 GuspazGuspazPremium,MVM
join:2001-11-05
Montreal, QC
kudos:16 | Why does TV get special treatment? TV appears to be consuming ~300MHz of spectrum if I'm reading various sources right. That's a gigantic swath of spectrum that could be put to MUCH more efficient use.
Using current technology (let's say LTE), that's ~4800 Mbps worth of spectrum. Television can be distributed freely over the internet. The current approach is a waste, with most of that 300MHz not even being used in most areas! |
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| This discussion has come up before elsewhere. To "broadcast" full HDTV on the internet would require one helluva pipe to each individual user. A full 1080i OTA HD signal is currently sent at 19.4 Mbit/s. That's a lot of bandwidth for only ONE HD channel. The majority of "broadband" users are lucky to have 5-10 Mbit/s connection.
And don't wave around the argument that they can compress it down further so it takes up less space. It'll look like ass to the end user no matter what you do. Cable and satellite BDU's compress their HD channels and it's very easy to tell the difference compared to the OTA equivalent.
At this point in time, transmitting such a signal through the air so that hundreds of thousands can receive it simultaneously simply works so much better than sending it through the internet.
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"It's all coming down!!" - Mike Holmes |
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 tschmidtPremium,MVM
join:2000-11-12
Milford, NH
kudos:5
 ·Fairpoint Commun..
 ·Hollis Hosting
| reply to Guspaz
Not sure where you are getting your numbers from.
DTV delivers 19.4 Mbps over a 6 MHz channel or 3.3 bits per hertz.
LTE is around 5 bits per hertz, not all that different.
DTV has a lot of forward error correction to deal with high path attenuation/ fading. If it were not for that a 6 MHz channel could carry 40 Mbps (6.7 bits per hertz) like Cable.
I agree the future of fixed TV will likely be IPTV, but first mile connection will need to be much faster, around 100 Mbps for a family of four.
IPTV is definitely not free. Current broadcast model is very cost effective way to send the same program to many viewers. IP multicast is not yet ready for prime time requiring separate feed for each viewer.
/tom |
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