Planned IPTV services

[openmedia]

A chance to discuss what might be planned by the various ISPs and Media companies with regards to IPTV.

At the moment a number of ISPs have been discussing IPTV including Orcon and IHug. Plus Telecom have mentioned a dual freeview/IPTV STB.

If Sky follow the model elsewhere in the world we might see a future MySky model with IPTV services as well.

So what rumours and gossip have the rest of you picked up on.

Steve

[Juicytree]

This article that appeared in Computer World on the 6th November may help some to understand Sky's plans in this regard
http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/tech/98797DBD856D488DCC25738A006947EA?opendocument&utm_source=topnews&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=topnews

[paulw]

Unfortunatly I fear that here in NZ IPTV will just be a regergatation of what's on NZ TV now. You won't get the US SciFi channel , BBC Top Gear or Dr Who or any updodate programs. Same reason as we can't access this content now and via iTunes. "Not available in your region"

[InTheSand]

iTunes? Bleh... Who'd use it? Why pay for DRMmed content?

Stuff IPTV for now... FTA DVB is the only decent way to go...

IMHO of course!!!

- Ali

[sky_satt]

Stuff IPTV for now... FTA DVB is the only decent way to go...

Agree!

[nickrout]

I think the problem for IPTV in NZ is the absolute crap internet connections we all put up with. You need a large monthly data cap AND a decent connection speed. Hands up who has that?

[LennonNZ]

I think the problem for IPTV in NZ is the absolute crap internet connections we all put up with. You need a large monthly data cap AND a decent connection speed. Hands up who has that?

Orcon announced in the past they will be offering IPTV in the future.

[paulw]

Orcon announced in the past they will be offering IPTV in the future.

But what will they be offering?? Music channels, same stuff we get now??

[nickrout]

Orcon announced in the past they will be offering IPTV in the future.

Yeah but at what cost for the sort of connection you are going to require?

[LennonNZ]

Yeah but at what cost for the sort of connection you are going to require?

I have personally streamed a SD PAL sized H264 at a 1M stream and the quality has been fine to watch even on a 50 inch 3LCD screen.

The encoder ( I used a Fast Dual Xeon myself) needs LOTS of grunt to do this, but the decoder doesn't need much grunt to view it at all.

If you stream MPEG2 for example then you'll need ALOT more bandwidth. but a lot less CPU to encode/decode it.

[nickrout]

I agree that 1Mb/s h264 provides a very watchable stream, in fact it provides a watchable xvid stream too. h264 could probably go down to 600kb/s and be watchable at SD, but we'll stick with your figure.

Lets assume 3 hours watching per day:

1Mbit/s * 60 =
60Mbit/min * 60 =
3600 Mbit/hr / 8 =
450 MByte/hr * 3 =
1.350 GByte /day * 30 =
40.5G/month

Thats without all your other internet activity - you still want web browsing, downloading drivers and OS updates, email etc don't you?

Take IHUG as an example, their plans have maxima of:

broadband 1: 1G/month
broadband 2: 5G/month
broadband 3: unlimited BUT subject to fair use (no more than 2G/day, which will expire in the middle of your favourite show (the kids having maxed it out between 3 and 6 pm), no more than 20G/month, throttling applies after the limits are reached, which'll really screw your IPTV bitrate).

The other ISP's are no better in general. The details vary, but they all come down to too little/too expensive to contemplate iptv as a serious proposition.

In places where iptv really hums, people have fibre to their houses.

[paulw]

I have personally streamed a SD PAL sized H264 at a 1M stream and the quality has been fine to watch even on a 50 inch 3LCD screen.

The encoder ( I used a Fast Dual Xeon myself) needs LOTS of grunt to do this, but the decoder doesn't need much grunt to view it at all.

If you stream MPEG2 for example then you'll need ALOT more bandwidth. but a lot less CPU to encode/decode it.

1 Mbit for SD is not too bad. Are you going to supply any sort of STB so that we don't have to put a PC next to the TV?? . Something like a Vudu?? They require 2~3 Mbits for HD content. I think if you go with SD only these days your going to be dead in the water..

[nickrout]

There are plenty of boxes being developed round the world that will do h264 at HD quality, although you are going to need considerably more bandwidth than 1Mb/s for that!

[LennonNZ]

But what will they be offering?? Music channels, same stuff we get now??

No idea. Orcon have not announced any type of content or anything. Just that they are going to do it.

[Apsattv]

There are plenty of boxes being developed round the world that will do h264 at HD quality, although you are going to need considerably more bandwidth than 1Mb/s for that!

I had a friend in Welllington stream using VLC on Telstra cable. With 2.5mbit upload. 1280x720 divx looked great easily good enough for broadcast linking.

[LennonNZ]

1 Mbit for SD is not too bad. Are you going to supply any sort of STB so that we don't have to put a PC next to the TV?? . Something like a Vudu?? They require 2~3 Mbits for HD content. I think if you go with SD only these days your going to be dead in the water..

No idea. Orcon have not announced any type of content or anything. Just that they are going to do it.