Recently, I’ve been watching a lot of TV shows. Shows like 30 Rock, Eureka, The Office. A whole heaping helping of shows that I’ve been told are good, but just haven’t watched for one reason or another.
Turns out that I really like them. So, I decided that instead of watching them on a TV or getting the DVDs from Netflix, I would just watch them on my HTPC. The first three seasons of The Office, I watched on Netflix’s Instant Player and the fourth, I watched on Hulu.com. The first season of 30 Rock, I watched on Netflix and bought and downloaded the second season from Amazon Unbox. I got the first season of Eureka from Amazon Unbox and am working on it as I type.
So, how many of you are slowly or even quickly moving to an Internet-based television experience?
If you could pay $2 per episode for all of the shows that you watch on a regular basis, would it be more expensive or cheaper than what you are paying now for cable or satellite service? What would you think about a system like that? Would HD be a must? Should HD content be more expensive or the same?
Personally, I would love a system like that and I think that it would be less expensive than what we are paying now for satellite, but truthishly, I haven’t crunched the numbers. I think that HD content should be the same price as standard def content. Nowadays, every major TV show is shot in HD and then conformed to the old SD standards, so there isn’t any extra work needed to produce HD. I think there is just this feeling of “privilege” that is surrounding and staining the true, blu potential of HD content.
Yep, that missing ‘e’ was intentional. That’s for you, Kody. ;)
Tags: downloadable content, HD, TV
Your just in time for Eureka. The new season starts tomorrow on Sci-Fi. It is a great show. I love it. It is right up your alley.
According to Scifi.com, the new season of Eureka starts July 26th.
I don't really watch all that much TV on the interwebs, but I do watch a lot of youtube content from youtube personalities. What I would really like personally is an a la carte option for cable and satellite where I could choose a certain tier, like 30 channels for example, and then build my own channel package as I see fit. There is SO much garbage that I have never even flipped over to on TV. I think channels knowing that they are now competing for your subscription would help them maintain awesomeness, and weed out the lame stuff.
You know, it's funny about the 'blu' thing. I sometimes catch myself typing blue that way, same as I used to type singular as 'cingular' when I worked there.
The a la carte option is one that I am all for, but really, I would want to take it a couple steps further. Why not a la carte the shows that you want to watch? I know that I don't watch every show on a given channel, so there is still some money wasted there.
My idea is that you have an HTPC that acts very much like your current cable or satellite box. You go through the list of shows, pay for them, download them, and watch them when you feel like it. You don't pay a monthly subscription, you just pay for the show you want to watch. The system could be set up where you rent the shows for a small price, but only get one or two viewings before it gets deleted.
There could be huge potential here.
I agree, the idea is fascinating!