Countdown has begun - AMC 15

[SimpleSimon]

Quite an interesting idea!

You're right, the downlink bandwidth is wider than needed for real-time, but not by a huge amount. Downside is a Ka-band dish is needed. Dunno if a SuperDish is good enough. Dunno what LNBFs might be needed.

Still - order a VOD using the VOD receiver, which then dials out (hmm, NOW we see some 'real' use for E*'s in-house communication among boxes!) and it comes down to the VOD box for later viewing. I don't see satellite uplink as being worthwhile, but using an internet connection should work. Said VOD box might be a 'smarter' 921, or maybe the 942.

Popular movies might be streaming continuously and the box should be smart enough to start in the middle and collect data until it's got it all. Look at how E* staggers the start of current popular PPVs in a similar concept. Less popular ones might take some time to arrive.

Maybe someone can run the numbers on the bandwidth to see how many streams it could support. I'm guessing 50-60. let's say 60, with 10 continuously running 'populars'. That leaves 50 for 'real' on-demand VOD. At 2 hours per movie, that's 600 movies delivered per day - and some of them will go to multiple places.

Scheduling priority could be: request-count * time-in-queue.

 

[larrystotler]

The biggest problem with stand alone internet dish services is that they require a huge initial investment. If they had a way to upgrade the super dish for internet service, the initial outlay would be a whole lot less, and the monthly rate could also be lower since they do not need a dedicated sat or to lease the space from someone else. You are forgetting that a whole lot of people cannot get DSL or cable and dial up or sat internet is the only way to go.

Simon, it's called WildBlue.

 

[SimpleSimon]

Actually, most of the cost resides in the modem, transmitter, and installation thereof, so having an existing SuperDish doesn't help much. Also, AFAIK, there aren't any birds dedicated to satellite internet - they just use Ku space on existing ones.

Thanks for the WildBlue note, but also note that I noted that wireless is penetrating rural areas at a pretty good clip - satellite internet's days are numbered - but it's still a large number.

 

[larrystotler]

It will be interesting to see because up here where I am near the mountains, wireless is finally being installed, but it has a long way/time to go before it will push out sat internet. Yes, there are costs still, but with the dish already there, the installation costs would be lower, and could be absorbed more easily like E* and D* already do. And, with a slower speed setup and a quick swap out, it would be a way to do it. We will have to see.

 

[SimpleSimon]

What Larry said - which is what I said.

What mountains are you near, Larry? I'm in central Colorado - dang near dead center.

 

[James Long]

High Speed VOD

Technically Hi-Speed VOD would be possible on normal Ku birds too, if they wanted to teach the receivers how to do that trick. I suspect one day they will. Slow (regular) speed first - doing a forced locked download of a PPV overnight on the first day of release and having it standing by on your DVR ready to pay for at a moments notice. But eventually high speed.

High speed would be treated like a file transfer, direct to HD to be played back at regular speed either moments after the download started or anytime later. If an entire transponder were available for the download a 2hr movie could be downloaded in 15 minutes or less. I suspect even at High Speed, VODs will be pre-downloaded locked.

JL

 

[SimpleSimon]

That's an interesting approach. Dunno if the existing boxes can handle that much bandwidth processing. I could speculate on where the bottlenecks might be, but if the tuner hardware is what cuts out the 'unneeded' data (the other 'x' channels on the transponder), that lightens the load on the rest of the box - and they may have taken advantage of that shortcut, which could now become a problem in trying to implement your excellent idea.

 

[James Long]

The HD receivers can handle half a transponder, and IIRC the x22 models have the same 8PSK capability built in. I believe they can handle the flow (and even if the limit is 1/2 transponder, that's still 30 minutes a movie).

Tuner cards can vary - I don't know the behavior of E*'s. Some grab the transponder and give the full data to the rest of the electronics to sort out. Receivers with those cards already have to handle a full transponder stream of data. Other tuner cards pre-filter so only certain PIDs pass (which on E* theoretically could be limited to the operational tables and one PID for video, one for audio). That would lessen the load on the rest of the electronics. I can't imagine the newest receivers not being able to handle the load.

BTW: Here's a good argument for why bother -
If nine channels of PPV could show nine different movies in a two hour span (say 3am-5am ET) those 9 channels would consume one transponder for two hours. Current recorders could grab one of those 9 movies per night (or 2 on a two tuner machine where nobody was watching TV).
But if that transponder was used as a HighSpeedVOD pre-sale download, eight full movies @ 15min per recording could be captured. It would make the same day release of many movies possible. And pre-sale locked download seems to be the "on demand" way for satellite.

Then again, as long as there is a free transponder, perhaps in KuFSS, the real "on demand" with a waiting queue for your movie might be possible. It all depends on how much E* can make off of having a real on-demand channel there vs other content. Pre-sale download would use the transponder during off peak times and that space can be reused for regular PPV later in the day.

JL

 

[SimpleSimon]

Yeah! How about using the 'dead' time on PPV channels end-of-event and start-of-event to 'burst' some VOD. I've never done a PPV, so I don't know what they do with the time - promos maybe? In any case, there's some bandwidth to use.

 

[larrystotler]

Yes, PPVs do show previes just like the movie channels.

I am located in the Shenendoah Valley of northwestern VA, Near Winchester. Got the Blue Ridge and the Appalachians. Cell Phone serice has slowly gotten better, but if you head west towards WV, you get very little signal. Only advantage is that DC is 70 miles away, and that Loudon County is growingg towards us like the Blob. Property values are doubling, new homes are starting in the "mid 250Ks, and rents have doubled because of all the idiots who come out here and tell someone with an $500/mn rental that $1200/mn is a bargain.........

If they would put enough RAM in the things, you could buffer a good bit of the movie with no problems if they were using 1 trans, but there are a lot of issues there. They would want to buffer to more than 1 account to save costs and spread out the bandwidth.

 

[James Long]

Yeah! How about using the 'dead' time on PPV channels end-of-event and start-of-event to 'burst' some VOD. I've never done a PPV, so I don't know what they do with the time - promos maybe? In any case, there's some bandwidth to use.

The issue there would be to make sure the 'dead' times lined up. One can only burst if there is extra bandwidth available, which is why I suggested 3am-5am ET when most PPVs are off the air. If enough receivers were capable a 24hr "burst" transponder could be set aside, but I would not expect that for a few years.

The idea of a NetFlix style subscription - where one could request and store "X" number of movies at a time for a fee and would have to "return" one to get a new movie - would be workable.

BTW: I would not expect to see either pre-sale or burst PPV on a non DVR receiver. Saving it in ram is just too much data.

JL