[opendtv] Re: Zenith/LG NOT announcing new STB's based upon 5'th gen chip
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "OpenDTV (E-mail)" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2005 12:12:48 -0500
Craig Birkmaier wrote:
> In the U.S. IPTV will be the bypass technology
> that will bring the entrenched oligopolies down
I very seriously doubt that. This is just the
latest buzzword that has the trade press all up
in a lather.
The January 2005 issue of the IEEE Spectrum has
an interesting article on IPTV, as applies to
Zurich, in fact. It describes a system that had
previously been covered in other IEEE journals.
IPTV is still a walled garden. The basic plan
is to allow use of relatively narrow last mile
local loops, typically IP over ADSL, to
distribute a very limited number of TV streams
from a server to each individual home. Home
users join an IP multicast group to receive
the program, but the "head end" is where the
multicast tree is rooted. This isn't the WWW.
So how many simultaneous TV streams do you
think an ADSL loop can carry? Or HDTV?
This is what is described as "clever." It *is*
a clever way of sending TV over 2 Mb/s channels.
But I think some might find it equally "clever"
to cost-effectively send multiple hundreds of TV
streams, even HDTV streams, into each home, as
cable systems do. And then allow the in-home
users to parse these streams as they see fit,
*without* depending on two-way protocols with
remote high-tech servers. It's simply a tradeoff.
I love the idea of being able to install a
cable TV-like service with no waiting for the
cable guy to come around. But let's not make
more of this than it is.
The Spectrum article describes more of the "user
experience" aspects of this scheme than the
previous articles, which were more technically
oriented. But the simple fact is that these are
still walled gardens, prone to exactly the same
redistribution rights or must-carry mandates as
any other TV distribution walled garden.
Bert
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