As William Gibson said, “The future is already here – it is just unevenly distributed.” A few years ago I thought streaming video was an impossible dream. Networks were too slow, we said, and no one cared about streaming. A few us held the torch high and shouted in a stentorian voice “We shall stream!” but it was still not to be. We had TiVo, but that was securely ensconced on a hard drive in a box that sat next to my TV. I could get some video online – there were brief glimmers of hope with sites like SurftheChannel and their ilk (basically, web-based piracy sites) and Google Video which promised full-length films online. But I always stuck by Netflix and DVDs. I recall now that when my son was born, three years ago, we were on the 3 DVD/ unlimited choice plan on Netflix. Now, with my new daughter mewling by the TV, I’m on the 1 DVD/streaming plan. Things are changing drastically.
I have 83 movies on my Roku box. I have video-on-demand – from Netflix – on my Xboxen and on my desktops. I have easy access to movie rentals and purchases on multiple devices in my gadget constellation and, if I so desired, I could have downloaded – with dubious legality – the entire Oscar contender list in about four hours for playback on my hacked Apple TV. Hulu and other sites offer TV downloads. All this leads to a few important points. Please allow me to ruminate.
