One Trick Pony Media Boxes

For some reason, I always get a lot of flack for comparing various media boxes because, it seems, I am comparing apples to oranges. First, I come from the standpoint that it is silly to have stacks of different media boxes sitting under your HDTV, when a single really well designed box could do the trick. Think about it. In my head, that would be a combination of AppleTV and a TivoHD (a Series 3 box) with Series 2 file sharing on it. There. Done. Pay-per-view, movie purchasing, file sharing from locally networked computers and off-air/cable HDTV capture - I would be one happy little man.

That said, why do some companies insist on coming out with these one trick pony boxes; they do one only one thing - pay-per-view. If they were my "one box to rule them all" concept, I would have to plop down $1.99 to $4.99 just to watch TV. Or if these boxes were among all my other boxes, I would be duplicating functionality that other multi-function boxes can do already.

I am going to call out two "one trick ponies" - there could be others, but I don't want to look for them. They have some interesting features, but I have never overheard anybody saying that they "love pay-per-view and cannot wait to get home and buy some more." Again, think about it. You only get P.P.V. if you are too lazy to go to the video store, and/or there is nothing else on TV.

I recently heard about the Vudu $399(US) while reading the latest copy of Forbes Life. The Vudu is a very interesting concept. It uses your own network infrastructure to grab movies off of Vudu servers, to start. But, then it rolls into a peer-to-peer, bitorrent-ish scheme, using your own bandwidth to pull down the rest of the movie and share the movie with other Vudu owners (and probably not when you are even expecting it - forget about making a Skype call, unless you roll your own traffic shaping). With a scheme like that they should GIVE ME $399, or, hell, just give away the boxes to build up their network. Really.

And then there is the much more intriguing MovieBeam $149(US), which was started by Disney but is currently owned by #2 brick and mortar DVD rental company Movie Gallery. MovieBeam is intriguing because it uses, not peer-to-peer, but a licensed technology from Dotcast which uses the bandwidth of your local analog PBS station to "pre-collect" HD movies off the air. It also requires a land-line phone connection to report back to the mother-ship what movies you have watched. Still, very interesting delivery tech, and the box itself is relatively affordable. What happens when PBS stops broadcasting over the analog spectrum in 2009? Heaven knows.

What is missing from these devices is, in my humble opinion, free stuff. Yes, I mean free content. The Vudu could probably incorporate a Joost type service (or maybe Joost itself since it is already network connected and already doing peer-to-peer). And there is no reason that both devices could not get some deal with some new media company ad funded content provider(s), so you do not have to drop $3.99 every time you want to use the box. These devices, or rather these companies, should be pushing for content partners outside of Hollywood to, if nothing else, give these boxes a life outside of the pay-per-view model that has seen better days. You may see ads, but who cares - you can cover your eyes.

I'm still waiting for my ten trick pony (for regular people, you MythTV-ers).