[opendtv] Re: Punching Above Its Weight, Upstart Netflix Pokes at HBO - NYTimes.com

  • From: "John Shutt" <shuttj@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2014 20:43:07 -0500

What I was saying, Craig, is that no new STB is necessary to deliver Netflix 
through Comcast's walled garden.  All of the translations would occur upstream 
from the STB.  All the STB would see it yet another VOD title.

So then I guess we are in agreement.  Your original post made it sound as if 
Time Warner had to deploy new hardware to the home in order to integrate 
Netflix or other OTT service, which certainly isn't the case.  They will have 
to deploy new hardware, but at their server farms.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Craig Birkmaier 
  To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
  Cc: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> 
  Sent: Sunday, February 23, 2014 8:06 AM
  Subject: [opendtv] Re: Punching Above Its Weight, Upstart Netflix Pokes at 
HBO - NYTimes.com




  On Feb 22, 2014, at 12:15 PM, "John Shutt" <shuttj@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:


    Not necessarily true.  My Motorola STB from Comcast has the ability to 
watch On Demand programming which is delivered via unicast IP, and judging by 
the compression it isn't all MPEG-2.  It would be trivial to add a link at the 
back end to Netflix content.  Most likely no hardware changes to existing STBs 
would be necessary, only software changes tot he menus in the On Demand 
section, which they do constantly anyway.


  Actually John, what I wrote is EXACTLY true in your case, except we are 
talking about Comcast, not Time Warner. I suspect the Motorola box only uses IP 
and h.264 for the Comcast VOD service, while their new X-1 box can offer many 
Internet based services. 


  The "clever" aspect of what Comcast is doing is that they are using the 
Internet to add capabilities to their walled garden, but keeping the hardware 
DRM capabilities in the STB to protect the IP streams. Many of these new 
services can be viewed on tablets, but only in the home. 


  Comcast had been moving to IP delivery of VOD for several years, building 
their own CDN network so they could offer more VOD titles, and insert ads in 
these streams. With their MPEG-2 VOD service, delivered through the MVPD side 
of the house, they were limited in bandwidth (which limited the titles they 
could offer) and they had to pre produce the files for payout, thus commercials 
could not be changed.


  The following article describes what Comcast has done, and why...


  Regards
  Craig

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