This document discusses the evolution of personal video recorders (PVRs) and their potential to enhance social interactions around television. It outlines how early VCRs attempted to address time-shifting capabilities, and describes the current taxonomy of PVRs. The document suggests that networked PVRs (NPVRs) can support social viewing by enabling connected and tagged shows, as well as new forms of interactive television and mobile experiences. It concludes that NPVRs may help address issues like cluttered living rooms and enable new innovations if not limited by contracts or litigation.
Television is broken. Television is notrising to itsfullpotential.Television is quite poor at providing what the consumers ultimately need – to deliver the programs they want when they want them.
Viewers have to schedule their lives to television programming, there are geographical restrictions limiting where the programming is available, television is very much created to be consumed only with a television receiver at home, it lacks interaction with broadcaster, and commercial breaks interrupt viewing with irrelevant ads. If television was invented today and a start-up company would present the idea of broadcasting linear programming through signals distributed to a geographically limited area, they might have hard time getting venture capital.
The idea that theviewersdidnothave to watch the programswhentheywerebroadcastedwasrevolutionary.For the firsttimeconsumershadcontrol of the television.This made the tv networksfearful. And whenyouarefearfulyoucall the cavalry in.
Manufacturers of home video recording machines could not be liable for contributory copyright infringement for the potential uses by its purchasers,because the devices were sold for legitimate purposes and had substantial non-infringing uses. Personal use of the machines to record broadcast television programs for later viewing constituted fair use.I willnottry to analyse the Sony decisionanyfurther.
Iwillinsteadtalkabouthow the PVR hasevolved in 30 years.I willalsotry to give a peak in to the future of television that is verymuchtied to recording.I see a greatpotentialthatnetworked video recorderscan help television to reachitsfullpotential.There is a lot of room for innovationbutthere is a way to stop it as well.Some of youmaybefamiliarwith Petcha Kutcha format. Thosewhoarenotwillbeafterthispresenatation. Typicallyit is 20*20 butbecause I havemoretime I willdo 30*30.
Television programmingwas at firstdistributedsolelyby radio mastthatbroadcasted the signalover the air.The sendingantennaswereownedby the networks and the showswerelocal, Youcouldsee the programms as long as the signalreachedyou. http://www.flickr.com/photos/centrifuga/109736732/
Stratovision was an airborne television transmission relay system from aircraft flying at high altitudes. stripped-down B-29 Superfortress flying at 30,000 feet (9.1 km).Havingabout 30 planesflyingover USA, youcouldcover the wholecontinent. The idea is not a stupidone. Whynot use the commercialairliners to relay television?http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/2179923220/
Satellitesthatcame in the late 60 ies and 70ies wereused to transferprogramsbetweenstationsthatthentransmittedthem OTA. Soonpeoplestartedgettingsatellitedishes and the programsgotencrypted and therewas a business there.However I viewthis as only a naturaldevelopmentwheresatellitesmeantthat the transmission tower just got a littlehigher.The problemwithover the air and satellite is thatit is oneway media.http://www.flickr.com/photos/floridamemory/3304584490/in/photostream/
Cablestarted as a way to getremoteormountainregionsconnected to the over the air signal. Itwascalledcommunityantenna television and the antennawouldbe set on a hill top and neigboringhousesconnected to itwith a cable. The firstcommercialcommunityantennasetupswerecreatedby television set retailers. In Pennsylvania. The business modelwasnot to sellprogramsbut to sell TV sets.
SincethenCablecompanieshavegrown to be the dominantway to delivercontent to viewers.Cable is notonlydelivering the over the air contentbutalsochanelsthataremeant to bedistributed for cableonly.In order to dothis, Cablehashad to makelicensing and distributiondealswithchannels
Thesedistributiondealshavecreated a cituationswherecablecompaniesaredependent of networks and networksaredependent of cablecompanies. The contractualrelationshipswithnetworks and cablecompanieshavelead to someinnovation. There is the on demandvideos for cablesubscribers.Time Warner cablehasalsolaunched a servicethatenablesviewers to start the show from the beginning. TheycallitStartover.Theyalsooffer a servicecalled look back.
In thisecosystem the Cablecompanieswontdoanythingthatwouldhurt the channelstheydistributebutthe channelswontgo into distributingtheircontentthroughotherchannelseitherFearingthattheywillmaketheironlydistributorsangry. Many of themgettheirbiggestchecksfromcablecompanies.The innovationthat is allmosttotallygoing on in the corerequirespermissionsfrom the rightsowner, telvisionnetwork and cablebroadcaster. It is no wonderthatinnovationwith television hasbeenkindaslow…However, cablehasgiven the audience a greatvariety of channelshttp://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/2179047512/in/set-72157603671370361/
Itmainlydoesthisbyaddingintelligence into the network. The approach is verydifferentfromhow Internet works.The Intelligence in the middleapproachhasenabledcable to block the innovation at edgeapproachthatmakes the Internet sovibrant and fastmoving.In fact the cable and television industryknowthis and theywant to freeze the capability of technology. TheydoitHarald52 http://www.flickr.com/photos/fkhuckel/3032044815/in/pool-creative_commons-_free_pictures
The incumbentactors in the markethave a need to keep the controlover the television. Their business model is dependent on advertising and subscriptionservices.The industryhasintroducedseveral ”enhancements” to the television like DRM and Broadcastflagthatnever made itswaythroughcongress.The othertactichasbeen to sueeveryonewhohasdared to change the currentdistributionmodels.
In 2006 American cable operator Cablevision reported that it would soon start offering its cable subscribers remote recording. The system would record programs to Cablevisions hard drives that subscribers choose with their remote control at home. The recorded programs were to be stored on cable provider’s storage system and subscribers could access their personal copies with their home set top box.PVR cost. Centralizing the systemreduces capitalexpenditure.After hearing of Cablevisions plans to launch the service, Fox and NBC among other networks sued Cablevision for direct copyright infringement.
Courtsawthat thesourcewaslegal.Therewereindividualcopies of the work made after the userinstructed the remoterecorder to make the copy.Comparewith UMG versus mp3.comToobad the case didnotproceed to the supremecourt.http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/2178395583/in/set-72157603671370361/
The problem with VCR was that half the people could program the clock on it. This meant that they could not record programs when they were not at home. Currentlyone of the onlyprogramsthatgivesconsumercontrolruns on Linux.There is a userfriendly Linux box in the market. TIVOIt is connected to Internet, butitwontuserscontrol the recordedprogramsormodify the code in the box.Its no wonder FSF is nothappy.Tivo is the marketleader.Ithadsome help fromrightsownershttp://www.public-domain-photos.com/miscellaneous/gumby-penguin-4.htm
Thereareseveralonetaskconsumerelectronics. One is for receiving, anotherone is for transcoding and thirdone is for networking.Connectingseveraldevicescanbedifficult. Weneedonedevicethat is connected to Internet and the netwilltakecare of the rest.http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/3030262852/
Because Television is digital. And no digitalproduct is perfectuntillitgoesonline. The recorderswilleventuallygoonline.When the recordersgetconnected to Internet, the usersbecomeconnected.Take for instanceSling box communitythatrentsspaces for hostingyourslingboxes.Connecteduserscreate social networks
Connecteduserswilllead to innovation at edge.Just likewesawthatCommunityAntenna Television created business oportunities, therewillbecommercial PVR hostingproviders.The factthatpeopledonthave the uplinkneeded for hosting a media servermeanthathostingfirmswillgrow.There is no doubtthatrightsownerswonttry to attack the new technology.Sohowdoyouprotect the future of connected television?http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/2162922839/
Havingstupidrecordersthatdonothingbutrecord the shows and smartopenclientprogramsthatenhance the recordingswiththirdparty data is the way to progress.This is the waythat Internet works and television willbeanotheronewaypipe in series of tubesthatmake Internet.Thiswillmostlikelymeanthatwewilltrulyhave the 3G television.
3g girls, games/gambling and godUserswillmostlikelystartlabelingshows. First the adswillgetlabeled, then the hotgirls and otherinterestingcontent. Youcouldsee the highlights of a show in minutes. Viewerscouldeasilyfollowdozens of series in a nighteveniftheyhad just fewhours.The contentcouldbelinked. Soviewerscouldmakereferencesfromonepoint of lost to another. Soifyouarepuzzledwhysomethinghappenedthatwasexplained in a previousepisode, viewerscould just skip to thatpart.
Predictionleague / gambling.Someevents just need to bewatched live. Most of themwilldoslightlydelayed.
Userscan help to decidewhat to watch and alsowhatnot to watch.MIT didexperimentwithFacebook television where PVR wouldbeprogrammed to recordwhatfriendsfollowed.Someepisodesare just poor. Whynot just getrid of themwhenenough of yourfriendsthinkso?Privacy issues: “MIT Study Outs Gay Men on Facebook”. What about when people can see what you are viewing? Fab four?
Havingindividualrecordersmakes no sense in economicsense. Itwastesresources, likeelectricity, bandwith, and harddrivespace.Souserswill at somepointstart to sharetheirresources to createclusteredrecorders.Ifyour copy is at centralserver, whynotgetitfromyourneighbour?This is of coursewhatgot ReplayTV into trouble.
Social TV is not a new concept. Peoplehavetried to add social to television before. Splitscreenswithchat just don’twork.The television is a leanbackexperience. Peopledontwant to sit on theirsofawith a keyboard on theirlap. Theydontwanttheirshows to beinterruptedby ”heythat is socool” remarks.The old model of exploration was done with a remote control. Totally random. TVguides help as do schedules where same show is on same time of the week. Flocking to programs because your friends are watching them as well.http://www.flickr.com/photos/autowitch/4272852/
3g television, DVB-H and the rest of the attempts to get television to handsetshavefailed. Getting television to smallscreens is just waytoohard.Weallreadyhave a wifi, and 3g internetconnections in thosedevices. Ifwe transcode the recordedshows to fit into the screen, the delivery is simple.http://www.public-domain-photos.com/macros/iphone-homescreen-detail-1.htm
Socialcontract of fundingprogramswithads. Peopleareallreadyskippingthem and going to refrigirator.Havinggoodstatistics of whatyouwatch, whereyouwatchit and whenyouwatchit and possiblyevenhavingaccess to social networking status enablesprovidingrelevantads.http://www.flickr.com/photos/tantek/59848164/
Connectedcontentmeansconnectedviewers. Connectedviewersmakecommunities of likemindedviewershowhave common goals. Thesecommunitieswill help to fix the television and provideit to viewers as theylike it.The challenge is, how the business model of television thatrelys on advertisingincomeswilladjust to new television.I want to understand the changethat is going on. This is my researchwork and I wouldlike to open the floor to questions and comments.http://www.flickr.com/photos/field_museum_library/3404637589/Innovation at the edge