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Idea for a new kind of "cable box"

Meecrob

Meecrob

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 25, 2006
78
0
New England
I have this idea for a new product: a _cheap_ little box (maybe with a linux os) that connects to the internet/your tv and plays only the flash-based free channels of hulu.com and joost.com as well as any others that spring up.

I think its a good idea.. since everyone is cutting back on expenses these days it would be an attractive prospect to not have to pay for cable and instead watch the free content online (some is even in HD). has anyone heard of a product that already does this?
 
That's a great idea. Copyright it and make a patent for it immediately, and get it out there.

It would have to have fairly high specs to play the HD content, though. If you could work with Hulu.com themselves perhaps they could assist you, after you copyright it and stuff.
 
Are you thinking of like a "browser" box? Because it seems like some of those videos are actually links to the owners sites like CBS, etc. I supposed you figured out how to solve the problem of playing the videos automatically from those linked sites...if it's not just a "linux computer with various TV outputs" where you would have to operate a browser.

I'm not really quite sure about this technology right now, myself. It kinda sucks. It seems to pause and chop a lot. So you would have to make sure customers don't blame your product if it's the traffic/network giving the problems. But I'm sure in time they will solve some of the issues.
 
Is there something inherently bad about the television channels which you get for free in the USA that makes everyone want to pay money for more?

In the UK you can choose between Freeview (through an aerial) or Freesat and at the very least you should get about 30 channels.
 
neiltc13 said:
Is there something inherently bad about the television channels which you get for free in the USA that makes everyone want to pay money for more?

In the UK you can choose between Freeview (through an aerial) or Freesat and at the very least you should get about 30 channels.
Click to expand...


Because most people only get about 5 channels for free....CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX and PBS. Mainly a few more, depending on where you live, but that's it.
 
neiltc13 said:
Is there something inherently bad about the television channels which you get for free in the USA that makes everyone want to pay money for more?

In the UK you can choose between Freeview (through an aerial) or Freesat and at the very least you should get about 30 channels.
Click to expand...

Because like Supersize Mcdonalds, we Americans have to have much in excess of what we will use. We would pay $100 or more for 500 channels and only watch like 5 "preiodically". ;)

BTW, we just made the digital TV conversion last month. Took a while because the government had to make sure the "poor" people had a means to access emergency TV broadcasts and such, but we got there and DTV channels are much better than b4.

But "cable" and "satelite" TV do give families more choices, like learning and cartoon channels for the kids and cooking channels for Mom, etc. where normal TV doesn't have these specialized programmings.
 
yg17 said:
Because most people only get about 5 channels for free....CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX and PBS. Mainly a few more, depending on where you live, but that's it.
Click to expand...

Not anymore.

You can easily get 20+ channels over the air since DTV, sometimes more.
 
yg17 said:
Such as? You can't get any other of the major networks like TBS, Comedy Central, HBO, etc, over the air
Click to expand...

There are sometimes a couple of "sub-channels" for each traditional channel. It's like 2-1, 2-2, 2-3, etc... Over the air networks have expanded more into the digital spectrum I guess since the capability is there. Heck, more advertising. But those "specialty channels" (other than PBS) are usually reserved for pay-service.
 
yg17 said:
Such as? You can't get any other of the major networks like TBS, Comedy Central, HBO, etc, over the air
Click to expand...

You can't get HBO but you can get TBS and Comedy Central over the air in some places. Even before DTV. But back on topic It does sound like a good idea.
 
rasmasyean said:
There are sometimes a couple of "sub-channels" for each traditional channel. It's like 2-1, 2-2, 2-3, etc... Over the air networks have expanded more into the digital spectrum I guess since the capability is there. Heck, more advertising. But those "specialty channels" (other than PBS) are usually reserved for pay-service.
Click to expand...

I know about the subchannels. In most cities, they're crap. I know in St. Louis, for subchannels, we have 24 hour weather on NBC, and a couple extra PBS ones, like PBS Kids. Nothing that I personally want to watch. Typically, the subchannels are second-tier programming since the good stuff is on the main channels.

K3mp said:
You can't get HBO but you can get TBS and Comedy Central over the air in some places. Even before DTV. But back on topic It does sound like a good idea.
Click to expand...
Where can you get Comedy Central over the air at?
 
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