From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 4 Aug 2005 19:37:27 -0400
Craig Birkmaier wrote:
> So cable is in a quandary because the future appears
> to be about giving subscribers access to the content
> they want, rather than a big ocean of content that
> they must surf to find what they want. Much of the
> capacity of the system today is consumed with stuff
> that the typical subscriber does not watch
A PVR can solve that, providing its own search engine
and only recording what the viewer wants to see.
It's still possible to use the cheap firehose approach
instead of the more expensive VOD or individually
switched channel approach, if you have a PVR. Think of
it this way: the smarts go in the end system, the PVR,
rather than being distributed throughout the network.
Makes for a cheaper network. It's a tradeoff.
> OTA DTV cannot compete with cable or DBS in terms of
> the size of the ocean...they will always lose that
> battle. But they can compete by leap-frogging cable
> and DBS, providing a wide range of content that can
> be downloaded to cache. Only the stuff that is live
> needs to be delivered at a specific time...the rest
> can be delivered anytime, and that equates to
> massive capacity when spread across say 30 channels
> operating 24/7.
Cable and DBS can of course do the same thing.
But I don't see this massive capacity suddenly
available with non-real-time downloads. The massive
capacity ONLY comes as a result of filling up the 24
hours/day with *desirable* content, in each of your
6 MHz multiplexes.
If you rely on PVR-like devices, i.e. with lots of
capacity, then whether the programs are downloaded
in real time, faster than real time, or slower than
real time, it makes absolutely no difference to
aggregate system capacity.
When transmitting faster than real time, you will be
limited in the number of simultaneous streams that
can be offered. Simply because it takes nore channel
capacity to transmit faster than real time. If
slower than real time, you can offer more streams
but it takes longer to get them in storage. And both
of those options prevent real-time viewing.
The trick is to get rid of the wasted time. If you
can rely on recording devices and fill the 24 hours
with good stuff people want to see, then it's not
that important at what rate the programs are
transmitted. Obviously, as long as programs meant to
be consumed "live" are transmitted in real time.
So, while OTA could offer a lot more to viewers,
cable and DBS could in turn offer a lot lot lot
more to viewers.
Bert
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