h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I don't watch a lot of TV. I think most of the content is crap and (some of the) ads make me nauseous. However, some shows are very high quality and worth tuning in for.

And that's the bit that annoys me. Since the advent of the vinyl you haven't had to 'tune in' at any particular time for music you want to hear -- you can just buy it and play it whenever you want. One might argue the same has been true of television since VHS, but with VHS the show still had to be broadcast in the first place: you still had to set your video timer. You couldn't get it on demand like you could music.

The idea of sitting down at a particular time, weekly, in front of one's box in order to be allowed to absorb whatever piece of programming you have selected is thoroughly alien to me.

This is why http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6317389.stm is rather exciting news for me, because I can get the good stuff without having to sit through the rest of the stream of mind anaesthesia that television is.

The bit that annoys me:

"Consumers will have a computer littered with applications that take up space and memory. It would be like having to have separate set-top boxes to watch content from competing broadcasters," he said.

To simplify things for consumers, the answer would be to have a "Freeview equivalent for net TV", suggests Mr Amel.

Thoroughly hoping that there will be something like that. Recently I read an article on Slashdot about the different availability of content in different geographical regions (http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/25/1336208); the writer complained of being unable to buy Japanese music simply because he lives in the US. The rights and wrongs of this are debated in the article and I will not present a case for either side (it should all be available everywhere/there's no pressing or economic reason to do that, in sum) here. All I can say is that any attempt to provide a universal player, the "Freeview equivalent for net TV" will probably be fraught with the same difficulties.

The conclusion: that is a great shame.