----- Original Message -----
From: "Stephen Sprunk" <stephen@sprunk.org>
Multicast _is_ useful for filling the millions of DVRs out there with broadcast programs and for live events (eg. sports). A smart VOD system would have my DVR download the entire program from a local cache--and then play it locally as with anything else I watch. Those caches could be populated by multicast as well, at least for popular content. The long tail would still require some level of unicast distribution, but that is _by definition_ a tiny fraction of total demand.
The problem with that, Steve, is that that is over the cold, dead bodies of the program producers, and by extension, their transport agents; the... I think we're calling it the Comcast decision -- the one that said that centralized Big Ass DVRs didn't violate copyright law -- made them unhappy enough about where the content was. In the final analysis, program producers are simply going to have to get over themselves, and stop thinking they can charge people multiple times for multiple formats and resolutions, frex. The *minute* a legal multicast pre-charge facility becomes available, I'm sure someone will write a module for MythTV, and that's a couple million homes, right there. Cheers, -- jra -- Jay R. Ashworth Baylink jra@baylink.com Designer The Things I Think RFC 2100 Ashworth & Associates http://baylink.pitas.com 2000 Land Rover DII St Petersburg FL USA #natog +1 727 647 1274