JoostTeam

NBC, ABC and CBS effort to put full length show on the internet so that people can watch them on their PC might be futile. I, for one, will rarely watch a full show on my Mac screen from beginning to end. What I will do is either record it on my HTPC or make the downloaded version available on a network share to watch on my HTPC hooked to my living room 40 inch LCD.

I am not going to relax and enjoy a show while sitting uncomfortably in my computer desk chair for 40 minutes! No way! If I sit in front of my Mac it is to interact with application, browser, and content… not to watch a show.

What is missing is a low cost appliance that anyone can hook to their TV to enjoy full length show in the living room (maybe the future Apple iMac Nano can help here). Sharing the viewing experience with others is part of the fun of watching a TV show or a movie… so I want to do this with friends and family members on a comfy couch.

Mike Volpi from Joost has recognized this and is not expecting wide adoption of the platform until it is made available on a set-top box. This is supposedly going to happen within the next 18 months or so.

Luckily for me Joost also run on my HTPC… so I can watch it while relaxing in the living room. The issue is that I reside in Canada… so CBS shows are not available to me thank’s to geo restrictions.

Until they become available I will have to keep recording the old way on my HTPC or download them from sources like BitTorrent. Geo Restrictions are really annoying. I mean, I can watch the show via my cable subscription, over the Air, record it to VHS, DVR or DVD recorder… but I can’t watch it online?

People… the internet is a giant DVR! What is the difference of recording the show locally versus downloading from the Web? A big argumentation can be made about that… but I am not going to jump in it at this time…