4 ms·

I want to contest that "streaming TV" currently encompasses quite competent players. DirecTV Now has been a dumpster fire of a rollout, Hulu is coming in late

by awinder 10y ago

I want to contest that "streaming TV" currently encompasses quite competent players. DirecTV Now has been a dumpster fire of a rollout, Hulu is coming in late with a rather boutique offering, and none of these services offer some basic tablestakes features like greater-than-2-channel audio. Which, maybe I'm just overprivileged, but 5.1 audio is streamed over airwaves right now, and these guys can't figure out how to do it over the internet? Additionally theres tons of arcane pricing rules around how many streams an account can hold, weird DVR inplementation / rules around DVR, basically the kind of efficacy in solutions that existed for music before Apple came along and forced sanity into the market. I think this is easily an area that any number of players could really ratchet up & take, but not one solid reference implementation exists right now.

JohnnyConatus 10y ago
The lack of 5.1 support is not due to a lack of competence. It's due to the relatively small number of people who have a 5.1 setup. Basic product management.
- awinder 10y ago
  Do you have marketshare numbers? I mean, soundbars would get an audio bump out of the upgrade, and theres egads of those sold. This is also "basic product management" until 1 competitor offers it, and then it becomes a wedge issue, so I'm not convinced that skipping table-stakes features is completely wise. It's also a wedge issue for people to subscribe to any of these services coming from OTA / Cable / Satellite, so if that's the competitive market place, again, I'm not sure it's a great product management decision.
- izacus 10y ago
  What is this "small number"? A few millions of potential customers with (now rather cheapish) home cinema systems?