All I want is my video back
All I want for my birthday is my video back, I really miss it. I am rifling through back numbers of Broadcast as one does, reading about how in April alone, people ordered 20 million programmes using iPlayer and how smug old C4/Hardcash have managed to win a ‘landmark six figure sum’ from West Midland Constabulary for that Dispatches Undercover Mosque documentary.
Is that all? Six figures, it’s hardly a landmark. Now Ofcom fining ITV £5.8m, that’s an eye watering landmark which ITV shareholders won’t forget in a hurry. But a paltry £150K probably represents a day’s takings from a B road speed camera. Anyway I digress, I miss my video. Listen to this, the BBC is now planning to plant ‘Minisodes’ (sic) on the web ahead of each weekly Panorama prog to boost audience and reach younger viewers.
Minisodes! I can’t keep up with the jargon anymore. The other day Simon, one of my techie colleagues, asked if I wanted to download or stream. ‘No thanks,’ I said, ‘I’ve just been.’ (Don’t worry, he didn’t get it either) Anyway. I want my vid back. I don’t need HD or Blueray and I hate iPlayer, SkyPlayer, C4OD, VoD for my job, because they don’t do what I want, or if they do, its only there for a week,. What about Sky+? True, it is easy to use, but I can’t download the stuff to keep. And if I do have a DVD, I find it hard to locate things. My old Video archive was easy. I could take the cassette out of the recorder. Review it, I could write on the spine. And joy, I ended up with a tape, which just went forwards and backwards fast or slow, instead of lurching and jumping all over the shop.
But, Hang on, this Slingbox thingy looks interesting. Just add broadband and you can watch your home TV on your lap top, where ever you are in the world. Umm –with the holiday season coming up …. On second thoughts all I want for my birthday is a Slingbox.