Cablevision’s DVR Plus service — which is now rolling out — is the latest example of how the cloud can deliver digital services that consumers want.

Just think: For the first time, it’s goodbye to residence-based, hard drive-heavy DVR set-top boxes, and hello to lightweight, cloud-driven DVR.

Now, one might argue that with memory and storage following Moore’s Law, DVRs are becoming cheaper every day. So why not continue to develop and deploy bulked-up set-top boxes? Or, more to the point, why bother going to the cloud for DVR?

The fact is that even with cheaper memory and storage available with every passing day, the cloud-as-content-repository is still the less expensive way to go. Operators can deploy less expensive equipment, and have fewer truck rolls and service calls because there are fewer things that can go wrong in the subscriber’s home.

But the real winner here is the consumer. DVR full? Trying to record too many shows at once? As cloud-based DVR technology (also known as “network DVR”) matures, those are likely to become non-issues. And if your power goes out (I’m looking at you, East Coast blizzard people), your cloud-based DVR is likely to continue recording your scheduled queue even while you’re in the dark.

Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t need the sound of a hard drive whirring and crunching away to give me comfort. So give it your best shot Mother Nature; freeze the doors shut on my car, make me resort to eating that old can of tuna in the back of the pantry, drive me to the brink of insanity like Jack Nicholson in The Shining, because when the power comes back on, that episode of American Idol will be waiting to give me comfort and laughter.

Want to set off fireworks at any gathering of television set manufacturers? State that a television should just be a display.

Calling a TV a display isn’t a bad thing, as John Herrman from Gizmodo points out. Displays have a single purpose: to lovingly render video. Historically, displays have lasted much longer than most electronic products, and considering the amount of money spent on them, the lifespan of a TV is very important.

The problem these days is the resulting connotation: The term “display” screams “dumb,” and everyone is talking about how TVs need to be “smart.”

I understand that TV set makers need to add features to their units for the purposes of differentiation, but I would prefer they didn’t get into the business of making TVs into computers. If “smart” TVs accessed their intelligence via the cloud, they could spend all their engineering resources on improving picture quality and reliability, while lowering the price. The pace of today’s hyper-accelerated technological change will render these quasi-computers obsolete in a matter of two or three years anyway.

Herrman promotes putting this functionality into a separate box, because it would be less costly to replace than a TV. It’s a step in the right direction, but if that functionality is run from the cloud, I won’t need to keep replacing that box. Better yet, stream apps directly to the TV, and skip the box altogether.

I also wonder…do the TV manufacturers really want to handle “smart” TV tech support? The average consumer thinks of computer technical support with the same disdain reserved for people who talk on cell phones in a movie theater. TV manufacturers (and dealers) have never had to deal with these types of service calls. The reduced hardware requirements of a cloud-based app platform would assure optimal reliability, and reduce the possible points of failure.

With the cloud acting as the brain of a smart TV, manufacturers can effectively provide less expensive but still high-performance products that are gateways to a future of tantalizing revenue opportunities.

I’ve long advocated using the Internet cloud to store everything from the content to the application to the kitchen sink so you can wash up after watching what you thought was the latest and greatest application, only to be washed down the drain by the next latest and greatest app. The cloud’s smart, no doubt about it. The application providers are smart because they build applications that people want. Now it’s up to the device manufacturers to be smart and stop the time-consuming application fragmentation process before it even starts to take root. As those commercials say, “Kill it dead before it spreads.”

It can be done with a little fortitude and a lot of common sense. The BBC Trust gets a thumbs up in this regard for announcing that it will not build custom applications for every device manufacturer. It will build only standards-based versions of its programming that can be used by multiple devices.

BBC reasons that this will save money and time in developing these applications and make it easier for BBC to get to market. That makes perfect sense to me. Let the content producers spend time making great content; don’t waste their time jumping technical hurdles trying to get that content distributed.

This all sounds good in theory, but the CE manufacturers won’t likely agree anytime soon. It’s just not in their DNA. Their motto: Let’s fight it out in the marketplace, and let the best technology win. Unfortunately, these types of marketplace wars don’t always yield the best technological solution—anyone remember VHS? Not only that, but it can take years for a winner to be declared, and that’s often among just two competitors, as was the case with the Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD battle. What happens when that war includes hundreds of warring factions?

So perhaps we can at least agree on certain platform attributes that would benefit the whole ecosystem.

1. If the backbone of Smart TVs is content and functionality provided by the Web, then Smart TV applications should be built using Web standards. This lets the developers concentrate on making great apps, and reduces the cost of creating interactive content.
2. Applications should not only pull in content from the Cloud, but the application itself should actually run in the Cloud. This keeps devices from becoming obsolete, and provides a unified environment that eases technological evolution and customer support.
3. Any software client that runs on the device should require minimal hardware requirements and be able to be easily ported, tested and certified on each device. Lower cost for the manufacturers means lower prices for the consumer, not to mention a lot less headaches for everyone.

So, let the innovation wars begin. I’m all for that, but if we can agree that innovation should be centered around a Cloud-based platform, then at least we’re all fighting for something worth winning.

With all of the talk lately of “cord cutting” and “cable killers,” there’s also been some chatter lately about cable’s push to improve the customer experience. Once you get beyond the catchy alliterative terms, it seems there are more and more examples—anything from on-screen TV guides to online speeds to static-free phones—of ways that the cable companies are moving to deliver innovative products.

Given the mixed reviews of some of the latest Web-to-TV devices, cable’s timing is impeccable. But I believe it can be enhanced by more closely linking the customer’s experience with cable’s massive wealth of content. Here’s where I think companies like ActiveVideo can really enhance the cable customer experience by enabling operators to deliver additional content and apps from the cloud.

Our message to cable operators is that you can put as much content in the cloud as you’d like, and make it as easy for the customer to retrieve as changing a channel. No new devices. No home theater system integrations. No keyboards. Plus the best image quality available and all of the live sports and premium content you’d ever want.

I concede that OTT (over the top) can be fascinating…if you really want to work at it. But frankly, the idea of “working at” television is the last thing most people want to do at the end of the day. In most cases, they’d rather immerse themselves in services that demand little effort and deliver top-notch experiences.

With the availability of features like those mentioned above, it’s clear that operators really are getting that concept. It’s not going to stop competitors from coming out of the woodwork, but by delivering cloud-based content to enhance an already terrific customer experience, cable operators will make it more difficult than ever for consumers to cut that cord.

Microsoft recently made some noise about making another attempt to enter the TV market, this time via the Xbox. Unlike its past attempts (we all remember WebTV, which unfortunately is best known today as a geek-chic punch line, even though our industry learned a lot from it), Microsoft may have a puncher’s chance this time.

After all, the very popular Xbox is already in millions of homes. The key to Microsoft’s success, however, very well could boil down to whether it uses this opportunity to bridge the divide between cable operators and “over-the-top” content providers, rather than widen it.

Who knows what Microsoft is really planning? The rumor mill is rife with contradiction right now. Some predict Microsoft will try to partner with cable operators with a TV Everywhere play; others believe Redmond will try to form its own content relationships. My view is that Microsoft would find much more success partnering with the cable operators.

I know, I know. Shouldn’t this be about cord-cutting? Why play with cable?

Perhaps my view is best explained by looking at professional athletes. Someone like Michael Jordan made basketball look so easy, so fluid, anyone thought they could do it. Peyton Manning makes it seem like a frenetic, change-it-at-the-line system is all that’s needed to excel at quarterback—until you watch someone else try it.

Fact is, television is a specialty. It looks easy because broadcasters and cable/satellite/telco operators have been working at it for a long time, and have made it seem easy.

Microsoft can succeed where its rivals have—relatively speaking—failed. Instead of trying to re-engineer the cable headend or beat them at their own game, they can invite the operators to bring their best players onto the Xbox playing field. By partnering with the cable industry for their premium content, and using the broadband connection of the Xbox to bring a wealth of Web-based content to the table, Microsoft can make “over-the-top” more viable than ever, while making cord-cutting more irrelevant than ever.

Of course, someday Microsoft will want to break out of the box, and grow its media brand… and the Cloud will be there.