[opendtv] Re: News: Cable operators find it tough to swallow HDTV
- From: "Albert Manfredi" <bert22306@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 07 Jun 2006 21:26:46 -0400
Richard Hollandsworth wrote:
>3. At the Apr 2006 NCTA National Show Cisco/SciAtl released
>"Beyond Bandwidth Mgmt: Business Benefits of Switched Digital
>Video in Cable":
http://www.cisco.com/application/pdf/en/us/guest/netsol/ns457/c654/cdccont_0900aecd80458e33.pdf
This is very interesting. If you want to design a consumer-firendly system,
which is a big if, then it's completely feasible over an HFC cable plant to
offer a mix of SDV and broadcast MPEG-2 TS. SDV would be for on-demand or
PPV channels, or those truly "niche" programs, or even broadband Internet
access, and broadcast MPEG-2 TS for the rest. This offers the advantage that
the broadcast channels will certainly never saturate, and that they will
work with very simple receivers. (In principle, on-demand could saturate if
too many people are asking for too many different streams.)
Consumers can opt for the basic broadcast service, or for additional SDV
service.
The SDV, you will note, also rides over MPEG-2 TS, to be compatible with
existing STBs. That's okay, but it makes it a little more difficult to
create a combined IPTV receiver solution for both telco and cable SDV
plants. I figure that sort of built-in receiver is a no-brainer, as IPTV
systems become more prevalent, but of course that doesn't guarantee that
anyone will work toward such a goal.
They use IGMPv3, it claims. If SDV switching is as fast as they claim, then
they are making some compromises. Either they have a lot of servers spread
throughout the edge of their network, and/or the multicast streams are
always flowing, to allow for instantaneous response.
I get the idea that they want SDV to replace all distribution channels.
Maybe not. Anyway, there isn't a whole lot of justification for going
all-SDV. You can assign one or two 6 MHz channels to switched video,
essentially providing a 40 or 80 Mb/s pipe to each household, and then fill
up the rest with broadcast, to the extent the fiber backbone can carry.
Cable companies are reluctant to stop NTSC service, as you point out. There
are probably two main reasons for this: (1) basic or extended basic
customers like NOT to have to add an STB, and (2) it's cheaper than the
digital tier. Somehow, those consumer sentiments should not be ignored when
migrating to DTV. People won't change their dislike of proprietary,
cumbersome, and expensive "solutions" just because they have gone to DTV.
You can easily continue to provide a no-STB solution with DTV, even
ultimately with IPTV.
Bert
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