I.e. say you rate Kurosawa, Ozu and similar stuff high but Disney and Bruckheimer low, the site will find and match your unseen post-war Japanese movies based on users’ with similar taste. I actually sounds more complex than it is and it works very well for the most part. Most of the recommendations are within one grade (on 1-5 scale).

Perhaps I’m just missing the point, but I had a long long day.

I.e. say you rate Kurosawa, Ozu and similar stuff high but Disney and Bruckheimer low, the site will find and match your unseen post-war Japanese movies based on users’ with similar taste. I actually sounds more complex than it is and it works very well for the most part. Most of the recommendations are within one grade (on 1-5 scale).

Perhaps I’m just missing the point, but I had a long long day.

Remember all the same programming that we’d point to with this type of setup is already available; we’re just slicing through the bulk of the “other crap”. As far as the solitary or social aspect, again I just want to raise my chances of seeing something I like right away, vs. wading through a buncha crap, if it takes a little further fine-tuning no worries.

As far as the privacy concerns, I’m afraid they’ll soon have that ability with or without the system I’m imagining. Comcast (and other cable providers) are moving to switched-node transmission system to regain some of their bandwidth, these switched systems are going to make our viewing habits pretty transparent. but lets be realistic, they’d have a pretty hard time using that data against you in a incriminating way as they don’t broadcast anything that could really be considered incriminating.

Most importantly however, the system I’m imagining wouldn’t have to replace the current program guide, if all of those things truly were just too much hassle to be of any value, you could just elect not to use it.

Remember all the same programming that we’d point to with this type of setup is already available; we’re just slicing through the bulk of the “other crap”. As far as the solitary or social aspect, again I just want to raise my chances of seeing something I like right away, vs. wading through a buncha crap, if it takes a little further fine-tuning no worries.

As far as the privacy concerns, I’m afraid they’ll soon have that ability with or without the system I’m imagining. Comcast (and other cable providers) are moving to switched-node transmission system to regain some of their bandwidth, these switched systems are going to make our viewing habits pretty transparent. but lets be realistic, they’d have a pretty hard time using that data against you in a incriminating way as they don’t broadcast anything that could really be considered incriminating.

Most importantly however, the system I’m imagining wouldn’t have to replace the current program guide, if all of those things truly were just too much hassle to be of any value, you could just elect not to use it.

Having something that remembers the user’s likes and dislikes won’t work well in this circumstance, since my kids and I like very different things. And, in fact, I may not even want them watching what I watch (things that are violent or suggestive may not be appropriate for them – and I don’t want to be interrupted while watching my favorite shows because they accidentally watched something that’s giving them nightmares!).

Even my wife and I have some very different tastes, as well as some very similar tastes.

The most likely solution to this would be to have a “login” type of mechanism to know who’s watching – but seriously, what a pain!

Your Pandora and Google examples are interesting, but I note that we typically either have separate logins or separate computers – computing tends to be a solitary activity, while watching TV, sports, and movies can easily be either solitary or social. Because of this, the Pandora and Google models would likely fall down.

And of course there’s the privacy concern. Do I really want Comcast knowing exactly what I watch? Certainly they know for VOD, but for general channel surfing, many people would like to at least retain the illusion that they’re not being watched 24x7x365!

I’d be very interested in solutions to the objections I raise here. I like the idea of having a user-oriented program guide (especially for VOD), but I can’t envision how it would work in practice.

Having something that remembers the user’s likes and dislikes won’t work well in this circumstance, since my kids and I like very different things. And, in fact, I may not even want them watching what I watch (things that are violent or suggestive may not be appropriate for them – and I don’t want to be interrupted while watching my favorite shows because they accidentally watched something that’s giving them nightmares!).

Even my wife and I have some very different tastes, as well as some very similar tastes.

The most likely solution to this would be to have a “login” type of mechanism to know who’s watching – but seriously, what a pain!

Your Pandora and Google examples are interesting, but I note that we typically either have separate logins or separate computers – computing tends to be a solitary activity, while watching TV, sports, and movies can easily be either solitary or social. Because of this, the Pandora and Google models would likely fall down.

And of course there’s the privacy concern. Do I really want Comcast knowing exactly what I watch? Certainly they know for VOD, but for general channel surfing, many people would like to at least retain the illusion that they’re not being watched 24x7x365!

I’d be very interested in solutions to the objections I raise here. I like the idea of having a user-oriented program guide (especially for VOD), but I can’t envision how it would work in practice.