Personalization on a peer-to-peer television system
pp. 91-113
in: Borko Furht (ed), Handbook of multimedia for digital entertainment and arts, Berlin, Springer, 2009Abstract
Television signals have been broadcast around the world for many decades. More flexibility was introduced with the arrival of the VCR. PVR (personal video recorder) devices such as the TiVo further enhanced the television experience. A PVR enables people to watch television programs they like without the restrictions of broadcast schedules. However, a PVR has limited recording capacity and can only record programs that are available on the local cable system or satellite receiver. This paper presents a prototype system that goes beyond the existing VCR, PVR, and VoD (Video on Demand) solutions. We believe that amongst others broadband, P2P, and recommendation technology will drastically change the television broadcasting as it exists today. Our operational prototype system called Tribler [Pouwelse et al., 2006] gives people access to all television stations in the world. By exploiting P2P technology, we have created a distribution system for live television as well as sharing of programs recorded days or months ago.