[jayk]

Found this article on TVPredictions.com

Also found an article about DirecTV having 40+ channels by mid 2007.

Sorry if this has already been posted!

Jay

News
DIRECTV VOD: No HDTV at Launch
The satcaster is expected to offer the high-speed Video on Demand service next year.
By Phillip Swann

Mod Edit: remove contents of article, to respect source's copyright. See the link in the next post, for a link to the full article

 

[Earl Bonovich]

No problem...

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=71277

FYI; I trimmed your post, as we are trying to respect the sources copyright's... ect (and yes you did include the link, and the copyright notation)

 

[dervari]

Is this really going to be VOD? To me, VOD is where you hit a button and it starts. What kind of lag is there going to be between the time a user requests a show and when it's actually available for viewing, I wonder....

 

[Earl Bonovich]

Is this really going to be VOD? To me, VOD is where you hit a button and it starts. What kind of lag is there going to be between the time a user requests a show and when it's actually available for viewing, I wonder....

That is "Cables" version of VOD..
It is still going to be Video On Demand... "per say"..

but we will have to wait and see what kind of "lag" there will be between requet, and ability to play

 

[Jeremy W]

VOD on cable works by sending a request to the server, the server responding with a "private" channel to tune to, and then the server starts playing the movie on that channel. DirecTV's VOD service is going to be more like streaming video on the Internet, where the box will actually have to download the file.

 

[dodge boy]

VOD on cable works by sending a request to the server, the server responding with a "private" channel to tune to, and then the server starts playing the movie on that channel. DirecTV's VOD service is going to be more like streaming video on the Internet, where the box will actually have to download the file.

So would you request a show in the morning and watch it from the DVR after work, or even the next day? Or possibly from the website at work and watch when you get home?

 

[Mixer]

Earl...just a suggestion but not be a bad idea to lock this thread since there are already threads talkign about it. people are going to be asking the same questions that have already been answered in the thread that you linked to. Not that i mind I love this topic and can talk about it all day.

Having said that.....

My last thought in the original thread was that i think it will stream at least for some of the download. Start download once download reached 10-20% playback will be enabled. Since they aere thinking of pulling HD content for the launch the streaming theory makes most sense since HD content would be way harder to stream in this manner.

 

[Jeremy W]

So would you request a show in the morning and watch it from the DVR after work, or even the next day? Or possibly from the website at work and watch when you get home?

I really don't know. Remember though, DirecTV will be storing the latest and most popular content on the hard drive, so that stuff at least will be truly available on demand.

 

[noneroy]

VOD on cable works by sending a request to the server, the server responding with a "private" channel to tune to, and then the server starts playing the movie on that channel. DirecTV's VOD service is going to be more like streaming video on the Internet, where the box will actually have to download the file.

I'm pretty sure that's not how it works. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_on_Demand) I believe (around here anyway) cable is streaming...hence you can fast forward. I've been pretty underwhelmed by VOD, to be honest. The quality has been complete crap, over compressed, the fast forward/rewind functions are sluggish and did I mention it's over compressed.

I think VOD would be better if it did cache a larger portion of the program to the hard drive first. And then letting you download the whole file and keep it there so if you wanted to actually watch it again, it would be instant.

 

[Jeremy W]

I believe (around here anyway) cable is streaming...hence you can fast forward.

Any transport commands (fast forward, pause, etc) are sent to the server, and the server does what it was asked to do.

 

[noneroy]

Well, regardless of how it works, it sucks...a lot....