I could hardly believe it Sunday morning when the only game on here in Seattle was the Colts vs. the Vikings.  We used to get 2 games in the morning (10am) and 2 games in the afternoon (1pm) along with the evening game.  Then they cut it back to 2 games in 1 of the 2 times, and I could live with it.  But today we had just one at each time.  I’d had enough and the internet had the answer…

I’ve OFTEN considered switching to Directtv for just such an occasion, but the customer service hasn’t been too bad from Comcast, especially with the discounts they gave me when I called in for a complaint on the service.

So off to the internet I went in search of alternatives.  Obviously DirectTV and Comcast info came up, but it appears that contract between the NFL and DirectTV lasts through the 2010 season.

So my current Comcast subscription isn’t going to cut it until at LEAST 2 years from now and I don’t really want to go through the overhaul of cable providers.  I checked out NFL.com GamePass and it tells me that “NFL GamePass is not available in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Bahamas, Bermuda, Antigua, and the U.S. Territories.”

Super, so on with the search and the next link pointed to TvAnts over at MpP2p.eu. I have no idea what it is so Wiki tells me:

TVants is a P2PTV application written and designed by Zhejiang University.

Most programs on TVants are provided and shared by users, so the availability of a program depends on its popularity. Users can add their media source to the platform, or even set up their own media cast platform — because it can act both as a client and a server.

I’m liking it and initial download and test.  Not HD, but the audio is clean, the picture is clear (click the football screenshot to see clarity), and I’m watching the Redskins game!  Switch over to the Jets vs. Patriots and watch Favre re-emerge from retirement?  No prob, easy switch!  Clearly the next thought is illegality of it.

What Is TVants And Is It An Illegal Software?

TVants is a peer-to-peer video streaming application.

TVants ia not an illegal software in itself. However, users have to follow the statement from tvants.com stating “users, TVAnts Feirengong way to flow automatically generated by a third party media server links.”

TVAnts own not download, storage, or alter the content of third party Flow Media Server, or use of any TVAnts own seeds nodes downloading, buffer, or third parties transmit flow media server content, all downloaded, shared, or watching users are TVAnts their behaviour.

TVAnts attaches great importance to intellectual property protection, and developed to protect the rights of people of their legal rights measures and steps, when the right people are found in tvants generated links pointing to the flow of media content in violation of its copyright of third parties, please send the right person to TVAnts. ”

The right to inform “TVants will take measures to remove relevant content or shielding related links.

Source: http://cache.tvants.com/

What Is “P2P?

A peer-to-peer (or P2P) computer Network is a network that relies primarily on the computing power and bandwidth of the participants in the network rather than concentrating it in a relatively low number of servers.

Under US law “the Betamax decision” (Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc.), case holds that copying “technologies” are not inherently illegal, if substantial non-infringing use can be made of them.

In practice, many, often most, of the files shared on peer-to-peer networks are copies of copyrighted popular music and movies.

Sharing of these copies among strangers is illegal in most jurisdictions. As actions to defend copyright infringement by media companies expand, the networks have quickly adapted and constantly become both technologically and legally more difficult to dismantle.

This has caused the users that are actually breaking the law to become targets, because whilst the underlying technology may be legal, the abuse of it by individuals redistributing content in a copyright infringing way is clearly not.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peer-to-peer

So What Does All This Mean?

Well, take it for what you’d like. “In theory” it’d mean that you don’t have to buy the DirectTV or NFL.com package to watch football games you CARE about. However, if you’ve got a big screen TV, you might need to purchase some cables to hook your home PC up to your TV. Which isn’t all that tough.

Microsoft thinks there is a future in a PC-based media center, and after seeing this capability, what’s to say there isn’t anything you couldn’t do with the internet?