enRoute


	ENROUTE TV ENROUTE FM MEDIA KIT AIR CANADA LINKS WRITERS' GUIDELINES

THE DON CHANNEL
Instead of organizing your life around the programming decisions made in network executive suites, television now revolves around your needs.

Text: DON TAPSCOTT

As the Holy Grail of digital convergence comes within reach, you can see little beads of sweat appearing on the foreheads of television network executives. For decades they have treated us as if we were all little marionettes, and now we are about to cut the strings. Armed with high-tech weapons such as the personal video recorder, we will rise up and take control of our own multimedia entertainment destinies.

If you don't have a personal video recorder yet, you'll clamour for one after seeing it in action. They've been on the market in the U.S. since 1997, but they only recently became available in Canada. I've got one in my rec room. It's primitive compared to technology that's a year or two away, but it has already had a big impact in my house.

Prime time is becoming my time. I watch what I want when I want. If it's more convenient to start The National at 10:17 instead of 10:00 p.m., I can do so. The TV listings in the newspaper are irrelevant.

Spend a few hours with this gadget and you'll see why your VCR is obsolete. A VCR tries to serve two roles: playing videos and taping television programs for later viewing. It does both jobs poorly. The picture and sound quality of rented movies is shabby, and taping television programs is such a hassle that most people give up trying.

To watch videos, consumers are flocking to DVD players or video game consoles because of better picture and sound, multiple audio tracks and tricks such as slo-mo play. But to record television programs for later viewing, personal video recorders are now the tool of choice.

If your VCR is Patches the Clown on hire for your kid's birthday party, think of the personal video recorder as the Cirque du Soleil. The key to its superiority lies in its storage system, which uses a computer hard drive instead of videotape.

With a personal video recorder, recording TV programs is effortless. Call up the TV listings on the screen, highlight the program you want, and press one button. Done. To replay the program, call up a title list of all the programs recorded. Highlight and hit "Play." Done. No fuss, no muss and no tapes. Units just introduced in the U.S. have gigantic multiple hard drives that can store up to 320 hours of video.

It also makes life easier in lots of little ways. You can start watching the beginning of a program while the machine is still recording the end of the show. Press "Pause" if the doorbell or phone rings, and pick up where you left off. Watch instant replays of touchdowns as many times as you like. Make commercials disappear.

The locus of power shifts. Instead of organizing your life around the programming decisions made in network executive suites, television now revolves around your needs. On some units in the U.S., slick software automatically scours on-line program listings and records every program on any channel that meets your criteria, such as shows discussing tennis or starring Dustin Hoffman.

More and more of these units now plug into the Internet. You can program your personal video recorder from your office computer or PDA. Some Internet-equipped recorders even allow you to e-mail programs you've recorded to friends or relatives. Think Napster gone video.

As Internet access becomes standard on these recorders, the machines will start to embody the convergence of the communications, content and computing technologies that I've been writing about for a decade. Run some wires throughout the house, add a few more screens and speakers, and one box meets all your family's communications / entertainment / information needs.

Many companies want to build that box and wring profits from its operation. This issue dominated the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year in Las Vegas. Bill Gates says the best box is a Windows XP computer. Steve Jobs of Apple says his new iMac is better. The video recorder manufacturers insist computer-based solutions are costly and cumbersome overkill. Video game companies such as Sony and Nintendo also want in on the action.

The biggest challenge for consumers is to not become overwhelmed with choice. No matter how fussy, eccentric or highbrow your taste, lots of shows each week on cable or satellite are worth watching. But actually finding out about that great documentary on BBC Canada is another story. Add the material available on the Internet and the choices will be mind-boggling.

That's why we will soon be employing digital infotainment advisers just as we now use travel agents or read movie critics. My adviser will understand my needs and use software to cull television networks and entertainment databases around the world to find the stuff I love. Recording instructions will then be sent over the Net directly to the box in my rec room. The whole idea of television networks will fade into the background as I concentrate on the only channel that matters to me: the Don Channel.