[opendtv] Re: Execs see challenges bringing Net video to TV
- From: "Kon Wilms" <konfoo@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 27 Sep 2008 16:12:08 -0700
On Sat, Sep 27, 2008 at 7:09 AM, John Shutt <shuttj@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> How many "full resolution HD" streams does your data center host? What are
> the bitrates, and how many simultaneous unicast streams of these full HD
> programs can your data center support?
>
> We weren't talking about highly compressed "Youtube" streaming, but high
> resolution, broadcast quality HD programming.
Well, you're missing the point. It's almost like there is this
mentality on this thread that you either have postage size Youtube
cr*p, or you have 18Mbit HD, and nothing in between. Therefore,
internet video will never be viable. That is complete nonsense.
In fact I can only laugh at Bert's hypothetical response that follows
yours with sizing everything to 18Mbit. I mean come on. 480p AVC can
be done at 1.5Mbit. 720p can be done at 4.5Mbit. But hey, if he wants
to live in a fantasy world, more power to him. :)
Most of our customers who are starting to roll out higher quality
streams are doing it at half resolution HD and other non-standard
formats -- using the receive device to post-process the content. The
barrier is not the datacenter, or the provider of the streams, but
rather the last mile to the end user. Quite a few are doing 480p using
Flash AVC @ around 1Mbit. We've had some encoder providers testing for
a while at around 4.5Mbits 720p using Flash AVC and it looks great.
Serving this stuff is not an issue when you have multiple pops - you
simply relay the incoming stream to multiple geolocated origin servers
and serve unicast requests off edge clusters. There is no reason why
the streams could not be bounced into a cable pop and multicast to end
users - none of this is rocket science.
For VOD the issue becomes even less of a problem since all the
client-side players are leaky bucket buffer models.
And the thing to bear in mind here is that just a few years ago not
even 480p streaming was really possible. Backbone and home bandwidth
is multiplying fast, more people are providing and downloading content
off the net (Amazon, Netflix, Hulu, etc.), and eventually delivering
video over a standard internet connection will just be a non-issue.
The only thing keeping it from 'the people' are regulations and
paranoid content providers.
Think about kids growing up today. They can watch video on the net.
How many watch TV? Not much interactivity there. If you ask me, things
like traditional OTA will be on the way out in a decade. They may
still be around, but people probably won't care. The entire delivery
mechanism is just plain antiquated.
Cheers
Kon
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