Forget Net Neutrality, What About Media Neutrality?

Friends Don’t Let Friends Subscribe To HBO

HBO may stand for Home Box Office, but it may as well be Hates Being Online given their objections to internet video. According to Time Warner, HBO has over 40 million subscribers and while this lucrative revenue stream allows them to produce some of the most compelling content on television, it also gives them an [...]

The Invasion of The Internet TV

Over the last decade, internet video has come a long way, but it’s been a bit of a clunky experience. Competing standards, DRM turf wars and fear of giving the consumer anything and everything for a song has held the industry back. You may be able to get your digital video to your television, but [...]

Should Digital Movies Be Required To Offer Subtitles?

Normally, I tend to think that most regulations are bad. In a free market, businesses should be allowed to operate with a wide degree of latitude. At the same time there is a pragmatic part of me that understands there can be exceptions to this. Everyone should have the right to free speech, but that [...]

Over 40 Million P2P Customers Served

Anyone who has paid attention to digital distribution knows that P2P is a popular way for people to download content, but how popular it is may surprise more than just angry content owners. Last June, Futuresource Consulting released the results of an in depth survey called “Living With Digital: Consumer Insights into Entertainment Consumption” which [...]

Rhapsody And The Art Of The Up-Sell

Photo by Thomas Hawk One of my very first jobs was working behind a concession counter for a big multi-plex cinema. It isn’t the sort of place where one would expect to learn a life skill, but early on I learned an important lesson in business, the art of the up-sell. You see, movie theaters [...]

Netflix Closes Silo (again) – Forces Jinni To Disable Ratings Feature

I love Netflix, but more than once their data policies have forced me to reconsider whether or not I should have a membership with them. You see, I believe that when you rate a movie, the data should belong to you. After all, you were the one that spent the time to input the rating [...]

Comcast Targets Innocent Customer In P2P Dragnet

CNET reported this morning that AT&T and Comcast are planning on adopting a three strikes and you’re out policy for P2P users. The move is yet another desperate attempt by the media industry to try and regain control over content distribution. Because most broadband providers have government protected duopolies, they hope to use the MSOs [...]

DivX Looks Outside The Codec For The Future Of Web Video

DivX reported their 1st quarter earnings on Monday and while I’m still waiting to read the actual 10k before digging too far into the numbers, I did want to comment on what I see as a significant shift in strategy. Over the last 7 years, DivX has done an impressive job of building an eco-system [...]

The Pros and Cons Of Media Center Vista

Over the past few months, I’ve finally started to get a feel for Media Center Vista and while I haven’t tried out every feature in the program, I have played around with it long enough to have some initial thoughts. Before I tried the software, I had low expectations, but after actually using the program, [...]