[opendtv] Re: Google pulls plug on YouTube for older iPads, iPhones, smart TVs

  • From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 23 Apr 2015 23:56:38 +0000

Craig Birkmaier wrote:

Relying on these "apps" is just begging some self-interested
party to have greater control over your equipment, though. I
never understood the fascination.

And PCs are different? Me thinks Microsoft is a third party
with a rather poor track record in terms of managing the
Windows ecosystem.

Yes, PCs are different, perhaps for historical reasons, perhaps for reasons of
greed from the others.

First of all, PCs are different because they can use any number of web
browsers, for watching TV or doing anything else. The lesser devices are far
more limited.

But perhaps even more to the point, the difference is that Internet TV sources
support PCs without having to be begged. Whether it's Flash, or the media
players that require their own media servers as opposed to web servers (like
WMP or Real), Internet TV sources tend to support one or more of these options
by default. Microsoft does not need to get in bed with a TV portal, or with a
conglom, in order to have PCs able to consume those media streams.

For example, AppleTV and Roku, and Apple and Android tablets or smartphones,
are still finding it impossible to do something PCs have been able to do for
years and years. They can't seem to stream videos from the TV networks' own web
sites, or for that matter, from the very vast majority of TV portals, or from
any TV portal that is free. They can't even stream radio from the multiple
radio stations available online.

Whether it's because they are in bed with pay-only portals, or whether they're
holding off until they create their own walled-in portal, I don't know. Most
likely, a combination of reasons. Fact remains, the user of these devices is
confronted with a huge number of extra obstacles, and a ridiculously tiny
choice of options (considering the vastness of the Internet), compared with any
PC. The summarily dropped service to a large number of such devices, at the
drop of a hat, is hardly cause for surprise. It's to be expected.

Bert



----------------------------------------------------------------------
You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways:

- Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at
FreeLists.org

- By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word
unsubscribe in the subject line.

Other related posts:

  1. Home
  2. opendtv
  3. Archive
  4. 04-2015