An example: When i watched prison Break on channel 7 (season 1, season 2 and half of season 3) after the season finale i would go onto the internet and look at discussion boards and other sites with info about the show, but as soon as fox broadcasted the next seasons episode, i would avoid it cause of spoilers. I know that i thought that people who couldn’t wait 2 weeks were impatient for these shows, but when spoilers are widely distributed, and how much i use the internet, i don’t want to be behind. I can’t imagine how low the next episode of PB will rate in aus cause of their delay. Remember when 10 delayed Jericho (well the 2 eps they aired last year then brought back this year), more than half the audience was gone.

My point about DVDs being released 1 year later was specifically from the season premiere. Seeing it usually takes 9 months to air a whole 22 episode season, 1 year after the season premiere is about right.

b) I pay good money for internet access to watch “free TV” online. $100 a month in fact. Most of my download quota goes to downloading shows. If Foxtel/Seven/Nine/10/ABC/SBS can think of away to get me the shows I want to watch, they can have that $100 a month, until then the ISPs can reap the rewards.

c) When TV producers make QUALITY TV shows (think Sopranos, Six Feet Under, The Simpsons, Summer Heights High) am I more than happy to reward them and me by buying their box sets.

We’re obviously two very different types of TV viewers, and I for one LOVE channel bit torrent. I’m glad your model works for you.

FYI, I haven’t heard anyone complain about the quality of a bit torrent show, they are almost always perfect digital copies.

Also, if you’re having trouble watching more than 2 hours of TV a day (still quite a lot of TV), then maybe you should try bit torrent/iTunes. You’d be saving yourself from sitting through a whole 32 minutes of commercials. More time for you to find jingles work..whatever that means. Not to mention the fact you won’t have to wait up to 2 years for your favourite shows to air on TV. You can also watch them at the time of your choosing, an important fact for those with kids.

Just because you don’t understand something, doesn’t make it a waste of time.

$299? Give me a break! Episodes are $1.99 in the US (that’s AUD$2.08 at today’s exchange rate) and in the US you get a discount for buying an entire season. Not so here.

Going by the 30-second samples, the encoding resolution and quality is woeful (especially on the Australian stuff – preview bits of Canal Road and know that a five-year-old could do a better video encode than that!) and thanks to the DRM you’re stuck sitting at your desk watching it on the computer anyway (or else on a tiny 2.5″ screen on your iPod).

Fangera, I dispute the “consistent and reliable quality” argument, unless painfully low quality is someone’s idea of consistency. I’ve never downloaded anything from BitTorrent sites that looked that bad.

A lot of people still prefer physical media – and I’m one of them. Physical media that gives you the best possible quality, gives you booklets and cover art and sleeve notes, and most importantly gives you something tangible and re-sellable for your money. iTunes’ Australian pricing is a joke – always has been for music, and now for TV shows as well. If they want to get serious about it, it needs to be priced at a level MARKEDLY cheaper than the same thing on physical media.

And itsross is on the money once again about BitTorrented TV shows now being close to mainstream. I’d actually argue (and I have for a while now) that in fact they’ve been mainstream for a good long time. The trading of DVDs of TV episodes amongst my wide circle of friends has been rampant for a couple of years now.

I feel that the TV industry is going through the same phase the the music industry went through 10 years ago went Napster started giving away music. Bit torrented TV shows are starting to become quite mainstream (when my computer illiterate family members are asking about how to work bit torrent, you know its mainstream).

Now in the US you can download all the music you want for $15 a month. Australia is of course way behind, but I’m sure we’ll see this in Australia soon. And maybe 10 years away we’ll see this happening for TV shows.

But the fact remains, $3 for 20-40 minutes of once off viewing is too much for me, and probably for most people.

Just checked it out and right now “limited” is an understatement but with time I hope more shows get added at a lower price.

I know it’s a DL service but I wonder if a deal can be done to post DVD copies?

Guess just easier to go into Kmart or online to Amazon.

But i am cautious of the drm of these types of sites, cause i have once bought a $20 prepaid music voucher – not itunes, and they let you download the songs with licences. The licences are stored on the computer, but not with the song, so when i have changed my computer, the music is unreadable. It might prevent some people from sharing the songs, but it certainly has meant that i won’t buy digital music again until this is fixed up, just hard copy music which doesn’t have that problem (and no i don’t pirate music, cause there is no contemptuous attitude from the record companies, or anything of the like compared to Aus tv). I’m not sure if iTunes music has that problem or not.