Thanks for the vid - nice to see how it all works. Simple really!
Though considering all the fuss made about how PVRs will be the death of TV stations (yeah, as if!) it seems stupid to make things available for free On Demand with no ads - and especially no sponsorship.
I'm not sure it should be their prime programming that C4 (or any station) really should be pushing on demand. Surely what On Demand does offer is the opportunity to push the off-peak programming to a wider audience, for example C4's late night music programming or early morning sports programming.
Talking of late night, how do they get around the watershed issue - some kind of PIN protection?
So, now that we've decided that it doesn't matter how fat NTL's pipe has to be to cope with all this stuff, we're now saying that we should use the broadcast pipe for more data transfer?
What you have to bear in mind is that, by definition, that fat pipe coming into your house is shared with countless other individuals -- it's not just for you. The infrastructure resembles a bus rather than a star formation when it comes to network traffic -- and you can't send more than x Mbps through that bus.
So while that fat pipe might have say 400Mbps bandwidth, there are perhaps 2,000 people sharing it. 200Kbps is hardly worth getting worried about. And it's unidirectional, so to make it work in both directions you'd have to run it in half-duplex, slowing it down still further. And that's before we even begin to think about all the data collisions from having an effective 10-mile ethernet connection with 2000 hosts.
And lets assume for a minute that everyone did have 400Mbps into NTL. They'd have to have an internet pipe to end all internet pipes to cope with the potential data rate.
No, you've totally missed my point.
Aa the moment Telewest are sending me about 200 SD & HD TV channels. one VOD channel and 4MB internet connection.
What they could quite easily do is send me 1 SD or HD VOD channel (which is also used for 'linear' channels) and an internet connection. They wouldn't need a 400MB pipe for that, they could do it on a phone line. In fact that's what Homechoice do already!
The technology is available to do it now, i'd agree that it couldn't be done in great numbers but it's only a matter of time.
The days of sending everything to everyone are numbered, the PVR is just a stop-gap
Thanks for the vid - nice to see how it all works. Simple really!
Though considering all the fuss made about how PVRs will be the death of TV stations (yeah, as if!) it seems stupid to make things available for free On Demand with no ads - and especially no sponsorship.
It'll be chargeable eventually I'm sure, C4 had Lost on Teleport (Telewest's VOD system) for a while on a pay per view basis, and there is also a big selection of films all payable. The idea I expect is to get people used to the idea of VOD.
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Talking of late night, how do they get around the watershed issue - some kind of PIN protection?
Yes, you are asked for a PIN whenever a post-watershed programme is selected.
It's a good system, the only problem is that the content isn't up to much. Contractual terms mean that the broadcasters can't put much of the last wek onto VOD - anything foreign, anything with lots of commercial music/ archive clips or in the case of the BBC stuff from indies - doesn't make it. In the case of Flextech for example we only get their original productions.
The non-recent stuff is quite good though - whole series are put up there for a few months
Everyone take a deep breath and just bloody enjoy the service (if you can access it)
One thing ive noticed, is that with EastEnders on VoD - you get the announcer ect everything that came on the credits when aired on BBC One, with Channel 4 though its clean.
Thanks for the vid - nice to see how it all works. Simple really!
Though considering all the fuss made about how PVRs will be the death of TV stations (yeah, as if!) it seems stupid to make things available for free On Demand with no ads - and especially no sponsorship.
It'll be chargeable eventually I'm sure, C4 had Lost on Teleport (Telewest's VOD system) for a while on a pay per view basis, and there is also a big selection of films all payable. The idea I expect is to get people used to the idea of VOD.
Well, Digital Spy's report suggests the 7 day catch up service will be free as part of a 3 year deal between C4 and NTL.
Aa the moment Telewest are sending me about 200 SD & HD TV channels. one VOD channel and 4MB internet connection.
What they could quite easily do is send me 1 SD or HD VOD channel (which is also used for 'linear' channels) and an internet connection. They wouldn't need a 400MB pipe for that, they could do it on a phone line. In fact that's what Homechoice do already!
The technology is available to do it now, i'd agree that it couldn't be done in great numbers but it's only a matter of time.
The days of sending everything to everyone are numbered, the PVR is just a stop-gap
I dont miss the point at all.
I accept that this approach has potential.
But to say that it is more efficient from a bandwidth point of view is just silly.
The very fact that they can't do it yet proves that. Multi-channel broadcast has been with us for over a generation now.
It can be done. It will be done. But it will be less efficient, not more (although this will be cancelled out by the decreasing costs involved).
And the infrastructure will need to be fundamentally changed. The current cable system is no more capable of full VOD than satellite or DTT.
One thing ive noticed, is that with EastEnders on VoD - you get the announcer ect everything that came on the credits when aired on BBC One, with Channel 4 though its clean.
Yes, with the BBC the programmes are recorded off air. The problem with this is when the programme is delayed. There's been a few occasions where people have watched all the way through a programme only to find the ending missing! AIUI now if that happens the programme is unavailable
Oh I don't care, I just want this free stuff...which I can't get at the moment. Dumbass NTL.
Chance being that your area hasn't been upgraded to handle VOD yet, most of the country can now recieve the service. Are you in the London area by any chance? If so I wouldn't hope for it so soon, as the Cable on offer there seems to be behind the rest of the UK for some reason.
Oh I don't care, I just want this free stuff...which I can't get at the moment. Dumbass NTL.
Chance being that your area hasn't been upgraded to handle VOD yet, most of the country can now recieve the service. Are you in the London area by any chance? If so I wouldn't hope for it so soon, as the Cable on offer there seems to be behind the rest of the UK for some reason.
Yep London area. You'd think we'd be the favourites wouldn't you?
C4 has announced it's online Media player will launch on the 6th December, and has also signed up with BT Vision to offer on-demand programme over it's combined Freeview/Broadband platform.
Pricing for the online service, 4oD, will be as follows:
99p to view or rent within 48 hours
£1.99 to "download to own"
£1.99 to view movies
Viewers can download shows upto 30 days after they first air, while there will be an archive of programming (as on cable) with the likes of Queer as Folk, Drop the Dead Donkey and Trigger Happy TV.
Next year an "all you can eat" subscription will be available, costing £3.99 a month for TV shows, £4.99 for Film4 content or £5.99 for both.
Adverts will be added to the service from April, likely to play out at the beginning of the programme.
99p to view or rent within 48 hours