Why Cable TV is Obsolete.

I've been thinking a lot about this and I wanted to start a thread on it. I've come to the conclusion that Cable tv is obsolete. Dead. Gone.

Most people don't know what I'm talking about. So I'll elaborate. The power of P2P aka file sharing technology in my opinion will put the cable tv industry in danger in the next five years.

P2P allows people to download more than just movies and music. It allows them to download tv shows and documentaries where the commercials have been deleted.

This eradicates the need to pay cable companies 70 bucks a month to have service. SBC ran their stupid ad "cable, tv, dsl" to try to brainwash people, but intelligent persons like myself know that internet compresses everything into one.

Therefore I do not have cable tv, and I will never get it. I will also never buy a plasma tv, because if cable is obsolete, and anything I want can be received via the net, then television itself is obsolete.

Whether or not you believe P2P is ethical is not the central argument. The argument is that tv and cable are obsolete, and in the coming years the cable companies will fall.

People who buy plasma tvs are complete morons. With a mere 1500 bucks you could buy a high end laptop where you are able to selectively download any television program you want, commercial free.

This means the advertising structure of the world is changing over to the net. My advice to everyone? Don't buy plasma tvs and cancel your cable service!

 

Disagree.

The majority will remain 'followers' who like sheep sit in their chairs waiting for crap to be served up. Only the 'listeners' and 'do-ers' will actively seek content.

 

I read your post, thought about it, and I've come to the conclusion you are right. Most people will continue to be brainwashed to "buy huge tvs" and pay high priced cable bills.

Only the smart people realize that you can have it all with just a computer and the internet. But I guess it is good that way. If too many people start doing it then the government will probably crack down hard, and make it tough for the rest of us.

 

you type 8 paragraphs and I talk you around in just 1.

The 80/20 rule is universal. 80% are sheep, no clue what is going on. 15 of the 20% actually listen and pick up some info. The other 5% actually take action; they are the winners.

 

Disagree as well.

1. The P2P isnt good enough yet to substitute cable tv yet. As the downloading of all the content isnt out there 100% solid. You always run into things such as slow downloads, episode missing or not enough peers.

2. 95% of people dont even know what P2P is. The regular people that have average jobs and such aren't very computer educated.

3. It's not convinient enough. If I need a brake and want to watch tv, i'd have to start downloading which will take 15minutes - 4 hours just to watch something.

4. The media is great at brain-washing and will scare many many people once this becomes an issue. Just like with mp3 sharing, now people pay for Mp3's even though some know you can get it for free. and others just know of the pay per download.

 

If there was no cable, where would the tv shows get ripped from and distributed on the net? Also why not get that plasma tv and output your downloaded media to it?

I run Linux so no need to download copyrighted programs, I don't listen to music so no need to pirate that. However I do download tv shown - the reason for that is I'm in Denmark and I'm sick of waiting years for a show to be broadcasted in some chopped up 4:3 version, if it ever is broadcasted that is.

 

You're missing some very important things:

a) Quality. Plasma and High Def. TVs offer crystal clear media like never before. You can't download any show or movie you want (hell you'd be lucky to get a few) in that kind of High Def. Quality. I've watched movies/tv on a 60 something inch high def. TV and I can tell you it's well worth the money.

b) Groups. many people like to play video games, etc in groups with friends. Do you think they're fun level raises with a huge Hi-Def TV and xbox or having to transport they're PC's over , plug them in, network them, and continually buy more expensive PC hardware to play?

What is actually going to happen is that TV/Internet are going to be more mixed into each other. You'll be able to watch movies and programs any time you want from your TV.

 

Sounds like someone is a sheep.

Tesla, if TV is gone then wtf are people going to download?

You'll see more intergration of the internet and TV shows. It's already happening, but there is a huge number of people that won't give up quality and that are just not internet savy.

 

Personally I think this thread is a bit silly.

Sharing films and TV programs via P2P is (almost universally) illegal.

The owners of the material are starting to get really heavy about protecting thier rights and sending the thieves to jail.

My view is that P2Ping copyrighted material is the thing most likely to die in the near future.

But then I'm biased because I'm in the trade and I know the length to which we are starting to go to add little gizmos into everything to track it! Some things can't be discussed in the open (honestly!) but I can give you a taster by telling you that in the near future every time a film is shown in any cinema it will include hidden signals that will allow a video copy made to later be identified by not only the cinema, but the screen and the time and date of the showing. If the quality of the pirate copy is good enough you can even calculate the seat in which the pirate was sat.

 

My attention span is too short for al this technobabble

 

P2P isnt going anywhere. People keep barking and barking about it but no one can do squat. It has been around since as far as I could remember. As long as there is a will there is a way.

 

But what about chinese who don't care about trademarks

You guys ever order any dvds off ebay?

 

I agree. P2P is like nuclear technology. The genie is out of the bottle and its not going back in.

I personally enjoy getting content on the web. I'm willing to save money by utilizing the net rather than television and cable, but its up to your personal preference.

I'll tell you one thing. These big corps better be glad 90% of the population is not like me or civilization would crash and burn.

 

Now that, I agree with!

 

That is true, but as soon as the copied material crosses over into a country like the USA or Europe, knowingly handling it becomes a crime.

The Internet is not the anonymous place most people seem to think - sure you can find many ways to make it difficult to track you, but never impossible.

There is a lot of money in films/TV/music and money talks loud in political lobbies - people are already getting pretty good at tracking down criminals, but there is loads more that is very likely to happen in the near future.

 

What do you suggest you think anyone can do to stop it? Start sueing people for file sharing? RIAA is doing that in US, what did that accomplish? NOTHING!

Drugs are illegal in the USA too... SO WHAT? They cant even stop physical stuff so how are you going to stop something on the internet unless it becomes 100% controled, which is impossible to do!

 

They are getting more and more controlling.

It's easy enough to hide your identity when buying drugs, but if the feds force every ISP to keep logs of everything you do online and to make them available for automated scanning, things get really tricky!

 

The thing is that the Internet is not just the US, how are the feds going to impose laws on me here in Europe?

It's never going to be stopped unless it's by offering the users what they want - easy access to the entertainment they want, when they want it and on the platform they want it.

 

Why not just buy a 52" plasma screen and hook that up to your laptop.

Buying a huge TV is really a bad thing

 

Well, a) they could stop the majority of criminal use of P2P in the USA, meaning that at least there would still be a market for Cable TV there, and b) don't think much the same isn't under way in Europe!