Online telly August 5, 2007
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Miscellany , trackbackFinally, the age of digital broadcasting is upon us. Forget YouTube, Google Videos or whatever else you watch on the internet (and frankly, I don’t want to know). The BBC has finally put it’s digital version into Beta, and I’ve signed up.
I don’t own a telly, though I do have a card in my laptop that lets me get Freeview, but its a bit jerky and of course, I have to watch programmes when they’re on. Having been TV free ever since I’ve been in the UK, I’m completely out of the habit, and keep on forgetting.
So far, its a pretty solid beta. I downloaded it quite quickly (minutes on my 4Mb cable broadband), and got it installed with no problems, other than its rather unfriendly demand for Internet Explorer. Its tied up with Micro$oft digital rights management, so IE and Windows are compulsory. Logging on is a bit of a nuisance as there doesn’t seem to be any way of changing your usercode and password to something more memorable.
I downloaded my first programmes, Reisenback Falls and the documentary Ganges with no problems and in a few minutes for each. I also downloaded an episode of Dr Who which was very near to the 7 day limit, and when I came to watch it I couldn’t get a licence for it.
Watching the other two programmes was hasslefree, and far less jumpy than via Freeview. So, given that the few shows I ever watch are on the BBC, I think the freeview card can go on freecycle, and this is the way I’ll be watching TV from now on. I wonder if I still need my TV licence??
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Generally you need a TV license in the UK if you even *know* what a TV is. As far as I’m aware, you need a TV license even if you only use your TV set to watch DVDs on (i.e. the license isn’t just for receiving the signal) and you also need one even if you don’t use a TV to watch signals received (e.g. through a projector or a computer monitor) so it isn’t tied to the equipment - it’s the whole TV ethos thing!
And it’s a bit of a bummer that it appears to be so hampered by digital rights management. Especially for shows produced specifically for the BBC, as TV license holders we should technically be holding the rights to the programmes ourselves, and be able to watch them in perpetuity (and through whatever means we choose, come to that). Needless to say, nice to see the system finally up and running.