A couple of weeks ago, a federal appellate court made a significant ruling that may become the first big step toward a third-screen reality. As reported by TheStreet.com (“Court Hands Cablevision Competitive Edge,” August 15, 2008), the court sided with Cablevision regarding its RS-DVR (remote service-digital video recorder) service, a network-based DVR application.

 

The ruling itself centered on copyright ownership of materials stored in the network. The ruling affirmed that, from the standpoint of copyright law, RS-DVRs are the same as traditional DVRs.

 

The RS-DVR functions like a traditional DVR, but all storage and playback is delivered from the network-based application. Users simply receive a remote control with DVR functions (play, pause, record…); the giant DVR ‘box’ lives in the cloud.

 

For Cablevision, the attraction of this application is that it lowers the cost of offering DVR capabilities to subscribers. Rather than providing a physical box to subscribers, Cablevision can centralize the DVR functionality and deliver a virtual DVR service.

 

I recall seeing a demonstration of a network-based DVR several years ago. In the demo, a standard on-screen channel guide displayed the content showing on all the channels, from current time forward through the next 24 hours and back through the previous 24 hours. Paging the channel guide forward, one could simply select a show for the DVR to record in the future.

 

One could also immediately start watching any show that had been broadcast within the previous day. Consider that capability for a second. If, for example, a movie had been on from 2–4 a.m., the user could just press play to begin watching it immediately.

 

In my opinion, the fact that my content is now stored in the cloud means it can be delivered to me wherever, whenever, and however I want.

 

I have never been a big fan of third-party applications for delivering personal content remotely like Orb or SlingBox. While both address different applications, the basic concept is to extend content stored in the home to users when they were remote. In the case of video, the content needed to be uploaded out of the home and transferred to the remove device (laptop, mobile phone…). This is inefficient and puts an undue burden on the capabilities of the broadband link to the home as well as the home network for storage and potentially, for transcoding.

 

When I consider how I would like to have video services delivered to my mobile, I certainly don’t want broadcast TV. What I want to watch is almost never on when I want to watch it. I may seek out mobile-centric content, mobile episodes or shows, but only if the content is truly compelling. What I really want is to catch up on all the shows my DVR is already recording — the content I have already decided I want to view. Today, that content is trapped in my home.

 

Content stored in the cloud is much easier to deliver to me on the devices and in the forms that I want. With the content available in the network, it’s not hard to see how the same show can be transcoded for different device types. Content could be stored in HD for playback in the home, or in standard 640x480 for streaming to the desktop/laptop, or reduced further for display on a mobile screen.

 

 

 

 

Yet it’s essentially my content. Cablevision is providing a value-added service by making my content available to me on any one of three different screens I may choose to watch.

 

A simple Cablevision Widget on my mobile phone would pull up my network DVR library. The Widget could report to the DVR application my connection rate and device capabilities. I would select a show and the DVR would stream it to my mobile screen. The Widget then transforms into a DVR toolbar with play, pause, fast-forward, and rewind capabilities.

 

It seems so simple. Suddenly, the third screen becomes a reality.