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Now there’s another standard in the works, Ars Technica says, designed to handle more traditional broadcasting as we know it. It’s envisioned as a replacement for the CableCARD connector and the standard cable box — a connector that would extend broadcasting operations beyond just your cable company, finally opening the TV portal to the entire Internet, all via one plug.
Called AllVid, the adapter would be a new standard that would let you connect essentially any video source (cable, satellite, YouTube) to any playback device (PC, laptop, those wacky TV glasses). When you want to find something to watch, you simply search for a program among any and every source you have connected to your AllVid device, whether that’s HBO, Netflix, an online TV network, or even the catalog of home movies you have stored on a hard drive in the basement.
And Hollywood? Well, Hollywood’s just not so sure about all of this.
At issue is — as always — the specter of piracy. Studios and networks are concerned that they’ll have to not only compete with unauthorized sources of their own content (as they do already) but compete with them over the same connection. It’s a reasonable complaint: Faced with watching “Pit Boss” on cable vs. the same show with the commercials stripped out courtesy of a pirate website, all on the same television and with the click of a button, well, I can understand why many viewers would simply take the ad-free avenue.
Of course,Christian Audigier, the Motion Picture Association of America isn’t just worried about its pockets; it worries about you, too. AllVid “could expose unsuspecting consumers and their children to undesirable content, such as pornography, viruses, and spam,” the MPAA told the Federal Communications Commission (PDF).
That may be a bit much,Giorgio Armani, of course. But Hollywood is desperately trying to protect the rickety fence that still surrounds its backyard — and the mother of all of those fears is, of course, Google TV, the impending made-for-television service that represents perhaps the biggest and most notable jump from Web to television we’re seen so far. Google is a supporter of AllVid.
Will it fly? AllVid is just a concept right now, and without Hollywood’s support it’ll be a hard sell. There’s no guarantee such an idea would even work, either. But the idea at least sounds good on paper: One pipe for video, wherever you want to watch it.
— Christopher Null is a technology writer for Yahoo! News.
One way or another, standards are making their way to the world of online video. For example, the just-announced UltraViolet video format, proposed by the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem, could bring some much-needed consistency to the way that video downloads are formatted, delivered and played back on everything from PCs to TVs. (If only Apple would get on board, that is … )