Sunday, December 13, 2009

Cable Freedom Is MORE Than A Click Away, but not by much

Nick Bilton recently raves about his new, "cable-less" living room in an article on his NY Times blog titled Cable Freedom Is A Click Away. He points to his recent transition away from the standard cable system, followed by his rejection of the alternatives to provide quality entertainment at a good price. He states:

Among this pile you can find my old remote controls and wires from my cable box. Then there’s the dreaded Apple TV, now a $250 paperweight. There’s also the $80 Roku box, a device that allows you to stream video from Netflix, Amazon.com and other sites directly to your television. But wait, there’s more! A Vudu player, a Slingbox and a handful of other single-serving contraptions.

All of these things seemed to be revolutionary in the concept of streaming entertainment to a TV, but as far as he is concerned, failed. Instead, he is content with his new setup, consisting of a "Mac Mini, a wireless mouse, and a Microsoft XBOX" hooked up to his TV.

Through this seemingly simple and low-cost setup, Nick is provided with TV Shows, Movies, and access to streaming online content at a low cost. He and his wife only have to pay the standard $30 a month Internet bill, and $9 for access to the Netflix Content that they can stream. Nick can't get over the fact that he saves $1,600 each year by replacing all of the standard home entertainment costs, and reducing it to $39 a month.

This all seems ideal, but there's a catch. What he acknowledges later demonstrates that Cable Freedom is not just "A Click Away." If a set up like this was really just "a click away," it wouldn't be so complex. Setting this type of system up, and then actually using it, make the system incredibly difficult and require a high level of technology knowledge.

He explains, “If you want to watch “Ugly Betty,” or “Saturday Night Live,” you will need to load up Hulu. If you’d like to watch some of the movies we’ve downloaded, you will have to quit Hulu, open up Boxee and navigate to the movies folder. To use Netflix, you’ll need to switch to the Xbox and. ... ”

If a setup where you could access great content for cheap were really just "a click away" I'd suggest it to two people who I know would be huge fans--my Grandma and Grandpa. But I don't see them figuring this system out in the years that they have left on this planet.

Another influential factor in this setup that Nick identifies is the inability for users to access live content. That just won't fly.

However, Nick is not that far off in his claim. It has not taken long for this "free streaming entertainment" revolution to take a firm stance in the market, and it is sure to be the future of home entertainment. A product and service will be released in the coming years that consolidates all of these devices into one, and makes streaming online video both cheap and ACTUALLY user friendly.

It'll just be a few more clicks until we get to that point...

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