through the glass darkly: the rich client and tv via the internet

I just installed Miro (formerly 'Democracy Player') "internet tv player" and it is a really, really nice bit of software.  It caches clips and TV programs from around the web (including HiDef clips) using BitTorrent in a slick, easy-to-use interface reminiscent of iTunes and it uses RSS feeds to autoupdate content you care about.  Within the first couple of hours we'd downloaded loads of interesting content from the BBC, National Geographic,  PBS (Nova, Science Friday) as well as eclectic and high-quality kids' cartoons for Malcolm and classic animation like old Warner Bros. and Superman cartoons.  It installs a bunch of codecs on initial install such as MPEG4 and DIVX so you can watch Apple-centric content and torrents.   And it even lets you search, download and cache YouTube videos.

This is by far the most satisfying 'tv on the internet' tool I've tried.  It is a scenario that I've been waiting for a long time.

The key to the experience is that it caches the content locally before viewing, which ensures that I get a decent experience.  Even with a speedy DSL connection, I often get stutters and pauses in streaming content (the recent LiveEarth concerts being a particularly infuriating example), and our tv is tethered to the DSL router by a rather weak wifi transciever on another floor, so the connection speed is never very good.  But with miro, it doesn't matter:  it just takes slightly longer to get content, but once I have it, playback is fine.

The other key to the experience is that it is a rich client and not some cobbled up web or Ajax thing.  It's much more elegant that what can be achieved using web pages, and if my net connection is down (or I'm on a plane with my laptop, or something) the player and content are all still there.  To my mind this is precisely the division of labor that will make the 'net take off as a content platform:  Use the internet as a transport and distribution mechanism but don't "dumb down" everything to work within a browser or over port 80.

The missing piece to this puzze will be some kind of paid subscription mechanism, maybe like iTunes where I can download and watch programs per episode.  I suppose this could also mean some kind of DRM scheme, because without that, content owners won't place their wares on the 'net.  That could be antithetical for Participatory Culture Foundation, the project owners, but in the meantime, this is a very interesting first step in the right direction.