Posts Tagged ‘IPTV’
What IPTV could do to make their service rock
As a follow-up to why IPTV potentially sucks I wanted to point out a few things that IPTV providers could do to make their service not only rock, but things that they could do that would be revolutionary to how we watch TV.
1. Place shifting with no additional hardware
I am still fairly amazed at how few people know about Slingbox and what it can do. The idea of placeshifting is not really new but it has never broken into the mainstream market. Maybe that is because Apple hasn’t had any placeshifting hardware of their own. In any case, what if you could watch live TV on your cell phone because all your IPTV provider had to do was give you web access or install a program that can decode their encrypted channels based on your subscription username. When your TV content isn’t tied to hardware like a coax cable or plastic dish there are so many possibilities. If all you needed was a internet connection and screen to be able to watch your TV, cable and satellite would never be able to compete.
2. Any computer recorders
Renting DVRs from your service provider usually sucks. That is all there is to it in my opinion. That is exactly why I have always spent more money and built my own DVRs. The main reason you have always needed a dedicated box in the past has been because of hardware limitations. Either your computer didn’t have a coax jack, or your processor/video card were too slow to display decent video. With IPTV all you need is wireless or ethernet. Once you have that why can’t you just use your own desktop or laptop as a portable TV anywhere in your wireless range? At most the provider would need to install a program to let you watch live TV and maybe a plugin to allow Windows Media Center or even a AppleTV to record all the TV you want. That way the shows are even stored where you want them to be. If you want to watch them on your TV, let the providers STB stream the show from your laptop or just use whatever you want plugged into your TV to display your recorded shows.
3. Internet content
I actually really liked this idea in Windows 7 media center. They had a channel for online content that shows up right in the TV guide. If I wanted to watch MSN videos all I had to do was go to the media guide with all the rest of my live TV shows. I will admit in Windows 7 media center the execution of this was done very poorly, but the idea was fantastic. But really why couldn’t a IPTV provider give you access to YouTube, vodcasts, and other online free video services. Well I know why, THEY DON’T MAKE ANY MONEY!! Boxee has been making leaps and bounds in this area and I hope they can partner with enough companies to actually force providers to have to pay attention to what they are doing and offer similar services or lose customers.
4. No recording needed
This really is the holy grail of what IPTV should be working toward. If only one of these ideas was to be done, this would be the one that would win. Imagine if all of your TV was on demand. Shows still “air” at certain times but that just means you can’t get the show before that time. The idea is you basically have a program guide of every show available (or every channel available) and you pick what you want to watch when you want to watch it. There would never be recording shows, unless you wanted to save the show to a different device like a laptop (although that would be more of a download than a recording and that isn’t a bad thing), and there would never be missing the beginning of a show because you got home late. I really hope that media distribution is heading this way because with lives as busy as they are and schedules as different as they are this is how entertainment should be delivered in my opinion.
Let me know if you have anything else to add to my list and what you think of the future of TV distribution.
Why IPTV is bad for the customer
IPTV has been making a lot of news lately with Verizon FiOS being one of the fastest available connections in the US and AT&T subscribing customers like rabbits make babies in spring. But I was thinking about IPTV and why it may not be the best thing for the consumer after all. Just to be clear I am talking about real IPTV and not Hulu, Netflix streaming etc. The IPTV I am talking about is the service you pay for that replaces your traditional satellite and cable connections for viewing TV. Here are a few things you may want to think about before you go ahead and sign up for a IP based TV service.
1. Proprietary set top boxes with a proprietary signal
Unlike “normal” cable and satellite boxes there is no standard for how the content is delivered to your house. Cable uses ATSC/NTSC/QAM etc. and if you didn’t want to use their cable box you can most likely plug your TV right into the wall and pick up at the very least the basic local channels and in my experience most basic cable channels too. Satellite is a bit more of a pickle but they are still regulated by FCC to at least give you a firewire connection upon request so you can use the signal however you want. For the less adventurous you can even buy a Tivo with cable card support and just use that in most cases. IPTV on the other hand uses whatever the provider sees as the best for their needs. Short of a HD PVR from Hauppauge I don’t know if there is any other way to use a separate PVR than what your provider gave you. And if you don’t like it…tough.
2. Bandwidth, bandwidth, bandwidth
How many times have you been angry at your provider for their less than stellar service? I recently upped my internet package up to the fastest my provider can give me and only then did I start to not complain. I still find times that slow down and I just have to make sure I kill any downloads if I am trying to watch Hulu on my TV through Boxee. But what happens when you are always using your internet connection to steam your TV. I guarantee you that video is no small package to send down any pipe. Sure there is a good amount of QOS managing things but I will never accept that you will be able to watch 3+ HD shows in your home and not see your ping go up when a boomer slimes you and your partners in Left 4 Dead and the zombie hoard closes in. And if you think 3+ HD shows is absurd just wait 2 years and come read this again. With cell phones and PSP’s creeping closer to HD resolution I think if you arn’t recording the show you will be watching it on something (even if it is a HD YouTube video). My only question is if TV will be the place that has the most compelling HD content in 2 years.
3. Router choices?
Have you seen the monstrosity box that FiOS installs? Not even including the boxes they have to install in your garage just to get the service into your house. I know you need these things for the connection, but what ever happened to just having a modem you connect your own choice of router to? I bet the first thing “tech” support is going to have you do is disconnect your “non-supported” router and make you use their p.o.s. while they trouble-shoot why your WoW ping is 8 quadrillion. Cable and DSL stop at the modem and that is how I think it should be. I don’t want to use AT&T’s bargain bin wireless chip to stream my HDHR to my kitchen. As a matter of fact, I don’t even want that box taking up a two foot spot on my rack. But without it, there is no service so I can’t get around it.
4. Bundle deals on TV and internet
Ever try to get the U-Verse internet speeds without getting the TV service? How long did it take before the representative on the phone said they had to be sold together? I hope they didn’t keep you on hold for long while they played solitaire. I know Verizon is a bit different and they have select areas that only have the internet service and not TV but everywhere I have check with AT&T it is all or nothing only.
5. Single outage = total outage
In the summer of 2008 my internet connection was down for about a week. My basic cable worked plugged directly into my TV but my modem and set top box would never connect to Time Warner like it was supposed to. I would call every day after work to see what the hold up was and every day they would tell me they are working on the problem. Turn out the outage only lasted about 6 hours but the customer support didn’t read the notes that the problem was fixed and send the updated signal to my modem. I can’t even image going a week without internet or TV. I do have a decent queue of TV shows downloaded and there is always Netflix but I would not be a happy camper with no connection when I got home.
Let me know what you think about IPTV and if you really think it is the right move for the consumer.