TV Technology

Whither TV?

After my forced move back to the UK I have been without many of the TV shows that I hold dear.  Living in the UK this presents a problem.  The BBC while being a great and worthy institution just doesn't get TV SF anymore.  They brought us Blakes 7 and Doctor Who and are now reduced to things like Ted and Alice.  BBC2 has a 6pm ghetto where they show TV SF (once Sky One has finished with it) but they don't do it properly.  Its cut to ribbons, sometimes played out of sequence and is cancelled for anything - normally Snooker. 

So, I've been trying to get hold of the programmes I wanted to see via other sources.  Like many people I didn't really think that computer technology had really moved on much in the last 10 years.  I certainly didn't expect to find that you can get pretty much any DVD quality recording you like either from Newsgroups or peer-to-peer services like Gnutella.  Its not easy but it is effective and with a halfway decent PC and a broadband Cable or DSL connection you can get pretty much anything you want.  But it can be slow.  Even with a fast link, at 400-700MB for 45 minute show you are looking at 3 hours, that's assuming the person serving you can upload at that kind of rate - not all that common yet.  However, with a large pipe to a dedicated server and a large home pipe you'd be able to get pretty much what you want in real time.  This is being done by some quarters for TV On Demand but its all old stuff from the Dept of Cruddy old TV.  I want to see Universal, Paramount, Warners, Fox, HBO, BBC and so forth do this - I'd pay, believe me.  I pay for Cable TV and don't generally get anything I want - this is stuff I want.

I am planning to hook my PC up to the TV which has the benefit that I won't need a DVD player and the PC stereo sound is better than the TV's.  This is, of course, a halfway measure.  I think we should be looking to a paradigm where home entertainment is on demand, sure new shows can come out on a schedule but lets not kid ourselves that we like watching adverts when the TV companies tell us to watch things.

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