OT: Streaming HD at abc.com

InterceptPoint wrote on 7/26/2007, 12:24 PM

In case anyone missed it, ABC is now streaming what looks to me like about 6 Mb/s very near HD quality video of most, if not all, of their regular weekly shows.

I've been watching Six Degrees running at close to the the full frame rate and full screen on my 65" HP DLP and the quality is very nearly as good as HD broadcast. Certainly better than DVD quality.

This is far above what you see on YouTube and is, I believe, a glimpse of the future of video delivery into the home. Unlimited HD. Anytime. Anywhere. What you want when you want it. Everyone can have an HD broadcast station. Oh, to dream.

Check it out at: http://dynamic.abc.go.com/streaming/landing#

You wll need at least a good cable connection to get the full quality feed.

Comments

rs170a wrote on 7/26/2007, 12:32 PM

You wll need at least a good cable connection to get the full quality feed.

You'll also need to live in the USA.
I can't get it in Canada :-(

Mike

Jay Gladwell wrote on 7/26/2007, 1:55 PM

It's a shame there's nothing worth watching. To add insult to injury, they show commercials!

p@mast3rs wrote on 7/26/2007, 3:07 PM

"It's a shame there's nothing worth watching. To add insult to injury, they show commercials!"

And they should show commercials. Bandwidth isnt cheap. They have a duty to their advertisers to pimp their ads every chance they get. If you dont want commercials either record and edit out the commercials or buy the box set when they come out.

Now if they were charging a fee to watch this, of course I would expect no commercials.

InterceptPoint wrote on 7/26/2007, 3:30 PM

re: commercials

Actually the commercials are very unobtrusive. 3x 30 second spots on a 1 hr show. For me that is a good tradeoff for what amounts to a TIVO-like capability.

And I agree. ABC isn't in the business of giving things away. The advertising model works on the Internet or Google wouldn't be worth billions. If that were not the case the Internet would still look like it did in 1990.

Steve Mann wrote on 7/26/2007, 8:15 PM

"They have a duty to their advertisers ..."

No, they have a duty to the stockholders and advertising is what they do to that end.