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mrichards8
join:2000-10-17
Littleton, CO
| reply to dnoyeB
Re: Im ready to buy!
A DVD movie actually contains a few GB of data. They must be streaming the video to the set-top box. Even that, however, will require broadband connections that are faster and more reliable than we have today. DVDs are encoded at a bitrate of 6000 Kb/s to 8000 Kb/s. This would require a DSL connection with a sustained download rate of 6Mb/s. The sound on a DVD alone would require 384 Kb/s. Even Video-CD quality (which is generally considered to be "near" VHS) would require a sustained 1376 Kb/s. This may be practical in a few years, but right now the average home DSL connection (600 Kb/s or so) could not support it. | |
lml2000
Whazzup
join:2000-08-17
Los Angeles, CA
 ·RoadRunner Cable
| If you follow the Enron-Blockbuster deal along with the involvement of SBC and the bandwidth that will be delivered ON A SWITCHED BASIS over its Project Pronto architecture, you will realize that one of the goals of Pronto was to deliver a 6 Mbps pipes to the lion's share of homes served by a Pronto neighborhood gateway, as well as those customers within a 12 K-ft of a CO.
Expect SBC to install soft-switched into some neighborhood gateways later in 2001. By means of a SVC (switched virtual circuit) a subscriber will be able to convert his 1.5 Mbps DSL connection to his ISP's router to a 6 Mbps DSL connected to a Blockbuster LAN by simply dialing in a few numbers on his phone. In this fashion, all the video traffic downloaded from the Blockbuster server to the subscriber's home will be AWAY FROM the IP gateway, and via a VPN, which will keep the Internet traffic at the neighborhood DSLAM free of traffic jams on a Saturday evening.
Yes, you're correct, this will not be available everywhere for years to come. But expect this technology to become available over the next two years in select markets. At issue is not only technology but also market demand and price structure. One cannot expect any of these companies to rush to market, spend billions of dollar, and deploy this technology all at once. Its gonna be well-planned, measured, and evaluated on a slow, select basis. Nevertheless, some select areas will see VOD in 2001.
What I'd like to see is how the transmission of VOD is going to be handled by the MSO who opt to install a minimal number of nodes along their fiber loops and a bunch of neighbors on a single coax branch decide to download about 20 films at or around 8 pm on a Friday or Saturday evening.
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Regards,
lml | |
djrobx
join:2000-05-31
Valencia, CA
 ·PHONE POWER
 ·AT&T U-Verse
·AT&T CallVantage
·Time Warner VOIP
·RoadRunner Cable
| reply to mrichards8
You can get what approaches DVD quality at 1500KB/sec using newer codecs. The MPEG-1 technology used on VCDs is almost a decade old!
I have a feeling the unit would work a lot like a TiVo, where it would begin the download, and then let you start watching while the download continues (the 30 seconds is to create enough of a "buffer")
Speaking of TiVo, at "basic" quality, it gets 1.20 hours/gig. Doing the math:
72 minutes / 1GB =
72 minutes / 1024MB =
72 minutes / 1048576KB =
72 minutes / 8388608Kb =
1 minute / 116508.4 Kb
1 second / 1941.8 Kb/Sec | |
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