Entries Tagged 'Misc.' ↓

Early TV Pioneer Sir Isaac Shoenberg:

“Well, gentlemen, you have now invented the biggest time-waster of all time. Use it well.”

1934, following his team’s demonstration of the Emitron electronic television camera tube.

A quote from 20 November 1934:

“The cinema today is so cheap and so perfect and so universal in its appeal that I doubt if television can stand up to it for a long time to come.”

Sir Charles Carpendale; BBC Deputy Director-General 1935-38

ZoomInOnline has this video report demonstrating the features of the new Apple TV from the floor of MacWorld.

If the Motion Picture Association has their way, you will have to pay a $50 registration fee to have your friends over to watch a movie in your home theater or face a half-million dollar fine for each movie shown in your illegal “unauthorized home theater� according to an article on Bbspot.com.

The article portrays the attitude of the MPAA as “Just because you buy a DVD to watch at home doesn’t give you the right to invite friends over to watch it too. That’s a violation of copyright and denies us the revenue that would be generated from DVD sales to your friends.” The proposed solution would entail the use of “motion sensors and biometric technologyâ€? to report back to the MPAA details on the home theater audience and the movie being played.

Of course the story was satirical but evidently it was picked up and reported by several major media outlets including MTV and MSNBC who didn’t get the joke. Perhaps the irony was lost given the aggressive nature of the Motion Picture Association and the RIAA to litigate against alleged copyright violators including dead people and children.

For the record, the MPAA has a page on Public Performance on the Piracy and the Law section of their Website. It says if you invite a few friends over to your home to watch a movie that you bought or rented that you are “probably not� in violation of illegally “publicly performing� a copyrighted work. Home viewing is defined as “viewing of a movie at home by family or a close circle of friends.�

The site warns that a public performance license must be obtained for situations including showing movies at taverns, prisons, factories, summer camps, public libraries, daycare facilities, parks and recreation departments, churches and non-classroom use at schools and universities regardless of whether an admission fee is charged, or the organization is commercial or non-profit. I see why the MobMov people operate from cars… to make a fast getaway if the MPAA shows up.

And the warning continues adding that “willful” infringement for financial gain is a federal crime with a maximum penalty of five years in jail and/or a $250,000 fine. And even inadvertent infringers can face being sued for $30,000 for each unlicensed Public Performance. They conclude by boasting that they have already gone after some cruise lines and bus companies for unauthorized on-board exhibitions.

Watch TV in a 360 degree dome that fits on your head. I don't see many people going for this Toshiba contraption.
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Britain’s Channel 4 is offering a video-on-demand service featuring hit American imports “Lost” and “Desperate Housewives.” Both shows are produced by Disney which offers downloads of the shows from Apple’s iTunes service in the US.

Channel 4 chief executive Andy Duncan is devoting considerable resources to video-on-demand and predicts that up to half of all TV viewing would be on-demand within the next decade.

The episodes will be available for streaming from the Channel 4 Website for 99 pence ($1.77) each. The on-demand shows will be available two weeks after they are first broadcast on TV.

I can’t imagine watching either of those shows from anything other than a widescreen HDTV broadcast. Has anybody out there tried to watch one of these VOD downloads on a PC connected to a Home Theater Projector?

As reported on the Home Theater Project Blog in November, AOL-TV is bringing back episodes of old television shows like Welcom Back Kotter, Kung Fu and La Femme Nikita.

The In2TV channel on AOL.com launched yesterday with episodes from 30 TV series available through the Website.

The shows are free to anyone with broadband Internet access and the site is supported by advertising.

Eventually over 100 old TV series and at least 300 episodes per month will be offered. AOL says the shows will be exclusivly available on their site and no longer shown as reruns on TV.

“Welcome Back Kotter” AOL is resurrectingVinnie Barbarino, Horshack and the rest of the gang along with dozens of other vintage TV programs as part of their Broadband Video initiative called In2TV. Expected to launch in early 2006, the Video on Demand will feature the catalog of Warner Brothers Domestic Cable Distribution which was part of the merger between AOL and Time Warner.

AOL will use a proprietary video format called “AOL Hi-Q,” that they say will deliver better than DVD quality on a full computer screen once the user downloads the plug-in.

With ABC recently offering episodes of Desperate Housewives and Lost on Apple’s iTunes and NBC and CBS following suit to sell some of their primetime shows through the Web, this announcement from AOL cements the tidal wave of TV content moving to Internet delivery.

ref: AOL, Warner to Bring Old TV Shows Online