iboum.com : Future Entertainment Technology : Media Player On-Demand Content

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On-Demand Content
Up until recently Media Players have been used primarily for playing stored media files, from attached physical storage or from locally networked physical storage. Whilst local content will still be important, the emphasis is about to shift onto on-demand content accessed via the internet. If you were able to access any movie / TV show you wanted for instant streaming, would you go to trouble of downloading anything again, let alone buying a plastic disc first conceived in 1982?

We suspect that for most people the lure of instant on-demand content will be irresistible.

This page will give a run-down of the latest situation with regard to on-demand content in Media Players. It is regularly being updated as this exciting new area develops.

UPnP / DLNA
The first thing to note is that many Media Players are capable of a networking service called 'UPnP' or 'DLNA'. using these services you can use the Media Player as a 'media extender' and access most on-demand services available for PCs, providing a PC is turned on and connected to the Media Player. Whilst this is a workable solution, it is far from ideal. The setup is often complicated and by having the PC turned on you are mitigating some of the main benefits of the Media Player in reduced power usage and simplicity.

Existing on-demand services in Media Players (on-demand mk1)
Some Media Players already have limited on-demand services. These have traditionally been free and examples include Youtube, Flikr, Picassa, and some very limited free web-TV streams. In all the players we've seen we have yet to see a service that we would want to use regularly, the implementation is often clumsy and the content outdated and poor quality. Existing on-demand services are very much additions to the multi-format video / physical storage capabilities of the player. We will call these services 'on-demand mk1' from now one.

Future on-demand services in Media Players (on-demand mk2)
The real advance will come in devices more specifically designed for use with popular commercial on-demand streaming services like Netflix and BBC iPlayer. Unlike the mk1 devices these players have interfaces designed around on-demand streaming and make a point of providing content that you will actually want to view. The content providers will of course have to co-operate to make this work. Slowly they are coming round. See our article about future content for more info.

There is already a huge amount of content provided online. In the UK all major TV channels (BBC iPlayer, SKY Player, 4OD..) operate free to view internet 'catch up' services, and in the US there is online provision from FOX, Hulu, Boxee, Netflix..

TVersity	Hulu	Playon	Boxee
BBC iPlayer	4OD	Demand 5	Sky Player
FOX On Demand	HBO	Amazon VOD	Netflix
CWTV

The problem people will increasingly face is how to view this content on something more comfortable than a PC / laptop monitor.

The ideal solution is to be able to access on-demand entertainment directly via a Media Player and TV. So, for instance, you would turn the Media Player on and be able to chose from a catalogue of TV / movies that would then be instantly streamed to your TV.

The Current mk2 Situation
As mentioned above, there are very few media players that offer on-demand content with recent and popular commercial content. The Roku is the best bet for the US at the moment although it isn't really a Media Player since it has no local content provision.

As of March 2010 there are a couple of products very close to launch which are specifically designed to provide on-demand content and so represent the manifestation of the shiny new future that has inspired the whole iboum website. The BoxeeBox and PopBox both offer the potential to bring together the merits of a Media Player and the convenience of relevant on-demand content. Both launch in Spring 2010.

The iboum site will be the best place to evaluate the competing on-demand Media Players. We are currently in the process of implementing the same kind of advanced searching and filtering for on-demand content as we have for other features. As you might have noticed if you've read our site, we are very into the idea of on-demand!

Existing Solutions
There are already non-Media Player solutions to on-demand content. Cable companies have been operating on-demand services for many years (Virgin in the UK, ... in the US), games consoles offer some on-demand content (iPlayer for the Wii, ?? for the XBox 360, PS3), and the standalone Roku player has offered Netflix and other channels for a couple of years.

Our opinion is that these devices, whilst being useful, will eventually lose out to the standalone Media Player. A Media Player is substantially cheaper than a games console, is more capable in terms of video than anything else, and does not require the contractual commitment that a cable or satellite solution does. A long way down the line everybody will have on-demand content and the internet built into their TV, but this is a decade away at least. Just looking at the way DVB-T has propagated by set top box shows the preference for set top box upgrading amongst consumers.

By the middle of 2012 we are sure that most households will have some kind of Media Player device in their homes that is capable of all the functions currently undertaken by movie rental, TV on-demand, last.fm, and probably a few more that we haven't even imagined yet. BRING IT ON!

Page last updated: 10-Mar-10

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