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Streaming vs traditional download models

I've been reading some reviews about mobile platforms. They all seem to say that streaming is the future. That we won't have locally stored files any more. People don't want to download stuff, they want to be able to watch music and video on demand wherever.

At the same time, other reviews say things like "if you're half way through a box set you're subscribed to stream and the licence holder revokes the rights then it just disappears" together with other restrictions about only being able to watch things so many times, or within say a 48 hour time window.

One of the problems with the stored files approach used to be DRM. For example Apple iTunes files wouldn't play in anything other than Apple iTunes. But IIRC that ended - iTunes files play in Windows Media Player on my PC and used to play fine on my old Windows Phone.

The iTunes model is allegedly outdated - I can buy from my PC or phone and the two are kept in sync. I can listen to them anywhere. That of course meaning that I don't need an internet connection. However my Windows Phone didn't have iTunes on it, so to make this work involved having the iTunes folder in "My Music" and opening up Windows Media Player and having it rescan to detect the files, then plugging the phone in, then synchronising the files. iTunes is lovely with Apple kit. As long as you pay a small fortune for said Apple kit. We don't have an Apple TV nor do we plan on getting one so we won't be watching movies on that.

3G became pretty ubiquitous and 4G will eventually become fairly commonplace. To stream music you don't need much bandwidth, but even so it doesn't mean that the necessary bandwidth is there (wherever "there" happens to be) - an O2 user round here or in our local town wouldn't be able to stream anything, a Three or EE user could try and it would probably work most of the time. But this is hardly better than the DRM-restricted models of old and way from satisfactory. On top of that, data allowances on mobile packages would get used up very quickly. The pCell model might go some way to resolving that but we don't appear to be anywhere near this.

I can see the attraction for content providers. Nothing stored = nothing pirated. Potentially. People will just have to fork out the £5.99 a month or whatever it is (e.g. Netflix) and that fee can then be sub-divided and shared out among the licence holders. But versus the farcical prices of say a Blu-Ray I can't see content providers being happy with a tiny cut of nothing much. Presumably, hence the lack of available content which kills most of the subscription models. Netflix for instance being full of mostly rubbish and back-catalogue stuff with the occasional gem like Breaking Bad.

All this seems to be evolving quite rapidly. Your thoughts..?
 
I am not into streaming,so with that said I just look for DVD's that I want from the likes of PLAY.COM or if it's a new release and the price is on the low side, buy it from one of the local stores. I don't do anything with music files, most of the modern stuff (like rap) I can't stand.
With BT grabbing the MOTO GP and the BBC only doing half of the F 1 my viewing of TV is very low, would rather watch a good film, now.
 
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Streaming is convenient, but it's annoying when content disappears. I recently got 2 out of 8 series into something on Netflix when it was taken down. A mix and match model would be my preference.
 
I've been reading some reviews about mobile platforms. They all seem to say that streaming is the future. That we won't have locally stored files any more. People don't want to download stuff, they want to be able to watch music and video on demand wherever.

People may not want to download stuff or use discs, but there will always be those who have no other choice because their broadband service is not up to HD streaming.

Until we get a high enough percentage of the video purchasing world on a reliable superfast broadband connection, there will be a market for discs and downloads. Non-streaming options will probably remain with us for some time to come.
 
Some good points there. Have been giving this further thought.

We can get the speed - we have YouTube on the TV, partner and I have mobiles paired with it, and can quite happily stream in HD (sometimes the picture quality on HD streams is remarkable) while both browsing, etc. However every 10GB of data we use costs £30 (EE 4G wired up as a primary home connection via power-plugs and Wi-Fi).

It *is* cheaper to buy box-sets and they endure. It doesn't cost anything to watch them again when you want. I'm also old enough to feel a "sense of ownership" which you don't get with online streaming though I suspect that's not as important for people much younger than I am.

However - for example - some videos which are HD can use up phenomenal amounts of data while the sound quality is relatively appalling especially on YouTube. One such track as an example - it's only 6 minutes long and it's only available at 720p (on PC - not sure what the TV pulls down, if it isn't higher def than it's doing a very good job of upscaling).

That's nearly 100MB. We might watch it a couple of times on the TV, I might watch on my PC, partner on iPad. Just five times is half a gig of data for one music tune.

OK, that's not very much data these days.

If you're VM you have DOCSIS capacity issues to manage but they seem to do a good job; if you're BT then you get the data at cost price within the Group, if you're Sky you have to pay wholesale rates, but can cross-subsidise, if you're a small ISP without economies of scale and cross-subsidy - bye. I give you five years at most. I can see why people want "unlimited" models.

But this is madness, surely: to be pulling down the same file every time. Some sort of localised intelligent caching "box" would seem to be the answer..?
 
I've never seen this as an either-or battle, rather there is room for both a pay-to-keep and streamed-only approach depending upon the content, your desire to watch it, how much spare time you have and how much that material costs through the different mediums. I for one like to keep movies that I enjoy but I'm happy to just stream the so-so stuff, thus the market must always make room for what consumers seek.

This is the reason why you'll still see a stack of BluRays in my house, sitting alongside a NOW TV + Roku 3 box with Sky's Entertainment + Movie pass and an Amazon Prime (LOVEFiLM) sub at the ready (though next year I'll swap to Netflix if Amazon don't wake up and do a Roku channel).

Right now though if I really love a movie then I'll buy it on BluRay since you get better video quality vs streaming and if the films 3D then the chances of being able to watch the same content in 3D via a streamed service is close to zero. Not to mention all the extras on physical media, which you don't even get with similarly priced buy-to-keep downloads.
 
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I love my Roku and it's even better now they have a YouTube channel(though currently no YouTube live events), as I've said before niche subject Internet streaming is the future of TV. :nod:
 
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