I heart the discussion between Mark Cuban and Avner Ronen regarding the future of television content (see boxee blog » a lively debate with mark cuban).

As far as I can tell, they both are saying similar things, with Mark’s main distinction being that the cable/telcos are smart enough to realize that the ala carte television business will continue to grow – where Avner believes that TV on a schedule is a dying concept.

I’ve thought about this myself over and over again.  Having used a DVR since 2002 on my own media center, to using both Comcast and Verizon DVRs, to using nothing and no TV, to boxee and downloaded content, to OTA HD, and back to nothing.  And one thing has rung true for me the entire time – there are times when I want something specific – and for those times I will do whatever is necessary to see it (“The Wire”, “It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia”, “Dexter”).  Outside of those times, I have always hated having to choose what to watch.

Now, I agree with Mark and Avner that the infrastructure is the cable companies responsibility (and where I think they should focus their energy).  I don’t care how the pipe gets fatter to my house, I want it to get fatter – and let me decide how it is split up.  I think that is the essence of Avner’s argument put another way, and I totally agree with it.  Give me enough bandwidth to have five HD streams going while “surfing” the Internet.

Once I have the bandwidth – then let the marketplace be open – let me choose if I want bundled content provided in channels or let me choose individual shows I think I’ll enjoy (anything by David Simon, btw) and let software be smart enough to keep those things coming for me.

Those are my thoughts on this, I want a fatter pipe to my house, and I want to have choices on what I watch using it.  I want more Bollywood options, more NBA and tennis options.  Just like I can’t run my microwave, dishwasher, and toaster oven on the same outlet without blowing a circuit breaker (or run all three showers at the same time and expect hot water) – I’m okay with rationing the Internet pipe between TV and Internet (and phone as well).

Personally I enjoy Boxee’s alpha product as a clever 10′ UI to arranging content on my TV.  The telcos and cable providers should learn how to design and build 10′ UI from folks like Avner’s team.

The debate between Mark and Avner is a reminder of one of the greatest achievements of the Internet – discussion between smart people that others can benefit from.  Nerds battling online – something that was akin to the Internet’s roots from the early years which, at least to me, seems to have been lost a bit in the consumer version of the Internet we spend our time on today.

In the end I want both Mark and Avner to succeed – I want Mark’s HDNet to create great content and deliver it in multiple ways – I want the cable/telcos to build world-class networks and infrastructure, partnering with Avner and his team to provide a UI and experience that is compelling and enjoyable.

Problem Description: Crappy interface for playing .avi files with .srt files for subtitles on Media Center PC.  This interface is what I predominantly use My Media Center PC for these days – simply to play movies sitting on my home network, with subtitles.  Since Windows Media Player itself can’t handle .srt files for subtitles, I am using a VLC Player plugin on Media Center to play these movies.

Proposed Solution: Install boxee on my Apple TV and have it discover my networked movies/music.

I got boxee Alpha installed on my Apple TV this morning and the little Apple TV has been reborn.  After getting onto the Alpha earlier this week I followed the instructions on the Google Code project for atvusb-creator and got a USB pen drive formatted and installed with the additional XMBC and boxee applications.  After watching “how-to video: boxee on Apple TV” I realized that the installation process wouldn’t be too tough, and put it on my list for the weekend. 

Sunday morning: I dug up an old 512Mb USB Flash drive and, after reading the Google Code project notes, got started on my Mac Book Pro.  The patchstick created I rebooted my Apple TV with the patchstick and watched the Linux boot kick up.  Then it hung.  After groaning I went to the bug list for the Google Code project and found out that SanDisk 512Mb USB Flash drives have been reported not to work.  Found another USB Flash drive (1Gb Verbatim one this time).  Went through the process again, and this time the patchstick loaded completely and installed boxee and XMBC.

First I needed to tune boxee to display correctly on my DLP television (which was painless and obvious with a great settings interface for manipulating the display properties) and then the full interface was accessible to me.  The interface is beautiful.  In no time I had it discover by shared movies on my local network and my shared music.  My .avi movie files with .srt subtitles played without a hitch, and the interface is perfect for watching movies.  Later I’ll walk my wife through it and see if it passes the wife test.

Solution Analysis: boxee is clearly in alpha, but I’m already hooked to it (crashes and all).  Hopefully once it becomes more stable I can officially retire my Media Center PC (which is on its last legs) and just use boxee for my movie / music playback.  Kudos to the boxee team and thanks for creating such a polished alpha.  I can’t wait to see what the team puts into this product next.