Should Sage try and make a deal with vod service

[badllama77]

I was thinking that it would be cool to have integrated vod selection and viewing.
Integration of Vongo, cinemanow or other service into sagetv
thoughts?

[Polypro]

I prefer to receive physical media in the mail. I can wait a few months for movies. Now the Stern Show on the other hand....

P

[stanger89]

I'm going to say no, with a few caveats.

Right now, I think due to quality, download time, and cost, internet VOD services are not practical/worthwhile.

Beyond that, and more applicable to the community at large, I think it depends greatly on how much effort it would be. If it could be done for "free" (meaning minimal development), and if it were posed as an optional, additional service, I think it could have legs, and would be a nice counter to MCE.

However there are things that should be improved upon first IMO, such that I don't think development time should be deverted to something as immature as internet VOD.

[korben_dallas]

I said no also, though I might change my mind per a big caveat:

Content is completely downloaded, perhaps overnight, and is viewable for a period like 24-48 hours.

I think the implementation would be tricky since SageTV has both Windows and Linux servers. And also, how do you handle SageTV clients? Only one client can watch the content at a time? Does it work over Placeshifting? (probably not)

[phenixdragon]

A little insite that I know about trying to build it into Sage is that some of these companies I have dealt with personally and they are all for integrating into Sage but it is a matter of money. Such as I was given access to pretty much anything I wanted with MovieLink and CinemaNow as I did build media centers for awhile with Sage and it would work flawlessly if I took the time to make it work. Basically they are just using a browser where it is built for MCE but not for others. They would have used their resources to make it work with Sage if they were paid. But really anyone who knows how to make a plugin can make it work with Sage. It's just browser based.

And the quality is becoming less of an issue as they are starting to step it up to what I like to call DSS quality and HDTV. Still early but it is being pushed forward as time goes on.

Now what I would like to see is IPTV ingetration which should be taking off this summer into early next year as AT&T pushes it.

[CollinR]

BTT this should be done.


With the current war between Blue Ray and HDDVD it is inevitable consumers will choose a no upfront cost option to access to a massive library of video.

Will it be limited in regaurds to the normal SageTV functionality... Yeah probably so. The Google and YouTube stuff is nice but since you currently cannot hardly watch a DVD anymore making basically any DVD a couple of clicks away would be very desirable.

[95TBird]

No... I think they should concentrate their efforts on getting the HD Media Extender Released !!

[Alfiegerner]

In the UK the major channels offer a decent VOD service free of charge. Unlikely to ever see this working outside their own proprietary apps but they do offer a tremendous service.