[opendtv] Re: EE Times: Transcoding offers migration path to IP
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2013 17:19:50 -0500
At 8:18 PM +0000 3/13/13, Manfredi, Albert E wrote:
If you have to change STBs anyway, to install this new coprocessor,
instead of wasting time with local transcoding, just deploy STBs
that can allocate any of the 6 MHz channels to IP broadband. Maybe
they already can, I just don't know.
Who decides when a channel is allocated to traditional MPEG-2
delivery versus IP Broadband?
And how many customers could benefit from this unless the cable
company has routers VERY close to the edge (customer)? If the cable
company has enough bandwidth to allocate say 20+ Mbps to each home,
why not move to IP delivery immediately?
Local transcoding has no future. More IP bandwidth does.
I went back and re-read the article you posted. You missed a very
important caveat in the article:
"Another thing to keep in mind is the rights' issue. While in-home
transcoding falls under "fair use" copyright law, service providers
may need to re-negotiate their agreements with content providers if
they are to offer content via the Internet. "Each operator has
different pros and cons related to the amount of unicast bandwidth
they have, their chosen home-vs.-cloud architecture for content
storage, and negotiating power they have with their content
providers, and the age and structure of those content contracts,"
observed Froehlich."
It is also important to note that the story lead with:
"The bad news is that it will be "at least 10-15 years before the
MPEG-2 digital video switch-off," estimates Stephen Froehlich,
principal analyst at IHS Electronics & Media. If so, cable guys need
to find new ways to stay relevant and competitive in the
meantime--until they can deliver IP packetized video (instead of
MPEG) to any device."
You might question why it will take so long to kill MPEG-2?
Personally, I believe competitive pressure will cause this to happen
sooner. But the cable companies and broadcasters have little reason
to replace MPEG-2 until they have no other choice; they have made
huge investments in this technology and will try to protect that
investment as long as possible. And one must ALSO consider the cost
to upgrade cable networks to a totally switched digital
infrastructure with potentially 50 Mbps per home passed.
Local transcoding is not an elegant solution, but it may be more
affordable, OR the cable companies may try to create a new product
category and charge extra for it.
Local transcoding of one-way streams makes a lot more sense for DBS
than for cable companies, given that DBS has a really tough time
providing a lot of two-way links to customers. Especially in urban
areas.
Agreed. It is worth noting that the DBS providers have already
deployed STBs with h.264 decoders to support the increase in
local-into-local channels delivered across the country.
Regards
Craig
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