

Marc Cuban Is Psyched About Cable - noor420
http://www.cnbc.com/id/30015381/

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Caligula
Tru2way is a crock of shit.

It is the re-branding of OCAP that was touted as the internet killer for a
decade but never got deployed. I got sucked into wasting time about three
years ago learning it.

Tru2way sucks because the MSOs' control all the apps that can be deployed.
There is no room for 3rd party developers. You cannot have background
processes. Development tools cost 10k per license. Did I mention I doubt it
will ever be deployed?

All cable has going for it is the content but sites like Hulu give the content
creators control over distribution and they would like nothing more than
cutting out the middleman.

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briansmith
In most places, the only high-speed internet ISPs are cable companies. So,
ultimately the cable companies are in control over distribution of video--
including internet video from Hulu and similar sites.

Right now I can get all the TV content I want OTA (yes, using an antenna) or
over the internet except for HBO. Accordingly, I don't subscribe to cable.
But, that will change as soon as my ISP (a cable company) starts capping my
internet access. Then I will have to start paying a cable company to get my
favorite shows. For example, Time Warner is taking the lead with internet-
video-killing caps of 40GB/month. That's less than 15 minutes of HD video a
day.

So, regarldess of what you think of the cable technology, the cable companies
seem to be firmly in control of residential video distribution. Whenever they
want, they will crank up the price until cable looks cheap. That is exactly
what the wireless phone companies did with text messaging; the price of a text
message used to be borderline bearable; now, they are so expensive that $5+
messaging bundles are relatively affordable.

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jrockway
_In most places, the only high-speed internet ISPs are cable companies._

Seriously? There are very few places in the US that don't have DSL. And I
don't think capping DSL is very popular these days; my ISP definitely doesn't
do it, and I haven't heard much complaining from others either.

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briansmith
The only DSL provider in my area is a cable company (AT&T); I think that is
pretty common as the bigger companies buy up their competition.

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kierank
_Additional bandwidth will help, but Cuban's point is that there's too much
uncertainty in the ability to deliver video over the web (let alone high def
video)._

HD is certainly possible over the web. (see my profile page if you want). It's
just there's a stigma amongst people that produce HD for TVs that you to use
TV bitrates and TV encoders for it to look decent.

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sjs382
Really, CNBC? You're going to have an article with a famous name in the title
and completely ignore the spelling? It's Mark Cuban.

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richcollins
I recently cancelled my cable because internet video has acceptable quality,
unmatched variety and isn't marginally more expensive than my existing
internet bill.

