpjpjpj]

Sounds to me like this is just another alternative to cable/sat, but they just refer to it as "streaming". I mean, the signal coming from your cable is "streaming", isn't it? If this simply provides the content, it's going to have to output to a standard cable so it can go to your television set. So just plug that cable into your Colossus or HD-PVR and keep using Sage, right?

We have 100 threads here about companies trying to serve up a la carte pay-TV channels. No one has succeeded yet (at least with any content that people really want), for the reasons listed in the linked story.

IMO, the only thing Google has over all those other companies, and the only reason why theirs might work where others have failed, is that Google has the money to roll out its own distribution network (Google Fiber). That way they don't have to piggyback on existing coaxial lines owned by the competition (and thus get priced out, or bandwidth-limited-out, of competition). If Google gets a good network of fiber across the country, they can go to the networks with a much stronger bargaining position than, say, this silly attempt by Intel.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

Sounds to me like this is just another alternative to cable/sat, but they just refer to it as "streaming". I mean, the signal coming from your cable is "streaming", isn't it? If this simply provides the content, it's going to have to output to a standard cable so it can go to your television set. So just plug that cable into your Colossus or HD-PVR and keep using Sage, right?

Except that "standard cable" is surely going to be HDMI with HDCP. Yeah you can get around HDCP, but why would I switch back to using a Colossus when I've got 6 tuners pulling QAM off my current Fiber service.

[reggie14]

This is precisely the sort of thing that makes me think SageTV isn't going anywhere at Google beyond Fiber TV. There's really not much reason to think they'd use SageTV technology in something like this. The backend is going to be a lot more complicated to handle the load.

And that's OK to me. I just want to be able to play back the shows I want, when I want. I don't mind streaming over the Internet versus streaming locally. I'd actually prefer to not have to manage the server, so I'd be willing to risk losing content (if the business goes under, or if content deals expire) for the benefit of having less to do.

The article didn't say anything about a la carte plans, but I suspect the availability of other paid/subscription content off Amazon, Google Play, Netflix and Hulu make it a little more possible to have a la carte plans, or at least have bundles with fewer channels. If a content company really wants to dig their heels in over a bundle, it's a lot easier for Google to just say "no," as their customers might be able to get that content elsewhere.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by reggie14

And that's OK to me. I just want to be able to play back the shows I want, when I want. I don't mind streaming over the Internet versus streaming locally. I'd actually prefer to not have to manage the server, so I'd be willing to risk losing content (if the business goes under, or if content deals expire) for the benefit of having less to do.

Yeah, I agree. Sure I understand the POV of wanting to have everything local so you have control over it. But IMO from a practical and financial standpoint that just doesn't make sense to me. There's too much stuff out there that's worth seeing, but maybe only once to actually buy it all, or to save it all.

And for the stuff that's really important, that too important to risk "losing" when the mothership pulls the plug, it's also too important to "archive" with crawlers/logos/commercials, or with streaming quality. That's what Blu-ray is for.

I mean I really like Top Gear, but there's too many episodes to buy them all, and the quality from recordings is too low, so I rely on Amazon/Netflix streaming for old episodes. Well actually I buy the new ones off Amazon since they're "HD" and I only get BBCA in analog.

[rwc]

I'd love to see this as the next incarnation of Sage..but isn't it just as likely to be a youtube channel? Or something incorporated into googletv?

[ionamartin123]

There is no difference between YouTube and goggle tv.It will be better to compare with you tube. some imp[important features are added