????寵物保姆肯定都是技術達人。以我請的寵物保姆為例。她平均每周有五個晚上在別人家留宿，在陌生人的家庭娛樂中心里導航，看別人的電視，或是瀏覽挑選海量的線上內容。僅在我家客廳，就有6款設備。要是影音接收器沒能接收到遙控器的信號怎么辦？她可千萬別在我的谷歌電視上按錯了鍵！

????過去，我們只需要交代一句：“遙控器在這兒。”現在，我們會說“我的TiVo、Netflix還有Xfinity在這兒。希望你一切順利。”蘋果公司（Apple）將推出電視一說根本沒有事實根據，但真正的蘋果電視終將面世的說法引得人們議論紛紛，這只能說明消費者們萬分渴望能有一款使用簡單的流媒體設備。他們什么時候才能如愿以償？網絡媒體制造商們（包括內容制作商和機頂盒制造商）紛紛表示，短期內沒戲。

????丹尼爾?雷柏是咨詢公司Frost & Sullivan數字媒體部首席分析師兼Streamingmedia.com執行副總裁。他說：“目前業界在視頻格式、比特率、長寬比、播放器、傳輸協議和內容保護技術等方面都沒有統一的標準。”按照雷柏的說法，亞馬遜（Amazon）、蘋果、谷歌（Google）和微軟（Microsoft）等行業大佬都希望自家的技術能成為在線視頻的標準，都不愿兼容并包別人的技術。這就像當年的Betamax（索尼支持的錄像機格式——譯注）與VHS（JVC所支持的錄像機格式——譯注）之爭，各種各樣梯形和菱形的錄像帶涌入市場，一決高下。雷柏稱：“在線視頻市場只會不斷碎片化，隨著時間推移，情況只可能更糟。”

????最后的結果是：內容制作商不會將節目發布到所有設備；他們會精心挑選，以使節目獲得最好的收視率，而不是設備越多越好。雷柏稱，將一部節目發布到許多設備上往往意味著大量的格式轉換工作，可能需要10到15種不同的視頻格式。如果一家媒體公司的節目數有10,000個，那么其最終面向上百萬用戶發布的流媒體數量可能會超過10萬個。雷柏質問道：“怎么提取、存儲、管理、追蹤、營銷、保護和分發這些視頻呢？這是視頻提供商將要面對的大難題——它事關整個生態系統。這是耗資最大的，也是最復雜的部分。”

????FremantleMedia是一家位于倫敦的電視劇制作公司，代表作包括《英國偶像》（The X Factor）和《購物街》（The Price Is Right）等。它在全球40多個國家播放了超過300集電視劇。當然，FremantleMedia也把自己的節目放到了網上。該公司從2008年開始在iTunes上發布電視節目《美國偶像》（American Idol），時間為電視臺正式播放后第二天。

????不過，假如你現在想在線觀看Fremantle的電視劇《梅林傳奇》（Merlin），那么你要做好準備，面對大量的無用功搜索。打開谷歌搜索“在線觀看梅林傳奇”，可以得到966萬個結果，不過前面6個根本不是可播放的視頻。第7個是Hulu，好歹能看了，不過只有5季節目中的兩季。位列第20個的Netflix上有3季節目，雖然其網頁名恰恰是“在線觀看梅林傳奇”。 Xfinity有最早的兩季節目，是第22個搜索結果。iTunes的節目數最多，擁有4季，不過它甚至沒能擠進谷歌搜索結果的前200名。【必應（Bing）的搜索也讓人非常失望，這次是Netflix排在了100名開外。】

????Boxeec創始人阿夫納?羅蘭表示，雖然熟悉在線視頻的用戶知道去Hulu尋找最新的電視節目、去Netflix搜索前幾季的節目、去iTunes看最新電影。但“仍存在很多不同平臺，導致用戶疲于奔命”。現實情況是絕大部分用戶并不了解Hulu這樣的網站，其節目存在和DVD發布窗口類似的時間間隔（為什么現在還要關注這些東西？）“所以我們現在還不完美，”羅蘭承認。離完美可差遠了。不過，隨著原創在線節目和電視劇之間的差異越來越模糊，消費者們都希望能有一個實現統一管理的生態系統。

????Pet sitters must be some of the tech-savviest people around. Take mine, for example. She spends, on average, five nights a week overnighting away from home, navigating a stranger's entertainment center, watching someone else's television, or flipping through a myriad of online content options. In my living room alone there's easily a half-dozen tech pitfalls to fall into. What if the AV receiver misses the signal from the remote? Heaven forbid she bump the wrong button on my Google TV!

????Once upon a time, it was "Here's the remote." Now it is "Here is my TiVo, Netflix (NFLX), and Xfinity -- I hope it works out for you." If the chatter surrounding the mythical, eventual release of the true Apple TV (AAPL) is any indicator, consumers are dying for a bit of simplicity with their streaming video options. When will they get it? Not any time soon, says a chorus of online media makers, ranging from content creators to set-top box makers.

????"There's no agreed upon standard format, bit-rate, codec, aspect ratio, player, protocol, or content protection technology," explains Daniel Rayburn, principal analyst for digital media at Frost & Sullivan and the executive vice president at Streamingmedia.com. According to Rayburn, because industry players like Amazon (AMZN), Apple, Google (GOOG) and Microsoft (MSFT) all want their technologies to be the standard, no one is working together to bring cohesion to the online video world. It's like Betamax versus VHS all over again, only with a dozen more types of trapezoidal and rhombus-shaped cassettes vying for supremacy. "It's only going to continue fragmentation in the market," says Rayburn, "and it's only going to get worse over time."

????As a result, content creators aren't uploading their episodes everywhere; they're cherry-picking devices to get in front of the best -- not most -- eyeballs possible. Getting one piece of content onto a bunch of devices would mean it has to be transcoded between 10 or 15 different ways just to reach them all, says Rayburn. Multiplying that times the 10,000 pieces of content a media company would be streaming could mean more than 100,000 files, serving million of viewers. "How do you ingest, store, manage, track, monetize, protect, and distribute video?" asks Rayburn. "That's the big problem that content owners are having -- it's the ecosystem. It's the most expensive part; it's the most complex part."

????For example, London-based FremantleMedia, the producer of television content ranging from The X Factor to The Price Is Right, airs more than 300 shows across at least 40 countries, and is no stranger to placing television content online, either. In 2008, the company began releasing episodes of American Idol on iTunes the day after the show aired on television.

????But today, if you want to watch one of Fremantle's dramas, Merlin, online be prepared to embark on a voyage of non-discovery. Searching Google for "watch Merlin online" returns 9.66 million results, the first six of which aren't even viewable episodes. The seventh, Hulu, offers only two of the current five seasons. Netflix, which has three seasons, is the 20th result, despite the fact that its page's title is "Watch Merlin Online." Xfinity streams the first two seasons, and is the 22nd result. iTunes, meanwhile, boasts the most (four) seasons for viewing -- but didn't even crack the top 200 Google-served results. (Bing's results were similarly disappointing, only with Netflix finishing well out of the top 100.)

????According to Boxee founder Avner Ronan, while experienced web viewers know to hit Hulu for a show's recent episode, Netflix to catch up on previous seasons, and iTunes for a new movie, "that still remains, in the grand scheme of things, an inconsistent experience," he says. The reality is that most consumers are not aware of the networks carried by Hulu, which shows those networks produce, or what the DVD release window looks like (or why that even matters these days). "So, we're not perfect yet," says Ronan. Not perfect by a long-shot. As the line between original online content and television shows continues to blur, it's easy to see consumers want an ecosystem that's clear to navigate.