John Finley... good question.
I thought by now someone would have answered it. Usually the crowd on this message board is more responsible...
For one thing, the WaveMeter is part of a system that allows people such as you and I to enable our own digital content and put it out for purchase on the Net/TV. Will Direct TV's technology do this?
The two "meters" measure differently. The WaveMeter can measure mircotransactions (pay-per-use-in-time). If you decide to turn off a PPV program half way through, will Direct TV refund half your money?
The WaveMeter will let you listen to and sample Richard Strauss in monetary increments of less than a cent per minute. Let's say you sample a few minutes of Death and Transfiguration, a few of A Hero's Life, and about 22 minutes of Thus Spake Zarathustra. You decide to have downloaded for your own digital recording purposes the whole of the last work. You would be charged only for the time you sampled Strauss but, of course, you decided to purchase something so your sample listening pleasure may be counted for free. The WaveMeter will let someone read you a bedtime story. Should you decide to "close the book" after the third chapter and resume listening tomorrow night, you'll only pay for as much as you decide of the story to hear in any case. So much for the Box Top "meters" of Cable and Satellite TV.
The WaveMeter will be assimilated. It will be ubiquitous as an underlying, value added feature in the digital standardization of all media communication devices. Thus, putting into obsolescence the need for different Box Tops from competing transmissions with limited, redundant, take-it-or-leave-it programming.
The WaveMeter is on YOUR equipment not THEIRS. You don't have to rent or purchase their equipment to see what they decide to transmit. Rather, they will have to "bundle up" and enable their content to suit the capabilities of your equipment.
If someone has something to add or delete from my assumptions about the differences between what's a "real" meter - like our WaveMeter - and what's not - like the "thing" in Direct TV's PPV units, please do.
Your friend,
Marty |
