"Unlimited cloud DVR" seems really pointless. Why not just save everything, as it airs, in a central archive that the users can browse at their leisure instead? It also seems to mean that you can't rewind channels you weren't watching, that you manually have to record stuff yourself. Really backwards of Google if my assumptions are correct.
It seems weird that Google aren't able to create/negotiate something relevant for today. All the things I talked about are becoming common for normal TV providers in Norway.
Because the TV networks don't want that, see: many of them opting out of the 3-day replay functionality on Sling. I'm sure Google does keep one copy of every show users have chosen to "record" instead of duplicating it, but networks don't want people just being able to access an entire series without effort (I'm guessing just because they are money-loving jackasses).
> "Unlimited cloud DVR" seems really pointless. Why not just save everything, as it airs, in a central archive that the users can browse at their leisure instead?
Even if that's what they actually do, "unlimited DVR in the cloud" may be a more accessible way of presenting that to an audience familiar with cable TV.
Your comment made me realise what they're acheiving here.
They have created the perfect streaming version of the DVR for all those non-tech-savvy older generation who are only comfortable with what they already know and love.
Now, instead of learning about the joy of Netflix and Chromecast, they can just do everything they already do with their DVR, except now it's through YouTube!
Brilliant really, particularly since they're the only ones who would pay $35/month for that crap.
No doubt that this is what they are doing. For non-live shows, they may even get a dump prior to it airing, so they have the whole day's worth of content queued up and ready to go.
If it lets you view a program guide, and watch anything that "aired" earlier than now, it sounds like it's basically a different interface but otherwise the same as current YouTube or Netflix. YouTube even has live streams.
However the way it's described makes it sound like there's probably some limitations to make it "seem like TV". The worst of this would be to totally emulate the normal TV+DVR model:
* You only get access to recordings if you picked them to "record" prior to when they "air"
* You have some arbitrary limit of number of "concurrent" recordings (eg: you can't just record every show on every channel at the same time, despite being 'unlimited DVR')
* If you want to watch/record a show and it's already started, you can only watch/record it from the current point forward
* Everything has commercials, at 31% rate, with the same commercial repeating multiple times like current TV.
They can also do some really awful things with it being a cloud DVR:
* Delete your recordings, or 'expire' them after some time. For example, you have 3 seasons of some show 'recorded' and are working your way through, but then they lose the license for that network and poof, all your 'recordings' are gone.
It seems weird that Google aren't able to create/negotiate something relevant for today. All the things I talked about are becoming common for normal TV providers in Norway.