It's thin on details, but
XstreamHD has announced its entry into the direct-to-home HD distribution market. The service uses existing geosynchronous satellites to move content to an antenna at your home and then into a proprietary media server for distribution throughout the premises. The press release calls out some pretty heavy hitters as competition, and XstreamHD is touting
1080p video and
lossless 7.1 audio as its competitive advantage. We'll see what kind of pricing and more importantly, content, is announced at
CES in January.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Student Driver @ Nov 19th 2007 4:56PM
They had me up to "proprietary"...
kevin @ Nov 19th 2007 11:23PM
"They had me up to "proprietary"..."
Why?
Even though current cable and satellite television uses MPEG2 (or MPEG4), you can't just hook up a 'pure' feed to your television without their 'proprietary' set-top-box.
I strongly support non-proprietary, open formats for internet, file based distribution. Closed systems that distribute directly to the home are different. They offer a service that is targeted to real-time consumption. You can always use a Tivo like device to capture the video (post proprietary decryption) if you want to generate files or time-shift.
Also, this is a great solution. Even though it's technically possible to distribute 1080p through the internet, how long do you think ISPs will provide 'unlimited' bandwidth once a critical mass of people start downloading that volume of material? They're business model is contingent on people not using up anywhere near a maximum bandwidth. The additional ISPs costs will make all the nice open format, cheap/free (or stolen) online content prohibitively expensive to download once enough people jump on the bandwagon.
MegaZone @ Nov 20th 2007 12:09AM
How 'bout a link? http://www.xstreamhd.com/
Mike @ Nov 20th 2007 1:22AM
I just care how much it is...the content will come later if enough buy it.
fopkins @ Nov 20th 2007 2:35AM
http://www.xstreamhd.com/careers.html
Wow... looks like they are in need of some engineers...
GhostDoggy @ Nov 20th 2007 8:16AM
There is no more information in 1080P than there is in 1080i. And while I will usually brow-beat the Blu-ray and HD DVD entry level players for not offering 1080P without go through some absurd P to i to P mechanism, one would think that the two sides of the blade would adopt a lower bandwidth in distribution to the STB over the deinterlacing within the STB needed to get a progressive note back.
I wonder what the cumulative bandwidth is and if they are going to be reducing the resolution (pixel and or color) or lowering the bitrate (compression) much like some other DBS providers have done. Is this going to be like Voom Reloaded?