All things related to multicast

[Frank Fulchiero <>]

On Nov 4, 2008, at 9:22 AM, Tony Ballardie wrote:

> > Seems to me programming on multicast has pretty much stagnated, if
> > not gone backwards.
> > Or else it's just harder to find.
>
> I think just the latter, largely due to no standardized means of
> announcing the content since sdp/sap announcements have become more or
> less obsolete.
>
> What we need is a web-based model. Hitoshi Asaeda and his group in  
> Japan
> have been working on the Channel Reflector which is web-based, and I
> think in beta testing?

Channel Reflector will be useful in many cases, I hope, but my  
feeling is that a discovery mechanism is also needed in the players  
themselves.
We can flip the channels on a TV to see what's on, or auto-scan the  
FM frequencies for stations.
Would be nice if there were a similar auto-discovery mechanism for  
internet video.

Not to diminish the importance of Hitoshi's work, but why should a  
web browser be needed to watch a video?
Do you need to fire up a browser to watch television?
Seems like we are going back 50 years in usability, in some ways.
Just my humble opinion..

Frank