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NBC Direct to Offer TV Shows

BKF said:
What's interesting is this:

"Future versions of "NBC Direct," which will roll out over the next several months, will provide expanded platform functionality and will allow DRM ("digital rights management") protected versions of its programs to be downloaded to Macs and portable devices in addition to PCs."

If NBC bows to the ubiquity of the iPod and allows these files to be dragged into iTunes, then this could be more or less good news for Apple, as it will continue to drive sales of newer, larger capacity iPods, which is the whole point (or 90% of the point) of iTunes, anyway.
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I would agree with this, but Apple will not license Fairplay to NBC, so unless they use no DRM (not a chance in Hell) or reverse engineer Fairplay (see how well Real's Harmony did), iPod users lose (even those with PCs). I guess the 15 people that own a Zune will be glad though.

If this is using Microsoft Silverlight technology as rumored, while it may be Mac compatible eventually, it will never be PPC Mac compatible, leaving users like me out in cold. I have no PC, a G5 iMac, and an iPod...how will I consume NBC content?

I understand NBC not wanting to bend to every Apple demand, but as other's have said, they could have done this AND kept content on iTunes. Hell, they could have put the content on iTunes after this 6 day period ends.
 
Why all the complaints?

This sounds much like what Channel 4 and the BBC are doing in the UK with their 4od and iPlayer services. Both use Kontiki (P2P thingy) and WMP, so only work on Windows. For both systems you can download shows for free up to seven days after they broadcast and then can watch them for about 30 days after that before the DRM kicks in. You can also stream them live, which makes more sense than waiting an hour for a show to download off iTunes. As far as I'm aware they've been quite successful (think iPlayer is only in beta though). BBC don't do ads, but the Channel 4 one is ad supported, and they only put one at the start of each download.

I'm much happier watching shows like this through Parallels/Bootcamp than I would be downloading them off itunes for £1.99.

I also think it makes good business sense for NBC too. It cuts out the middleman, and the Kontiki model allows for flexible pricing. All NBC have to do is license the software. I think more people are likely to watch shows this way when they can be live streamed as well.

Why all the complaints? Free shows vs. ones you pay for, both at (I'm assuming) the same bit rate. Step out the RDF.
 
Dumb idea

If I can't get it through iTunes, then I'm just going to get it on a torrent or Tivo it and rip it. iTunes just makes everything so easy. So, NBC or anyone else thinking of leaving iTunes and their millions of customers, this is a bad idea.
 
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shov said:
Why all the complaints? Free shows vs. ones you pay for, both at (I'm assuming) the same bit rate. Step out the RDF.
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[/snippet]

The "free shows aren't actually free because you have to go through the commercials.
The ones I pay for don't have those commercials and imho m4v h.264 is way better than wmv in ANY format.
 
ajhill said:
This is all the proof you need to see that Broadcast TV is last Century's technology. Be thankful that one day great entertainment will be available over the internet and companies like GE/NBC will be only mentioned in museums.
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Great entertainment like "Leave Britney Alone" or "Diet Coke + Mentos"? ;)

As long as it takes money to produce and market TV shows, movies, music, books, etc., big companies will be involved because they have money.


Lethal
 
Who cares

If they don't make it available on iTunes and don't make it available on the Mac, what other choice do I have but to get it from BitTorrent or eMule? What a bunch of losers.
 
peace said:

"The "free shows aren't actually free because you have to go through the commercials."


fair enough on the format, and I don't know how NBC will implement this, but on the UK services you have one advert at the start of the show and that's it. You've barely sat down before the advert's over. ...Although american TV seems to have a lot more adverts than British TV, so it might well be worth paying the money!
 
shov said:
Why all the complaints? Free shows vs. ones you pay for, both at (I'm assuming) the same bit rate. Step out the RDF.
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I complain because I want to watch on my iPod, which will not be possible. Don't get me wrong, this is Apple's fault as well, but I don't care who's responsible. The bottom line is that I used to be able to watch the Office on my iPod and it was legal, very easy, and took no time. Now I will have to torrent it and convert it to an iPod format (which is illegal and time consuming) or buy a DVD, rip it, and convert it to an iPod format (which has questionable legality and is VERY time consuming).

And those of use without intel Macs are completely shut out. And my Mac is just about 3 years old, so it is not ancient by any means.

Or what about the people with intel Macs that don't want to pay for a copy of Windows and Parallels if they don't need it for anything else.
 
slu said:
I complain because I want to watch on my iPod, which will not be possible. Don't get me wrong, this is Apple's fault as well, but I don't care who's responsible. The bottom line is that I used to be able to watch the Office on my iPod and it was legal, very easy, and took no time. Now I will have to torrent it and convert it to an iPod format (which is illegal and time consuming) or buy a DVD, rip it, and convert it to an iPod format (which has questionable legality and is VERY time consuming).

And those of use without intel Macs are completely shut out. And my Mac is just about 3 years old, so it is not ancient by any means.

Or what about the people with intel Macs that don't want to pay for a copy of Windows and Parallels if they don't need it for anything else.
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With all due respect you are going to have to bite the bullet one day and go Intel.That's the present and future of Macs.
 
NewSc2 said:
Why are you all complaining? NBC wants to offer it for free now. There's no indication that next year they'll stop offering it for free, but they will probably add a download-to-own feature.

For all we know this could've been what NBC and Apple couldn't agree on.
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I guess we are forgetting the online viewing that was offered last year? It was clunky but worked. Of course there were ads....
 
I will now simply set my eyeTV to record whatever, edit out the commercials myself, and then export to AppleTV.

bit more work, but free and portable.
 
Peace said:
With all due respect you are going to have to bite the bullet one day and go Intel.That's the present and future of Macs.
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I agree that I will need to go intel, but my machine is not that old and is still very usable for everything I use it for (photos, video editing, and garageband), and NBC TV shows are something I can live without...but it does bother me when I can't do something I could do before and it is not a hardware limitation that prevents it.

It is not like I am asking to be able to play the latest and greatest games at max settings on my G5.

Well, that and I can't afford a new Mac right now! But seriously, if I had bought a PowerMac instead of this iMac 3 years ago I wouldn't even consider upgrading for a few years.

And while I can't back this up at all, I'd bet the installed base of PPC Macs is still greater than that of intel Macs.
 
Don't usually post this kind of stuff on the internet, but...

gkarris said:
You mean I can watch NBC/Universal on my little 14" laptop PC instead of my 60" front projection Home Theater? I'm there! (rolls eyes...)
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Erm, I don't usually post what my wife and I do in our bed on the Internet :eek:, but we've actually gotten quite used to watching stuff on my MBP propped up on a pillow in bed. She likes any kind of sci-fi/comic book/etc. stuff because it instantly puts her into a deep, peaceful sleep, and I actually just like sci-fi/comic book/etc stuff.

We really should never have gotten the 46" wide-screen--it gets so little use.
 
levitynyc said:
WTF? Why aren't macs supported?!!!!
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My thoughts exactly.

NBC really stuck it to Apple, didn't they. In the meantime, they are betting on the fact that ad revenue will be more than $ they receive from Apple/iTunes. I like a few of the shows mentioned in the press release, but personally I want to see NBC fail in this venture.
 
Doesn't work for me.

Peace said:
With the Elgato Hybrid you can buy an over the air High Definition antenna for $25 and record High Def for free.Almost ALL local stations now have free over the air High Def programming.
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I tried this and was not able to get a decent signal where I live. I use Dish Network now. I don't see anyway of using EyeTV.:(
 
The bright side:

1) They're offering free better-than-streaming downloads immediately after the broadcast.

2) Though the details are vague, the article says future versions will support Macs as well as "portable devices". Even NBC isn't stupid enough to not be compatible with the 100 million+ iPods out there. (right...?)

3) High-res option will later be available, via P2P. In addition to purchasing, rental and subscriptions will be available.

Assuming this is compatible with OS X and iPod (see #2), this isn't such a bad deal. Now, I'd like to keep the current iTunes system as much as the next person, but I understand NBC has to look out for its own interests. The addition of all these new formats is probably where Apple and NBC disagreed.

My only real concern is, does anyone really want to have a different program/system/bill for each network? Come 2008, will I have to download NBCDirect, ABCDirect, etc. and learn all their different prices and rules? To me, this consolidation and simplification is the greatest advantage of iTunes. Knowing this is probably why Apple was so unwilling to offer NBC different options. Allegedly.
 
LordJohnWhorfin said:
If they don't make it available on iTunes and don't make it available on the Mac, what other choice do I have but to get it from BitTorrent or eMule? What a bunch of losers.
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Uhm... watch it on TV, or record it with eyeTV, or don't watch the show at all?

It's all well and good to call NBC a bunch of idiots (which I agree with), but don't try to claim NBC forced you to illegally download their shows. That part you decided to do all on your own. Access to TV shows is not in the Magna Carta - at least not the last time I checked.
 
nbc... giving me another reason to continue cutting tv out of my day. i'm a big fan of heroes, but i refuse to deal with commercials. (just not even worth the annoyance for me - i'd rather find something else to do) so, i guess i'll just borrow season dvd's from a friend that usually buys them. i refuse to ever let nbc get another cent from me.
 
boxlight said:
, I watch TV on my *TV*.
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That's exactly it. Some one figured out long ago what
TV viewers do. It goes in this order
  1. I want to watch TV, turn TV on.
  2. Now let's see what's on
  3. Settle for the show that sucks the least

The thing to notice here is that he desides to turn on the TV before he knows what he is going to watch.

NBC's web site seems to be designed for that 0.1%
of TV viewers that do not fit the above pattern. Very few will got to NBC to see what they have. Most just go to TV and wath anything that is on.
 
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