Internet TV

With the installation of the new Macintosh operating system "Tiger" (10.4) came the new video compression codec labelled H.264. In their promotion of the new operationg system Apple executives are heralding 2005 as the year of high definition television and in keeping with this development the new operating system is geared up to handle the huge volume of data needed to support the concept.

Though I should have known, I just let this all pass me by, I did ask questions about the H.264 codec but the answers were as obscure as the questions because until you actually fiddle around with these things it all seems pretty much science fiction.

When I installed the new operating system I was eager to try out the new video compression technology and as you may have seen, I posted my daily note as a video clip. The first few of these were done using older routines and most of you were able to view these low quality and highly compressed clips. Then with the new system installed and running, the temptation to try out H.264 was to great and I made a couple using that format including a video clip on seeding. I know it sounds stupid, but it never crossed my mind that since these things looked so good on my screen they would not look just as good on everyone else's. Alas, QuickTime 7 is not available yet for other platforms and so I was posting stuff that only I and a few with "Tiger" installed, could access.

The point I am trying to make here is that all of these small and seemingly insignificant steps are leading to a technology that seemed impossible in the past. That being the transmission of television over the Internet, not just high speed connections, but even dial up. Like all technological developments we often just do things only because we can and Internet television is likely to be one of those things. Do we really want to sit in front of our computers even more for television programming?

Be it practical or desireable is not the question here, but rather is it technically feasible? Yes, absolutely. Friday afternoon we conducted some simple experiements feeding video signals from a hard drive and directly off of a DVD player, streaming online from a Winnipeg media company and I sat here in my office viewing an Eagle Vision documentary on Nelson House Cree full screen on a twenty inch monitor with CD quality sound and a flawless picture.

I can't give you that experience right now because you are not likely running OS 10.4 and you may not have a Macintosh, but the little clip on this page was video tape of the broadcast just to show you that it happened.

In order to use high definition television or broadcast television on the Internet, it is necessary to compress the data stream so that the system can carry the load. QuickTime 7 and the various compression systems developing, all contribute to this capability and the computer I am using can become a full blown television station were I to want to do that.

The consequences of this possiblity are far reaching. The whole ability to publish text, then pictures so that traditional paper publishing was no longer the preserve of newspapers and magazines, showed us that a project like this web site, can provide information and entertainment from a single person. The democratic power of the individual became hugely magnificed with this ability.

About two years ago thousands of audio online distribution systems have made online radio a reality and now I am warning you that streaming television is no longer a rumor, or something in the future, I can do it today, either live, or from DVD, or hard drive.

Three years ago my sons were involved in streaming events and experiements out on the Internet but the results were small little windows with limited quality. Those days are long gone as the quality and fluid nature of the broadcast not only equals, but exceeds what you see on your TV set.

Just consider what this will mean for the whole concept of television. The industry is still in big trouble because of the proliferation of cable channels that have reduced the revenue for the big networks and caused a shift in programming. One of these shifts has been the advent of "reality" television which costs a fraction to produce compared to drama or sitcoms. With television coming out of anyone's basement will the even further dilute the audiance?

In actual fact, even though I am heralding the advent of Internet televsion you have to accept that fact that the pornographic industry has been streaming both live and recorded video for more than two years. The quality is low, but it is happening and the revenue from this genre is significant.

What is now happening as a result of excellent web cameras and better compression is that people are starting to make their own video statements. Not pronography but mainstream everyday people announcing themselves to the world. Stay tuned.

Timothy W. Shire