Some XStreamHD details emerge, some still fuzzy
Our buddy MegaZone over at TiVo Lovers has brought together the bits and pieces of info regarding XStreamHD, and while a picture is starting to emerge (sorry), there are still some key questions to be answered. First, what is known: the company will use leased satellite bandwidth to stream HD content to a server in your home; formats are MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 (up to 1080p), with 7.1-channel audio. Sounds like it's hitting all the right checkboxes so far. But what's still unclear is how the content will get delivered to users. Will XStreamHD use a MovieBeam-like "push" model limiting users to what's on the server; will the approach be "pull" oriented and stream dynamic content at users; or will some hybrid mechanism be employed? The company isn't telling, but CES should bring answers to not only how content will be distributed, but more importantly what the content will be!
Filed under: Industry, Satellite, New content
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Kon @ Dec 13th 2007 4:10PM
Come on guys, how about some simple research. XStreamHD engineering management are ex-HNS and iDirect. Job openings call for FEC code, prepackaging content at the headend, RTP/RTSP experience, and satellite modem integration.
Obviously they are going to use a trickle delivery mechanism to get content onto the box, and local LAN RTP/RTSP streaming to ancillary STBs from the central receiver.
No-one at the consumer level pulls content using sat modems, there just isn't a business case for implementing turbo internet anymore.
Good god if you're going to post news at least read up on the technology you're dealing with. NACK implosion wrt network scalability for consumer rollouts is fundamental knowledge when it comes to data delivery over satellite.
Interesting that they are reinventing the wheel for so many pieces of their puzzle. I would venture to say rather stupid, as well, given the failure rate of systems doing this in the past (Moviebeam, Cyberstar, iBlast, Geocast, ...).
MegaZone @ Dec 13th 2007 4:14PM
I expect them to use pre-loaded content, since, as you say, the scalability of on-demand via satellite is questionable. But some of the comments seem odd in that case, such as being able to start watching 'within 5 minutes'. Why is there any delay if the content is all local? It certainly wouldn't take 5 minutes to stream from the server to the client. Is there a delay for authorization? If so, why so long?
Still, I suspect it is main a context issue and it is going to work very much like Moviebeam - or DirecTV and DISH Networks 'On Demand' offerings for that matter. Content will be pre-loaded onto the server in the home, and users will only be able to select from that small library of 'current' titles. Perhaps there will be an ability to pre-select what is loaded, so you can tell it which upcoming titles you wish to be able to view.
Kon @ Dec 13th 2007 4:31PM
I suspect their '5 minutes' comment is marketing drone speak for 'I don't really understand how this technology works'.
One instance where that would make sense would be in the case of a higher-bitrate data carousel carrying say the top 5 movies chunked up to facilitate 'instant on'. The carousel iterations may require a minimum of 5 minutes at datarate x for the box to aquire enough data chunks to start playback without fear of hitting a buffer underrun. My experience in this has been that this concept is a pipedream.
The other possibility is that they continuously trickle content to the box and send metadata announcements in an ancillary channel that has a announce time of 5 minutes. The maximum lead time from receiving the entire file to the first decode of new metadata would then be 5 minutes.
Pre-selecting items from a carousel is novel yet not original. The advantage is that the user can manage content. The disadvantage is that the lead time to obtain item B when eliminating item A is not decreased. Best to give them the illusion of queue management by simply hiding what they see on the OSD, and not what is on the drive (so when they change their minds, that 'old' content is suddenly instantly available).
This box is just another Moviebeam push device. Too late to market and doomed to failure -- unless they plan to implement broadband on the box from the get-go to dynamically populate the box using sat for popular content and broadband for user-NVOD.