Telco IPTV View

TiVo is Great!

2011-04-22T09:26:00.000-07:00

Now that we have used out TiVo for three months, it has become an integral part of our TV viewing experience. It is a great supplement for over the air broadcast TV. The ability to watch programs at more convenient times and to access streaming content are key features.

My wife is not comfortable with a lot of technology, and she can use the TiVo for what she needs without any problem. She even said last night that she would like a TiVo box for our TV in out bedroom.

Our six year old grandson has a TiVo at home and is a whiz with it - of course.

Vudu vs. Netflix updated

2011-04-22T09:21:00.000-07:00

The performance of both Vudu and Netflix streaming has improved with the installation of powerline Ethernet. You make an explicit choice of quality with Vudu and pay more for higher quality. However, it is difficult (or not possible) to downgrade to a lower quality, once a higher level of quality has been selected.

Netflix tests your link at the beginning of each film and sends you the best quality that it believes that you can support. It is automatic and will back down automatically if the link degrades while streaming.

I like the Netflix approach best. However, I think that Vudu generally provides better video quality. However, Netflix is certainly good enough and I would not choose to buy a Vudu film rather than watching it on Netflix. I would watch Vudu only if content I wanted to see was not available from Netflix.

Replacement VBR231 Blue Ray Player Arrived

2011-04-22T09:11:00.001-07:00

After three weeks, I received a replacement VBR231. It works well. The Powerline Ethernet really improves the quality of streaming compared to WiFi in my home. I was able to watch Vudu content with 720p HD. Vudu said that its 1080p service would work for me, but that did not proved to be the case in operation. 720p is a big upgrade over SD.

Vizio VBR231 Blu-ray Player Failed

2011-01-26T09:58:00.000-08:00

Just after installing the TiVo, my Vizio VBR Blu-ray play failed. I did knock the HDMI connector out of the Vizio while installing. After reinstalling the HDMI connector, the Blu-ray would not work. It would show the Vizio logo after powering on and then the screen would go blank and the TV indicated that it had lost the HDMI signal.

After some testing to verify that the HDMI cable was working OK, Vizio agreed to send me another VBR231 as a warranty replacement. I have sent them the broken player and am now waiting for the new one.

This will be my third VBR231. The first one was an out-of-box failure. The second one failed after less than six months of use. This does not bode well for this product.

Powerline Ethernet

2011-01-26T09:52:00.000-08:00

I bought a pair of Western Digital Livewire Powerline Ethernet adapters to connect my TiVo to my home network. I had to plug the Livewire adapter into a power strip, which Western Digital does not recommend. The Geek Squad person at Best Buy told me that it would work fine. He was right. I get better than 180 Mbps out of a possible 200 Mbps through the power strip and the extension cord that connects it to the outlet.

All I had to do was to plug in the adapters, and they worked. Their performance as seen from the TiVo has been great! I recommend this approach.

The Livewire adapter that is connected to my broadband router is plugged directly into a wall outlet. I tried connecting it to another power strip and the perfomance dropped to 40 Mbps. It looks like it is a good idea to plug the router side adapter directly into a wall outlet.

I selected the Livewire because cnet.com's reviews showed that it had the best performance for units that have multiple ports. Having multiple ports will let me connect both my TiVo and my Blu-ray play to the Ethernet network.

TiVo Installation Problems

2011-01-26T09:42:00.000-08:00

I ordered the TiVo with a TiVo N Wireless Adapter. I was not able to get it to work. It was apparent to me early on that the adapter was not working. It took me most part of a day on the phone with TiVo support to convince them of that fact.

TiVo sent me another TiVo N Wireless Adapter. This one worked, but its performance was not adequate to support the TiVo. I solved the problem with Powerline Ethernet adapters.

It appears that it is not possible to test the TiVo N Wireless Adapter from a PC. I thought that this would be a good way to confirm the operation of the adapter, but it just would not work for me.

I think that TiVo should provide diagnostics to confirm the Internet connection during the startup phase for the TiVo. These diagnostics are only available after the startup phase has completed. A diagnostic procedure that would identify Internet connection issues at the start of the startup phase would make it much easier to resolve these problem.

New TiVo

2011-01-26T09:35:00.000-08:00

I now have a TiVo Premier XL, which has a 1 TB drive. I wanted the ability to record shows for watching at more convenient times. The TiVo integrates Internet TV content with the broadcast TV and makes it easier and more convenient to switch between them. So far the TiVo has provided a real step up in our TV viewing experience.

Usage Charges: The Bane of Internet TV

2010-12-08T14:22:00.000-08:00

The Washington Post published an article describing how the FCC is supporting broadband usage charges. This means that you would have to pay on a per megabyte basis. In addition to your monthly fee to Netflix, you would have to pay a fee to your broadband provider every time you watched a movie.

Now, it is likely that a usage based broadband plan would include some number of megabytes before the usage charges kicked in. However, these allowances will probably only cover a couple of films per month in addition to normal Internet traffic.

Usage charges will be set high enough to make Netflix streaming and other Internet TV services expensive enough to reduce their competitiveness against the broadband provider's own TV offering.

This is a great idea for the broadband providers and a bad idea for us users.

Netflix Accounts for 20% of Internet Traffic

2010-12-05T07:08:00.000-08:00

An article in the San Francisco Chronicle said that Netflix accounts for 20% of Internet traffic during the evening hours, the prime time for TV viewing. At this rate Netflix and the other over the top Internet TV providers will dominate Internet trafic. This will have major consequences.

I expect that the broadband service providers, both cable and DSL, will implement usage caps and use other means to limit the use of their networks for over the top TV viewing. They will see Netfflix streaming and the other over the top Internet TV services as swamping their networks without bringing in new revenues. They will also see these streaming services as important competition to their own TV services as more and more people cut the cord.

This will be viewed as a major network neutrality issue and will become quite nasty. Personally, I wish the broadband providers would get over it and install fiber everywhere.

Comcast's Attack on Netflix Streaming

2010-11-30T06:13:00.000-08:00

Light Reading has published an article describing how Comcast is forcing Level 3 to pay to deliver Netflix streaming traffic to Comcast broadband customers. This will raise Netflix's costs for delivering streaming video to Comcast customers.

Netflix streaming is a direct competitor to Comcast's own video broadcast and video on demand services. It is using its position as the broadband service supplier to improve its competitive position. Level 3 is calling this a net neutrality issue.

This will work in Comcast's interest in the short run. However, in the long run it will make "cord cutting" more attractive for its broadband customers. Making Netflix more expensive will make it more attractive for its customers to drop its services and move to over the air broadcast TV supplemented with Internet streaming. This will save most customers $100 per month.

Network Problems

2010-11-11T06:54:00.000-08:00

In the last week or so I have had difficulty connecting my VBR231 to my WiFi network. I do not know why, but I have noticed that I also have not been able to connect my Nokia N95 phone to my WiFi network at the same time.

The other night it took several attempts before I could connect to the WiFi network. After I was able to connect, Netflix said that the speed of the connection was slow and that I would seed interruptions while viewing the video that I had selected and gave me the option to cancel. I went ahead and had only one very slight interruption.

I assume it is a problem with the network itself. Maybe weather changes are causing it. Maybe the stars and tides are not in alignment. In any case, the WiFi signal is weak in that room in the best of times. A less determined user would give up on Internet TV with this kind of performance.

U.S. TV Networks Backing Cable

2010-10-25T09:50:00.000-07:00

The Washington Post published an article today saying that fewer TV shows will be available free over the net. The gist of the article is that the major U.S. TV networks have decided that they can make more money by backing the cable giants than offering advertising supported free content over the web.

I am sure that they are right in the short run. However, these networks no longer control the TV landscape as they did in the past. People are waking up to the fact that they do not have to pay $100 or more per month to the cable and satellite companies for their TV programming. Over the air digital has significantly improved the variety of free content, and the web is providing interesting alternatives such as Netflix streaming.

The quality and variety of these web-based alternatives will only increase in number over time. Netflix is only $10 per month. Other web-based services will emerge that will provide cost-effective alternatives.

The networks should keep this in mind and not give up on web-based delivery so early. In time they will find profitable ways to use web delivery. In fact, having a strong web distribution channel will increase their negotiating power over the cable and satellite companies.

MLB.com vs. Broadcast TV

2010-10-18T11:50:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we watch the first Giants Phillys playoff game. We made it a big family party. We watched the HD (720p) FOX broadcast with a PIP window with the MLB Pitchtrax also on the screen.

The FOX HD broadcast had much better image quality on the TV than the MLB.com feed. There is no contest. It was also easier to follow the FOX broadcast. It was interesting to watch the Pitchtrax window to see where the pitches were going. The PIP window was small enough that it was a bit difficult to see the Pitchtrax. (Maybe it is time to upgrade from a 42" TV to a 60" unit :-)

MLB.com is great if you cannot get a broadcast feed. It is also an interesting supplement to the broadcast feed. It is not a replacement for the broadcast feed, at least for today.

VBR231 DVD Quality Problems

2010-10-13T11:49:00.000-07:00

I played a favorite DVD the other night - Carlos Saura's Flamenco. The image quality was poor for much of time. Sauras uses a lot of panels behind the musicians and dancers that are lit with bright colors. These scenes produced a fringe around the people similar to what you seen in a 3D movie without glasses. It was pretty distracting.

Other scenes that did not used these lit, colored panels were fine. Other DVDs we have watched have been fine. I think it is a problem with the way Vizio up scales the DVD to HD. It appears to be confused by the lit panels of unusual colors.

Fourth MLB Playoff Game

2010-10-12T15:41:00.000-07:00

We watched the fourth Giants MLB playoff game. Giants won!

Used the same approach as before with two feeds, one embedded in the other. Worked fine with a minimum of synchronization problems. We are getting used to it and found this approach was OK when listening to the live radio feed, which was about 30 seconds ahead.

The MLB streaming is a fine way to watch a game if it is the only thing available. The Championship games start on Saturday and will be broadcast on a channel that is available over the air to that. I expect we will watch that rather than the MLB streaming feed. I will let you know how I feel about the difference after I watch one of those games.

Game 3

2010-10-11T07:35:00.000-07:00

We watched the third Giants/Braves playoff game yesterday. We are figuring out how to use MLB streaming TV. The HD download really improved the video quality - no more smearing or pixelization. However, the HD software introduced a 45 second delay between the video stream and the live radio broadcast, which made the radio unusable.

The HD software also significantly increased the delay between the windows in the four feed display. One of the feeds was also shown with low resolution and a lot of smearing and pixelization. It was too distracting. We went to a PIP two stream display with the primary stream filling the screen and the second screen shown in a smaller window in the upper left hand corner. We used the Pitchtrax feed as the primary window and the home plate feed as the secondary window. This allowed us to follow the plays pretty well.

The two windows were reasonably well synchronized and had to be resynchronized only once. Generally the audio feed was about one second ahead of the Pitchtrax screen and the Home Plate feed was a couple of seconds behind, which made for a reasonable experience.

With this approach, the MLB TV streaming is still not as good as the broadcast but has become a reasonable way to follow the game.

Playoffs Game 2

2010-10-09T15:04:00.000-07:00

We watched the Giants second game last night. I tried another graphics card driver on my laptop to no avail. It still crashes connected to the TV using HDMI. I did run the video for a couple hours on this machine without the HDMI connection, so it appears to be a hardware/driver problem with the HDMI interface.

We watched using four camera feeds - center field, home base, first base, and third base. This was enough to be able to see all of the action, at least most of the time. We tried the Pitchtrax view for a while, but gave up because it was distracting. Pitchtrax shows the arc of the ball and the pitch placement relative to the strike zone.

We got tired of the audio feed and turned on the local KNBR radio broadcast that we prefer. We prefer their audio feed. The problem is that the streamed video is delayed by about 10 seconds, so that the radio feed "gave us a view of the future". This lack of synchronization was rather distracting.

The four streamed windows lost synchronization. You would see the action happen in one window a bit before you would see in in another window. I could bring them back together by refreshing the window. Again, this was rather annoying.

I just found that I can get higher resolution video with a download. I have downloaded it and tested it. It seems to work fine. I will have more to say after tomorrows game.

MLB TV Day One

2010-10-08T08:41:00.000-07:00

Watched a great game with an amazing 1-0 win by Lincecum and the Giants. The MLB streaming experience was clearly inferior to a TV broadcast. I needed to have four windows up to follow the action because MLB does not switch cameras to where the action is. With four screens it was hard to follow and occasionally one of the screens would get out of synch with the others. The image quality was marginal. Lots of smearing and pixelization. This was quite noticeable on the TV.

My laptop gave the best presentation because it provided full screen. However, it would crash after 15 minutes or so and was really unusable. My wife's laptop never crashed but it did not have the full screen option. This meant that the windows were smaller. One advantage to this is that I could use the TV's PIP to bring up a broadcast window along with the four MLB window. A real multitasking opportunity.

After one game, I would say that I would abandon MLB TV for a commercial broadcast at first opportunity.

Streaming MLB Playoffs

2010-10-07T09:17:00.000-07:00

Our San Francisco Giants made it to the playoffs and will be playing the Atlanta Braves today. The playoffs are being broadcast only on a cable/satellite channel, so we will not be able to see them. We subscribed to the MLB playoff screening for $9.95, which gives access to all of the playoff games with no blackouts. A pretty good deal - about the price of one beer at the ballpark. The MLB service lets me select up to four camera feeds simultaneously, which should provide an interesting experience.

I am going to connect my laptop to my TV and watch the games on the TV. It will be interesting to see how this goes. I know that my laptop freezes when streaming to the TV. I expect that this is due to a faulty driver. I am not sure how to isolate this problem and would appreciate any suggestions.

I will let you know how this works out.

Noisy Drive

2010-09-19T14:37:00.000-07:00

One slight annoyance with the VBR231 is that you can hear the drive spinning when you are watching from a disk. Our previous DVD player was absolutely quiet. This is not a major issue, but it is a slightly bothersome.

Netflix vs. Vudu

2010-09-12T10:56:00.000-07:00

I made an ad hoc comparison of the content available from Netflix and Vudu. We went through a whole bunch of Vudu titles, watched some trailers, and selected videos we might want to watch. I then went back to Netflix and selected these titles. I added those to my Instant Queue that were available from streaming and added the rest to my DVD queue.

We identified 35 videos that we were interested in.
Of these 35, 10 were available for streaming on Netflix.
We added 24 to our DVD queue
There was one video on Vudu that was not in the Netflix database. It was not even available to Save as a future request when the DVD becomes available.

The video that was not available on Netflix was a Japanese film called "Saiduweizu(Sideways)", which is a rmake of the U.S. film Sideways with Japanese characters. We watched it last night and enjoyed it. It had softer edges than the original film.

The advantage of Vudu is that it gives you streaming access to films that are available only via DVDs from Netflix. This is typical of a Video on Demand vs. a Subscription on Demand service. We like video, but there are plenty of interesting films available from Netflix. I expect that Netflix will be our mainstay and that we will use Vudu only on occasion.

Does AT&T Throttle Video Traffic

2010-09-12T10:45:00.000-07:00

I am beginning to wonder if AT&T is throttling video traffic to manage congestion on its broadband network.

Last night we started a Vudu video about 6:30 PM. It kept interrupting the stream with the Buffering message. We finally gave up and tried a half hour TV video from Netflix. Netflix ran into the same problem. We gave up and went back to broadcast TV. Since this problem hit both Vudu and Netflix it was not likely to be a Vudu problem.

I went to my PC and checked what was happening on the network. There was nothing wrong with my WiFi network that I could find and there was no significant traffic on my broadband link. I could see nothing with the limited tools at my disposal that showed any problems on either.

About an hour later we went back and watched the streamed Netflix TV program. It worked OK with only one interruption for Buffering. After we finished the video, we went back to the Vudu film and were able to complete it. There were a lot of Buffering interruptions during the first half hour or so, but they stopped as time went by.

I am beginning to wonder if AT&T is throttling video traffic to maintain the quality of service for its broadband data and VoIP services. This makes sense from their point of view, but does not bode well for those of us who are depending on their Internet connection for TV programming.

I am going to watch this and would be interested in hearing if anybody else is having similar problems. If there enough of us, we should complain to the California Public Utilities Commission and the FCC.

Vudu Restart Works!

2010-09-07T10:45:00.000-07:00

The first time that I tried to pause a Vudu film, the VBR231 hung and I had to power cycle it to get it working again. In that case, Vudu did not remember where I was in the film and I had to search to get there.

Yesterday, Vudu said that it could not continue showing the film. The VBR231 did not crash. When I went back to Vudu, it remembered where I was and restarted the film at that point.

It appears that the Vudu restart works as long as the VBR231 behaves itself.

Network Problems

2010-09-07T10:41:00.000-07:00

Yesterday evening I had problems with the WiFi network connection to the VBR231. At first I could not establish a connection. After some fiddling I got a connection but Vudu would not work due to a network connection problem. Vudu started working, but I started to get "buffering" messages and finally Vudu gave up.

I then went to Netflix and watched a half hour TV program with no problems. I then went back to Vudu and restarted the movie that was interrupted earlier and was able to watch it without further problems.

I don't know what the problem was. I guess that it was a problem with my WiFi. The signal in the room with the VBR231 is not strong, and maybe something happened that brought it below an operational threshold.

Problems like this will turn less technically inclined people off to this service. It would help if the VBR231 would tell the user when the WiFi is getting weak or even make a recommendation to move to powerline Ethernet.

Vudu vs. Netflix

2010-09-05T10:04:00.000-07:00

We have now used both Netflix streaming and Vudu and have been talking about our strategy for using both of these services. Netflix is a subscription on demand service, so we can stream as many films as we want for a fixed monthly price. Vudu is a video on demand service, so we have to pay for each film that we watch.

Vudu seems to have newer releases available than Netflix, however, I think that all of the films available by streaming from Vudu are available as disks (delivered through the mail) from Netflix. It appears that the Netflix streaming content is older or less popular.

The one thing we liked on Vudu was the ability to view trailers to get a feel for the movie before selecting it. We may use the Vudu trailers to help us select movies for our Netflix queue.

We think that we will use Netflix as our primary content provider and supplement it from time to time with Vudu. There are plenty of interesting films available for streaming on Netflix. Netflix's fixed monthly price makes it more cost effective than Vudu, at least for us.

Vudu

2010-09-05T09:56:00.000-07:00

We watched Vudu for the first time. We have about two weeks to go to use up our free credit of $15.

Neither the HDX (1080p) or HD levels of content would work for me. I have a 6 mbps AT&T ADSL connection that was not up to the task. HDX requires 4.5 mbps to 9 mbps. The DVD player started buffering content a few seconds into the film and started buffering again after showing only a few seconds more. At the HD level, we got about 1min.50 secs. into the two minute free test period before it started buffering.

We went to the SD level and had no further problems. The SD level is less expensive than the HD or HDX levels, so we saved some money. The quality was certainly adequate and did not detract from the film. My guess is that Vudu's SD quality is a bit better than Netflix streaming quality.

The Blu-ray player lost its WiFi connection during the movie. It reconnected in less than one minute and there was enough buffering that it did not interrupt the showing of the film. This was the only time that I have seen the Blu-ray player lose its WiFi connection once it has been established for any content.

We did have one problem. We paused the film using the pause button on the Blu-ray player. We then saw a message on the TV saying that it had lost contact with Vudu. We could not restart the movie. I powered the Blu-ray player off and powered it back on. I went back to Vudu and reselected the film. The film did not restart at the point where it was stopped (as Netflix does, at least most of the time). I skipped forward until I found the point where we paused the film and then restarted it.

We did like the ability that Vudu gives you to watch trailers. This is a nice tool for selecting films.

Ratings for the Vizio VBR231 Blu-ray Player

2010-09-03T11:50:00.000-07:00

Here are my current thoughts on how the Vizio VBR231 stacks up:

Playing Blu-ray disks: quality very good, but there is no display showing how long the disk has played.
Playing DVDs: quality good, but there is no display showing how long the disk has played.
Network setup: D due to requirement to support Shared WEP
Network operation: B+ connects immediately except when running a file backup across the WiFi network.
Service Availability: B+ due to limited set of applications supported; however Netflix streaming and Pandora are very good.
Service set up: A very easy
Service operation: A easy to use

Over all I am very happy with the unit , especially at the $150 price point that includes WiFi. I think that Vizio has some work to do on the WiFi support so that it fits more easily into home networks. At a minimum, Vizio should support Open WEP.

We are watching or listening to streamed content nearly every day. It is a great supplement when we cannot find anything interesting the broadcast channels. I think that Internet streaming to the TV will become an important outlet for video content over time. It will be something that the Pay TV providers have to include in their offering. I think that Internet streaming to the TV will bring the cost of Pay TV down as more people "cut the cord" as I have done and replace Pay TV services with a combination of broadcast and Internet streaming content.

Telco IPTV View: Networking the Vizio VBR231 Blu-ray Player

2010-08-22T17:46:00.000-07:00

Telco IPTV View: Networking the Vizio VBR231 Blu-ray Player

I couldn't find the manual either. I found the manual for the VBR220 to be close enough. You can find it at:

http://www.vizio.com/vbr220.html#support

Bob

USB Media Port

2010-08-22T17:37:00.000-07:00

The VBR231 has a USB port on the front. You can insert an USB memory into it. If you have .jpg photos or MP3's on the USB memory, you can play them on your TV using DVD player. You can set up a slide show with the .jpg's or play the MP3s by selecting them from a menu.

This works fine and is easy to use, assuming that you can find your way around the menus. The DVD has no capability for rotating photos into the correct orientation. You can do that using the Windows Explorer on a PC before inserting the USB memory into the DVD.

Blu-ray disk

2010-08-19T15:22:00.000-07:00

We watched our first Blu-ray disk yesterday - Quantum of Solace. Video quality definitely better than a DVD. We were watching on a 42" Vizio LCD TV. I think the experience would have something on a really large screen.

The dynamic range of the audio seems to be quite a bit larger than a DVD. We had to lower the volume during the chases and other noisy parts and raise it in the quiet parts. I am sure that other viewers will like the dynamic range.

It also seemed that the processing delays on the Blu-ray disk were longer than on a DVD. Not a significant issue.

The improved video quality of the Blu-ray disks together with the streaming capabilities of the VBR231 make it well worth the $150 we spent on it, at least for us.

Networking Problems Resolved

2010-08-19T15:14:00.000-07:00

The VBR231 now locks on to the WiFi network right after it is turned on. It is doing this quite reliably. I do not notice any networking problems when I stream videos. My laptop is now in the same room and shows "Excellent Signal Strength" and an available speed of 24 Mbps, so there is some degradation. This seems to be more than adequate.

Netflix Browsing

2010-08-15T13:21:00.000-07:00

I found out how to browse Netflix's library of streaming titles from the TV. You press the up arrow on the remote and then the right or left arrows to select a category. If you select a video, it displays a description. You can then start it up if you want to see what it is about.

Vudu Services

2010-08-15T13:18:00.000-07:00

I have started using the Vudu service. It includes Vudu for video on demand. It supports a number of services that include Facebook, Twitter, flickr, Picasa, Associated Press, New York Times, Weather, Wikipedia, and Stock Tracker.

I like the videos available from the New York Times website. They are interesting and informative. The AP text posts are also interesting.

Networking

2010-08-15T13:03:00.000-07:00

The VBR231 has had trouble initially linking up to the WiFi network after powering up. It won't connect and the user interface becomes sluggish. After powering it off and on again, it will connect immediately.

Preliminary Ratings for the Vizio VBR231 Blu-ray Player

2010-08-10T10:23:00.000-07:00

Here are my initial thoughts on how the Vizio VBR231 stacks up:

Playing Blu-ray disks: not yet rated
Playing DVDs: not yet rated
Network setup: D due to requirement to support Shared WEP
Network operation: C due to connection difficulties that have not been resolved yet
Service Availability: B due to limited set of applications supported
Service set up: A very easy
Service operation: A easy to use

Over all I am happy with the unit for my purposes, especially at the $150 price point that includes WiFi. I think that Vizio has some work to do on the WiFi support so that it fits more easily into home networks. At a minimum, Vizio should support Open WEP.

Vizio VBR231 Blu-ray Over the Top Service

2010-08-10T10:12:00.000-07:00

The Vizio supports Netflix, Vudu, Pandora, and media viewing.

Netflix is easy to use and to set up. When you start it gives you a code that you enter into the Netflix website. Once you do that, the Netflix menu appears. You add videos to the Instant queue in Netflix and these videos are displayed on your TV through the VBR231. You then select the video that you want to watch and it starts up. You can pause and restart videos at any time. If you interrupt a video it will give you the option to restart it at that point when you watch it again.

Pandora has a similar set up interface. It gives you a code that you enter into Pandora's website. You then can set up "stations" based on the kinds of music you like. You can set up stations from the TV or from your computer. I set up a Miles Davis station and Pandora did a pretty good job selecting music.

I have not done anything with Vudu. I did test putting a USB memory into the USB slot on the front of the Vizio but have not tested playing any media this way.

The player also supports BD-Live that provides online content in conjunction with a Blu-ray disk. I have not tested this feature yet.

Networking the Vizio VBR231 Blu-ray Player

2010-08-10T09:58:00.000-07:00

I was apparently able to get the WiFi on the Vizo Blu-ray player up right away. I started to stream a movie. The first sign of a problem was that it complained about the speed of the network connection. I watched the video for about 10 minutes without a problem.

I then started to explore other features. I started using Pandora and found that it would not reliably stream audio. Later on, I found that the Vizio would not maintain a WiFi connection.

Yesterday morning I read the manual and noticed that the Vizio supports only Shared WEP. I changed my WiFi router to shared WEP. The Vizio connected to the WiFi easily after that and maintained stable connections.

Shared WEP provides an inferior level of security and Windows 7 will let you use it only by making a manual connection. I had to do this for both of our computers. The Microsoft Help screens were not accurate and it took me a while to figure out how to do it.

Yesterday afternoon I had trouble establishing a WiFi connection. I think it was because a file backup operation was saturating the WiFi network. After I interrupted the backup, I had no trouble establishing a stable connection and was able to watch a video for about 40 minutes. The video started quickly and streamed without any problems. Video quality was good, it seemed to be better than streaming directly from a laptop.

Vizio VBR231 Blu-ray with Over the Top Support

2010-08-10T09:45:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday we saw the Vizio VBR231 Blu-ray player at Costco (a large warehouse retail operation) for $150 for the first time. It supports Netflix streaming and includes WiFi support. This was $75 less than a similar Sony unit that Costco has carried for a while. We bought it.

When we got the VBR231 home it would not power on. I was able to reach Vizio's support Sunday morning and after trying a few things, she said that I should return it. I took it back to Costco on Sunday and the new one worked. It played a DVD just fine.

Watching Netflix on the TV using the Laptop

2010-08-10T09:34:00.000-07:00

We watched four or five videos streamed from Netflix using the computer. The first couple worked fine. Image quality was significantly below what we experience from DVD's and from over the air digital broadcast. However, the convenience factor was strong enough overcome the degraded image quality. The last two we watched caused the laptop to lock up and crash after between 10 to 30 minutes. This required a reboot and was very annoying. Most people would have given up after one or two crashes and decided that using a computer to stream Netflix just did not work.

This soured us on the experience and we did not go back to it. I would rate our viewing experience as a D due to the crash. I would rate the quality a C+.

Connecting the TV to the Laptop

2010-08-10T09:27:00.000-07:00

The first challenge was to connect our Gateway laptops to the TV. We bought an inexpensive six foot HDMI cable on Amazon.

Our laptops are now two years old and were delivered with Vista. We upgraded to Windows 7 as soon as it came out last October. We experienced a lot of instability with Vista, especially on my wife's computer. She uses Kodak EasyShare to manage her extensive photo library. EasyShare is pretty unstable and would take Vista down frequently, too often corrupting the file system. Windows 7 has been much more stable. It catches the EasyShare failures without crashing or corrupting the file system.

I did have a disk failure a month or so after upgrading to Windows 7. I made a clean Windows 7 install at that time without first loading Gateway's Vista first. I then loaded all of the drivers that Gateway said I should use. However, the sound card driver that I loaded did not support the HDMI interface. This left this computer able to display video on the TV but without audio.

I had a difficult time getting Gateway to address this problem. The standard answer was that I had to go back and load Gateway's Vista on the computer and test it that way. They would not address problems with Windows 7. I even got this useless answer from the paid support group I had signed up with to solve my disk problems last December. Pretty disappointing.

I kept after them via their email support and after a number of iterations they sent me a new audio driver that solved the problem. This audio driver included an HDMI option. The only problem is that I would have to go into the Control Panel every time I wanted to watch a video on the TV and select the HDMI driver. I would then have to change it back when I was not through. This is OK for a geek like me, but not for my wife or any other ordinary consumer.

I would rate this set up process a D- because I came close to giving up. My wife's computer had this driver already loaded on it, so I would rate the set up as a C on her computer. I would rate the operation a C on both computers because it is necessary to manually change the sound settings.

Netflix the Driver

2010-08-10T09:12:00.000-07:00

We had given up our Netflix subscription for about two years because we were not watching the DVDs we received. They would come and sit around the house for months. (Netflix is the US web-based service that sends out requested DVDs using postal mail. The DVDs are selected using a web interface. It was a natural extension of the Netflix service to offer over the top, Internet delivered streaming video delivery as well as postal delivery.)

The availability of streamed delivery over the Internet that would allow us to select a movie to watch immediately was a major factor in attracting us back to Netflix. We could buy a DVD player, a DVR, or a special set top box that supports the Netflix streaming service. Our laptops have HDMI interfaces and could support the Netflix streaming service as well.

We decided to start with our laptops. That would provide a good feasibility test, especially for our WiFi network.

New Over the Top Emphasis

2010-08-10T07:02:00.000-07:00

I stopped following the Telco IPTV market last year when I retired and closed down TelecomView. I have maintained an interest in over the top IPTV services and have started using it myself. I will now use this blog to document my experiences.

I cut the cable and converted to over the air broadcast services several years ago. I have been pleased by the variety of digital channels that are available here in San Francisco and see no need to pay $100 per month or more for a cable or satellite service, especially when I can get HD broadcasts from the major networks for free.

I did want to subscribe to AT&T's U-verse IPTV service. Microsoft even offered to pay for my subscription since I was an analyst covering this space. However, the City of San Francisco and AT&T reached an impasse that caused AT&T to decide not to offer U-verse in San Francisco. Given the size of the remotes required, I cannot blame the city for objecting. At this point I would not put the money out for the service, even if I could get it.

I will follow this post with others that discuss my experience with bringing video services to my TV over the Internet.

Ofcom UK Communications Report

2009-08-08T09:00:00.000-07:00

Ofcom issued a 334 page Communications Report that discusses TV, Radio, Telecommunications, and convergence.

It has a lot of interesting information. Three points that stuck out were:

More than a quarter of consumers (27%) claimed to use a DVR at the end of Q1
2009, equivalent to 7 million homes, according to Ofcom research. This rose to
nearly a third of consumers (31%) in multichannel television homes. These figures
are a little lower than those from operator and sales data, which suggest that nearly 9
million DVRs had been sold in the UK at the end of Q1 2009.
High-definition television gained traction over the past 12 months, as new HD
channels launched and more platforms developed their HD propositions. By the end
of the first quarter of 2009, 2.3 million homes (9%) had reception equipment capable
of accessing linear or on-demand HD content. Thirty-three per cent of UK homes
claimed to have HD-ready television sets at the end of 2008, according to its
research.
Online catch-up TV began to enter the mainstream in 2008, largely thanks to the
growing popularity of the BBC iPlayer. Twenty-three per cent of households claim to
watch programmes online, rising to 33% among 15-24s. But 10% of people aged 65+
reported that someone in their household watched catch-up TV online.

We should all thank Ofcom for continuing to publish these comprehensive reports that shed light on important trends.

Verizon Adds Internet Capabilities to FiOS TV

2009-07-16T06:08:00.001-07:00

Verizon has added the ability to access certain Internet applications and websites on its FiOS TV IPTV service. It added what it calls its Widget Bazaar applications marketplace, located within FiOS TV's Interactive Media Guide, with free Facebook, Twitter and ESPN Fantasy Football Widgets.

With the Twitter Widget, FiOS TV subscribers can follow Tweets related specifically to the program, movie or sporting event they are watching. They also can select from a list of top topics to view Tweets associated with today's hottest topics and trends, search for specific Tweets, and create and save a favorite-topics list.

FiOS TV subscribers with Facebook accounts can log in to Facebook through the FiOS TV Widget to update their Facebook status with messages about what they're watching, view their own photos, and view their friends' photos and status updates.

The ESPN Fantasy Football Widget provides on-screen access to personalized ESPN Fantasy Football points and football statistics, including rosters, box scores, scoring leaders and player information. All the information is available, at no additional charge, for FiOS TV customers who are registered ESPN Fantasy Football players.

Verizon will add to the FiOS TV Widget Bazaar additional free and transactional applications developed by the company and others. It will publish its Software Development Kit (SDK) to enable open development. The open development platform will enable developers to publish applications to the more than 7 million interactive set-top devices in FiOS TV homes.

Later this month, customers who subscribe to the Home Media DVR service will be able to search and view on FiOS TV user generated online videos from video-sharing sites blip.tv, Dailymotion, and Veoh. In addition, a new My Videos feature will let these subscribers view via FiOS TV personal videos stored on their PCs.

Verizon has put a page on its website that contains more information about these features.

This is a good start at providing access to Internet applications by Verizon. It is starting to make good use of the IP capabilities of its FiOS TV service. Verizon was able to move in this new direction because it now has taken over the development and maintenance of its middleware software. Other IPTV providers will follow Verizon's example.

Survey Shows Preference for FTTH

2009-06-29T10:45:00.000-07:00

The U.S. FTTH Council has published a survey of U.S. broadband users that shows that there is a strong preference for FTTH over cable modem broadband services. DSL had the least favorable rating for broadband services. FTTH had an even stronger preference for HD TV over FTTH compared to satellite and cable services.

The survey is well worth reading. The results are no surprised but do underscore the technical superiority of FTTH technologies.

ATT Enhances U-verse IPTV Service

2009-06-17T10:22:00.001-07:00

ATT has introduced new features to its U-verse IPTV service to make it more competitive with cable and satellite companies:

The ability to set or delete recording as well as watch recorded programs from any of up to eight TVs in the home.
An increase of speed from 10 to 12 Mbps for those subscribed to this level of service.
A video on demand recommendation service based on the viewers ratings of past selections.
An improved interface for web connected PCs for controlling the recording function on the set-top box.
Improved navigation in using U-verse from the TV.

ATT is strongly promoting its remote DVR capability in its TV ads. It has found a unique feature that seems to be gaining traction.

U.S. Analog Sunset

2009-06-15T07:00:00.000-07:00

I got through the conversion to all digital over the air TV in the U.S. over the weekend. As of Saturday morning all analog TV had ceased. Actually, there was one station that I could pick up here that still broadcast an analog signal - a text screen saying that you need a digital converter or a digital TV to receive service. All of the rest of the analog signals here went blank.

I live in San Francisco and stopped my cable service more than five years ago. I did not have a cable connection in the room where we moved the TV and did not want Comcast to hack up our 80 year old house any more than it had already.

We were well prepared for the digital conversion. We now have the HD/digital sets with good Terk indoor antennas that were already receiving over the air digital signals. We have gotten rid of our analog sets over the last year. We are now only left with a couple of radios with analog TV audio receivers that no longer work.

Everything went as scheduled. We seemed to lose one channel Friday evening. I guess it made its changes earlier than midnight. Many stations were reassigning their digital signals to new frequencies as part of the conversion.

Saturday morning we rescanned two of the TVs. We had some trouble getting all of the channels we had before. We had to reorient the antennas to a position and were able to find all of the channels we had before. We scanned the third set that afternoon. One set is not able to find the NBC outlet, but this was nothing new. This set has a more compact and less powerful Terk antenna, which has not been able to pick up this channel. The more sensitive set picked up a channel that we have not been able to receive before.

The only frustration with all of this is that the channel scanning is an all or nothing operation. Every time we scan channels, it clears all channels and adds those that it finds. This means that the antenna has to be positioned carefully to get them all. I would like to see an "add channel" function that keeps the channels that have already been found and adds any new ones that it finds. This would let me point the antenna in another direction and pick up the channels that it can find in that direction. I think I would be able to pick up more channels this way.

The U.S. analog sunset is a much easier transition than will be experienced in other countries. Only 10 to 15 percent of U.S. homes use over the air broadcasting as their only source for TV programming. The rest have cable or satellite subscription. A prominent survey said last week that only 2 million households were not prepared for the change. This is less than 2 percent of the total households in the U.S. Countries with a higher dependence on analog TV broadcasting will have a more difficult transition.

Cisco Traffic Forecast

2009-06-10T07:36:00.000-07:00

I have posted an article on Cisco's latest IP traffic forecast on my Telco 2020 blog. Cisco's forecast highlights the growing importance of video traffic on IP networks.

Cisco IPTV Video Delivery Test

2009-06-04T09:38:00.000-07:00

Light Reading published an 18 screen article describing a test performed by EANTC of the ability of a Cisco infrastructure to deliver high quality IPTV service. The conclusion was that the Cisco network performed very well.

This is a very interesting effort. It does a good job of characterizing the performance of this network delivering broadcast/multicast service with a modest amount of video on demand. This are realistic assumptions for most of today's IPTV networks.

However, I am aware of IPTV networks that support network DVR services that are experiencing 80 percent penetration of video on demand services during peak periods. This puts the network into an entirely new dimension. It would have been much more interesting if such a heavy video on demand load was tested as well. This is where IPTV networks are going.

IPTV in Korea

2009-05-22T09:31:00.000-07:00

Light Reading published an article discussing the status of Korea has made the transition from an on demand only service to a service that includes broadcast content. It on demand service now has 1.3 million subscribers and its broadcast service has grown to 222,600 subscribers in four months.

The country has made great progress even though there is confusion over whether its on demand service is a walled garden or an over the top, Internet service. Maybe Korea is far enough along that distinction is no longer important.

SingTel Adds 19K IPTV Subscribers in 1Q09

2009-05-21T09:09:00.000-07:00

SingTel in Singapore added 19,000 IPTV subscribers in 1Q09 leaving it with a total of 78,000. It stated that this was the largest number of adds to its mioTV IPTV service.

SingTel continues to make progress but not has lit the market on fire the way PCCW did in Hong Kong.

Belgacom Adds 49K IPTV Subscribers in 1Q09

2009-05-15T09:46:00.000-07:00

Belgacom added 49,000 IPTV subscribers in 1Q09 giving it a total of 555,000 at the end of the quarter. Of these it added 5,000 homes with more than one IPTV set-top box leaving a total of 70,000. The ARPU for its TV service increased from 19.4 to 20.4 euros during the quarter. Its IPTV revenues remained flat during the quarter at 13 million euros. Belgacom said that its IPTV service is now EBITDA positive. It spent 27 million euros of capital on its IPTV service for set-top boxes, content, and infrastructure.

Belgacom continues to be successful in a very competitive Pay TV market. The Belgian cable companies fell behind Belgacom in services and technology and are now paying the price.

BT Adds 45K IPTV Subscribers in 1Q09

2009-05-14T07:35:00.000-07:00

BT added 45,000 IPTV subscribers to its BT Vision service leaving it with a total of 423,000 at the end of the quarter. It now has over 430,000 IPTV subscribers. It said that 90 percent of its new subscribers are taking a subscription and that its ARPU for the service has doubled.

BT is continuing to make progress in a competitive market. It appears that its strategy of riding on Freeview's coat tails is working well for it.

Telefonica Lost 7.7K IPTV Subscribers in 1Q09

2009-05-14T06:05:00.000-07:00

Telefonica lost 7,700 IPTV subscribers in Spain in 1Q09 leaving it with a total of 604,800. It did ad 13,300 IPTV subscribers in its O2 operation in the Czech Republic, ending the quarter with 127,800.

Spain seems to be a difficult IPTV market. Telefonica has clearly lost its momentum in its home market.

Telecom Italia Added 36K IPTV Subscribers in 1Q09

2009-05-08T10:24:00.000-07:00

Telecom Italia added 36,000 IPTV subscribers in 1Q09 giving it a total of 365,000 at the end of the quarter.

The pace of its IPTV subscriber additions slowed significantly from the rate that it achieved in 4Q08.

Telus has 100K IPTV Subscribers

2009-05-08T10:15:00.000-07:00

Telus in Canada now has 100,000 IPTV subscribers. It offers 33 HD channels, personal video recorder capabilities with 60 hours of HD recording time, and HD video on demand. The company plans to launch a satellite TV service later in 2009.

Telus seems to be doing well with this service. The satellite TV service will enable it to offer TV service to the large rural areas that it covers.

Swisscom adds 21K IPTV Subscribers in 1Q09

2009-05-06T10:05:00.000-07:00

Swisscom added 21,000 Bluewin TV IPTV subscribers in 1Q09 giving 139,000 total subscribers.

Swisscom continues to make steady progress with its IPTV service.

Verizon Adds 299K IPTV Subscribers in 1Q09

2009-04-29T11:05:00.000-07:00

Verizon added 299,000 IPTV FiOS TV subscribers in 1Q09, leaving it with a total of 2.217 million. It also added 298,000 FiOS FTTH subscribers, giving it a total of 2.779 million at the end of the quarter.

Verizon continues to make strong progress. Its FiOS TV service is clearly an important part of its FiOS offering.

France Telecom Adds 354K IPTV Subscribers in 1Q09

2009-04-29T10:42:00.000-07:00

France Telecom added 354,000 IPTV subscribers across all of its operations leaving it with a total of 2.463 million at the end of the quarter. In France it added 257,000 IPTV subscribers, leaving it with a total of 2.166 million. Its Pay TV subscriptions in France grew by 240,000 in France ending the quarter with 1.138 million.

France Telecom added 12,000 subscribers in Spain, giving it a total of 99,000. It added 85,000 in Poland ending the quarter with 198,000 subscribers.

France Telecom is continuing to do well. Its operation in Spain has even started to increase again.

Chunghwa Telecom Added 10K IPTV Subscribers in 1Q09

2009-04-29T10:22:00.000-07:00

Chunghwa Telecom added 10,000 IPTV subscribers in 1Q09, giving it 686,000 at the end of the quarter. It plans to strengthen its offering by repackaging and introducing premium content, with new marketing programs, and by introducing interactive capabilities.

This was a significant drop in new subscribers. I expect that the current economic crisis had a lot to do with it.

Telia Adds 22K IPTV Subscribers in 1Q09

2009-04-25T10:46:00.000-07:00

Telia Sonera added 22,000 IPTV subscribers across all of its operations in 1Q09, leaving with with a total of 509,000 at the end of the quarter. The country by country results were:

Sweden added 9,000 new subscribers, giving it a total of 333,000 at the end of the quarter.
Norway added no new IPTV subscribers and ended the quarter with 10,000.
Denmark added 1,000 new IPTV subscribers, ending the quarter with 2,000.
Lithuania added 14,000, giving it 81,000 and the end of 1Q09.
Estonia added 9,000 new IPTV subscribers, ending the quarter with 83,000.

Telia Sonera continued to have modest growth in its IPTV service.

ATT Adds 284K IPTV Subscribers in 1Q09

2009-04-23T05:18:00.000-07:00

ATT added 284,000 IPTV subscribers in 1Q09, leaving it with a total of 1.329 million at the end of the quarter. Over the same period it added 359,000 broadband subscribers, giving it a total of 15.436 million.

ATT continues to make good progress in spite of the difficult financial environment. It will easily exceed 2 million IPTV subscribers by the end of 2009 if it maintains this rate. It now sees its IPTV service as a significant driver for its broadband business.

Cantv in Venezuela to invest $400M in IPTV

2009-04-23T05:02:00.000-07:00

TV Latam has posted an article saying that state owned Cantv in Venezuela will spend $400M on its IPTV system to reach 1.26 million subscribers using a system provided by ZTE. During the first trial stage of the project, Cantv will offer its service to 67.090 users who will have access to 140 channels.

Venezuela is taking a democratic approach and plans to offer a mass market service. This is a huge win for ZTE.

PCCW Adds 26K IPTV Subscribers in 2H08

2009-04-21T08:50:00.000-07:00

PCCW added 26,000 IPTV subscribers in 2H08 leaving it with a total of 953,000 IPTV subscribers at the end of 2008. This is consistent with its increase of 27,000 broadband subscribers over the same period, giving 1.302 M at the end of 2008. It also added 18,000 IPTV paying subscribers in 2H08, leaving it with 686,000 at the end of the year.

PCCW continues more than five years of growth with its IPTV service.

ATIS IPTV Interoperability Forum Issues Phase 1 Specs

2009-04-18T08:55:00.000-07:00

The ATIS IPTV Interoperability Forum released five new standards establishing IPTV’s foundational framework.

IPTV Linear TV Service (ATIS-0800018), which establishes IPTV’s fundamental building blocks for expansion into more advanced services, including pay-per-view and next-generation gaming.
IPTVConsumer Domain Device Configuration Metadata (ATIS-0800022), which specifies the data structures (metadata) required to provide basic information needed to acquire IPTV content.
Media Formats and Protocols for IPTV Services (ATIS-0800013), which is a comprehensive listing of the protocols and media formats required for the implementation of IPTV-related services.
IPTV Terminal Metadata Specification (ATIS-0800029), which defines the data structure that facilitates the exchange of user-related data and the IPTV devices
Fault Codes for IPTV (ATIS-0800028), which includes a categorized listing of fault codes for IPTV functions and components.

These documents are available from the ATIS Document Store.

This is a good effort but it still seems like too little too late.

Time Warner Backing Off Usage Caps

2009-04-17T09:33:00.001-07:00

Light Reading has published an article that states that Time Warner has shelved plans to extend its trial of usage caps currently underway in Beaumont, Texas to Rochester, N.Y.; Greensboro, N.C.; and San Antonio and Austin, Texas. Take a look a my previous posting to get information on the Beaumont trial.

Apparently, Time Warner is bowing to public and political pressure. It continues to believe in usage caps and believes that it needs to better educate its users.

Personally, I think usage caps and usage charging will not be accepted and is a tool that Time Warner is using to quash competition from over the top Internet TV services.

180Squared Introduces Microsoft Mediaroom for Small Telcos

2009-04-15T10:37:00.000-07:00

180Squared has introduced "Mediaroom in a box" that prepackages Microsoft Mediaroom for small telcos. Previously, Mediaroom was targeted to large carriers who wanted to integrate it themselves. The 180Squared bundle includes:

Services
o Full Architecture and Deployment Services for Mediaroom
o B/OSS Integration Service
Software
o 180SQUARED Framework B/OSS Package
 Global Operations Manager
 B/OSS Interfaces and Work Flow Engine
 Basic STB Management
o Caller ID
o Remote (Web) PVR

This looks like a useful adjunct to Microsoft's Mediaroom strategy that addresses the needs of smaller operators. It will be interesting to see how it does compared to software packages built specifically for this market such as Nokia Siemens/Myrio, Minerva, and Dreampark.

Microsoft Adds NPVR to Mediaroom

2009-04-15T10:28:00.000-07:00

Microsoft introduced the NPVR Mediaroom Anytime feature set, which provides the ability to:

Restart Anytime offers the ability for viewers to rewind or restart the currently airing program from any point.
Live Anytime allows viewers to scroll backward in the Interactive Program Guide to watch previously aired programs. These previously aired programs also can be made accessible through the service provider's video on demand library.
Download Anytime extends Microsoft Mediaroom-powered services to more consumers by enabling viewers to download on-demand movies and programs to their set-top boxes so they can watch them anytime regardless of bandwidth constraints. For example, viewers could watch high-definition programs on low-bandwidth networks.

In addition, Microsoft announced that the Mediaroom platform has reached nearly 2.5 million subscriber homes worldwide, an increase of more than 1.5 million new connections in the past year.

These NPVR functions are important IPTV services. They are very popular where they have been introduced in Europe and China. The U.S. providers are waiting to see the final results of the battle between Cablevision and the studios over this service.

21K IPTV Subscribers in Latin America

2009-04-14T11:20:00.000-07:00

TV Telco Latam published and article that states that Latin America recorded 21,495 IPTV clients in December 2008, which meant a 139% growth as compared to the same month in 2007.

Telco IPTV is just getting off the ground in Latin America. It faces major regulatory hurdles and strong cable and satellite competition.

Time Warner Modifying Usage Caps

2009-04-10T12:48:00.000-07:00

Light Reading published an article describing how Time Warner is modifying its usage caps and another article listing the usage caps both Time Warner and ATT are offering in Beaumont, Texas. Time Warner is offering a higher tier that offers a higher usage cap.

These caps range from 5 GB per month to 150 GB per month.

It is always interesting to calculate how much HD TV viewing that these caps will permit. A cap of 10 GB permits less than 3 hours of HD viewing in the month. A cap of 100 GB permits less that 1 hour of HD viewing per day and a cap of 150 GB permits less that 1.5 hours per day.

Clearly these caps will discourage the use of the broadband service to deliver video to the TV. This is certainly a way that the telcos and the cable companies can keep their customers on their own TV services and away from over the top Internet TV services.

ATT 3 Screen Masters Golf Tournament Coverage

2009-04-09T10:35:00.000-07:00

ATT is providing coverage of the 2009 Masters Golf Tournament over its U-verse IPTV service, to the PC, and to mobile phones. Live content to all three screens includes:

Par 3 Contest, which featured a live feed from the contest on Wednesday, April 8.
Masters Extra, which gives AT&T viewers one hour of coverage before cable and network broadcast coverage begins.
Amen Corner Live, which features live coverage of the 11th, 12th and 13th holes.
15th/16th Live, which features live coverage of the 15th and 16th holes.

On demand coverage includes:

Masters Moments, featuring a series of 24 vignettes from past Tournaments available to U-Verse and PC viewers.
Multiple Player Interviews, offered daily via U-verse TV VOD, the PC, and mobile video.
Masters TV, including daily previews and recaps available via to the PC and mobile video.

This is a nice set of 3 screen programming. It does show the complexity of making this kind of offering. Consequently, compelling 3 screen programming will continue to be limited to these special events quite a while.

Belgacom Considering New IPTV Middleware

2009-04-03T09:40:00.000-07:00

Light Reading published an article saying that Belgacom is considering replacing its Nokia Siemens middleware. Light Reading thinks that Microsoft is the leading contender. The other major vendors supporting Microsoft are Arris/C-Cor for video on demand, Amino for set-top boxes, and Verimatrix for content security.

The Nokia Siemens middleware came from its acquisition of Myrio. Myrio's middleware was originally designed for the small U.S. independent telcos.

This is an interesting situation. It does not appear that Nokia Siemens has made the investment in the Myrio middleware to allow it to scale to meet Belgacom's needs and to support the next generation of interactive applications.

Microsoft's Mediaroom is an obvious candidate. I expect that Alcatel-Lucent will use its strong relationship with Belgacom to push the MyView middleware that it acquired from Telefonica. Thomson's middleware that is used by France Telecom should be another strong candidate.

It will be bad news for Arris/C-Cor, Amino, and Verimatrix if Belgacom its replaces Nokia Siemens middleware.

Liberty Global Interview

2009-03-31T04:54:00.000-07:00

Light Reading has published an interview with Liberty Global that discusses the advantages of cable over IPTV in the European context. It sees that DOCSIS 3.0 gives it a large advantage over ADSL technology along with its long experience delivering video content.

These are good points but IPTV is giving cable a real run for its money in countries such as France and Belgium. IPTV is in a much stronger position in Europe than it is in most parts of the U.S.

Chunghwa Telecom Added 85K Subscribers in 4Q08

2009-03-30T09:40:00.000-07:00

Chunghwa Telecom of Taiwan added 85,000 IPTV subscribers in 4Q08, ending the quarter with 676,000 subscribers. It came quite close to meeting its revised target of 700,000 IPTV subscribers at the end of 2008. It reported that then number of subscribers to its Golden TV premium package grew from 12,804 at the end of 2007 to 117,822 at the end of 2008.

Chunghwa added 123.9 fiber subscribers giving it a total of 1,069,700 fiber subscribers at the end of 2008. It provides fibers services to 16,600 buildings, which it said represents 91 percent market share among all operators. The company expects that it will have more fiber than ADSL subscribers in 2011.

Chunghwa continues to make steady progress with both its IPTV and fiber services.

Impact of the Lack of IPTV Standards

2009-03-27T10:28:00.000-07:00

Light Reading published an article describing the discussion at an IPTV World Forum panel discussion. The panelists said that the lack of IPTV standards is holding back investment in IPTV technology. They also said that there are tremendous opportunities for interactive advertising opportunities in IPTV if the industry would broadly support open standards.

This is an interesting perspective. The key is the middleware software, which is quite fragmented. Microsoft, Thomson, Alcatel-Lucent, Nokia Siemens, Cascade, and Minerva all have a significant share of this market. There is no commonality between them which has created a fragmented market. It is hard to see how a single market based on open standards will be created out of this. This may well be the Achilles heel that will cause over the to Internet delivered TV predominate in the end.

City Telecom at 170K IPTV Subscribers

2009-03-27T10:10:00.000-07:00

City Telecom who operates the Hong Kong Broadband service ended February 2008 with 170,000 IPTV subscribers. This is an increase of 14,000 subscribers over the previous six months. It also had 350,000 broadband subscribers, and increase of 34,000 over the same period.

City Telecom is continuing to increase its IPTV base but still has a penetration rate less than 50 percent.

Global IPTV Subscribers Reaches 21.8M

2009-03-25T10:35:00.000-07:00

The Broadband Forum made a press release based on numbers from Point Topic that stated that there were 21.8 million IPTV subscribers at the end of 2008. This broke down by region as follows:

Region 2007 Q4 2008 Q4
Western Europe 7,045,860 10,388,000
North America 1,774,671 3,835,544
South & East Asia 1,840,000 3,615,000
Asia-Pacific 2,199,828 3,082,182
Eastern Europe 465,223 884,466
Latin America 8,991 21,495
Middle East & Africa 10,000 10,000
Global Total 13,344,573 21,836,687

These numbers show that IPTV subscribers have stopped doubling each year globally. The more mature markets are singing a significant fall off in growth rates.

Alice Brings Free up to 3.3M IPTV-Capable Subscribers

2009-03-19T11:45:00.000-07:00

Free released an analysis of its 2008 results that stated that it has 423,868 unbundled subscribers as part of the business that it acquired from Alice, France. All of these subscribers can get free IPTV channels as part of their broadband service, assuming that they have an appropriate set-top box. Adding these Alice unbundled subscribers to Free's 2.900,000 unbundled subscribers give the company a total of 3,323,868 unbundled subscribers.

All of the Free unbundled subscribers have a set-top box that can receive its IPTV service. Free recently made a similar set-top box available to its Alice subscribers.

It is always interesting counting IPTV subscribers for Free. I think it is fair to count all of Free's 2.9M unbundled subscribers. How to handle the Alice unbundled subscribers is less clear. Today, I would split the difference. In another couple of years, I would count all of them.

IPTV Services Highly Concentrated

2009-03-10T06:31:00.000-07:00

I just completed a short analysis based on the 4Q08 results that I have gathered so far. I have identified over 700 carriers globally with some level of IPTV activity. About 340 are in North America with 180 in Europe and 100 in Asia.

I estimate that there are more than 20 million IPTV subscribers globally and five carriers have more than one million IPTV subscribers each:

Free in France
Verizon in the U.S.
China Telecom
France Telecom
AT&T in the U.S.

These top 5 companies account for more than 40 percent of the total subscribers. The top 20 service providers account for 80 percent of the total and the top 50 account for 95 percent of the subscribers.

Swisscom Adds 23K IPTV Subscribers in 4Q08

2009-03-07T13:16:00.000-08:00

Swisscom added 23,000 new IPTV subscribers in 4Q08, ending the year with 118,000. The company had $US 129M in IPTV revenue in 2008.

Swisscom had a good year with its IPTV service in a competitive IPTV market. Its new fiber deployment should enhance its position nicely.

Belgacom Adds 63K IPTV Subscribers in 4Q08

2009-03-07T12:58:00.000-08:00

Belgacom added 63,000 IPTV subscribers in 4Q08, giving it a total of 506,000 at the end of 2008. It stated that it had a 30 percent share of the Pay TV market at the end of 2008. It now supports a second TV in the home using VDSL. There were 65,000 customers with a second TV at the end of the year. It IPTV ARPU grew to 17.2 euros during 2008 largely through the improved success of on demand services. Its total IPTV revenue grew to 86M euros in 2008.

Belgacom offers HD services using VDSL, which is available to 64 percent of the Belgian population. The ADSL-based IPTV service is available to 86 percent of the Belgian population.

Belgacom is making good progress and is showing how other operators in Europe can succeed in a cable-dominated market.

BBC Canvas to Compete with BT Vision IPTV

2009-03-07T12:17:00.000-08:00

The BBC is considering its Canvas Project that will compete with BT's BT Vision IPTV service.

The BBC is seeking permission to form a new joint venture partnership with other broadcasters and Internet Service Providers to define and promote a set of standards for digital television delivered via broadband Internet connections (IPTV) as well as digital broadcasts via DSat and DTT.

Users would need to buy a new set top box or other device which takes its broadcast signal from an aerial, like Freeview, or from a satellite dish, like Freesat.

Canvas users would also require a broadband connection to take advantage of on-demand features. They would need to:

Subscribe to a broadband service which usually carries a monthly fee, or
Utilise their existing broadband connection. It is possible they may need to
upgrade their existing broadband packages to a faster connection, or
upgrade their existing broadband packages to one which allows greater volumes of data downloads

The BBC said that Canvas would help protect the competitiveness of free-to-air platforms (like Freeview) and allow audiences who do not wish to pay for subscription television services to access a range of on-demand and linear services.

It wishes to develop Canvas in conjunction with the planned launch of HD services on the DTT platform (Freeview). Subject to approval, Canvas would launch at some point in 2010.

This is an interesting approach by a broadcaster to utilize broadband to reach its audience in addition to its over the air broadcasting. It looks very much like BT Vision to me. I wonder how BT will survive with this kind of competition from the broadcaster. This is a model that could be exported to other countries and create a new competitor to the existing Pay TV outlets.

Deutsche Telekom Adds 20K IPTV Subscribers in 4Q08

2009-03-01T11:02:00.000-08:00

Deutsche Telekom reported that the number of Entertain IPTV lines activated climbed to around 353,000 by the end of 2008. The number of orders received up to this point in time were around 480,000. This was an increase in the number of IPTV subscribers of 20,000 in 4Q08.

It looks like Deutsche Telekom missed its goal of 500,000 IPTV subscribers by the end of 2008 by a large margin. The company seems to be struggling with creating a winning formula for the service.

Telecom Itallia Adds 111K IPTV Subscribers in 4Q08

2009-03-01T10:27:00.000-08:00

Telecom Italia added 111,000 IPTV subscribers in 4Q08, giving a total of 329,000 at the end of 2008. It was able to achieve its objective of 300,000 IPTV subscribers at the end of 2008. Its IPTV service has now achieved a penetration of 4.9 percent of its broadband customers.

Telecom had a great fourth quarter. Let's see if it can keep up the pace.

Telefonica Spain Adds 23K IPTV Subscribers in 4Q08

2009-02-26T06:51:00.000-08:00

Telefonica added 22,943 IPTV subscribers in Spain in 4Q08 ending the year with 612,494. The company stated that this gives it 14 percent of the pay TV market in Spain. Telefonica's O2 subsidiary in Czechoslovakia added 6,435 IPTV subscribers in 4Q08, ending the year with 114,496 subscribers.

Things have picked up a bit for Telefonica in 4Q08, which makes it one of the IPTV leaders in Europe.

Nielson Publishes 3 Screen Usage Statistics

2009-02-26T06:14:00.000-08:00

The Nielson Company has issued its 4Q08 three screen video usage survey for the U.S. This survey shows TV viewing, time shifted TV viewing, Internet usage, Internet video viewing, and mobile TV viewing.

Regular TV viewing dominates in terms of the number of viewers as well as the amount of time spent viewing. The demographic breakdown shows that the age groups above 55 are the most avid viewers of regular TV. The age groups between 18 and 34 watches the most Internet videos. The age groups between 25 and 44 make the most use of mobile video.

This report shows that the new technologies are most used by younger people, but that traditional TV is still very strong. It will be interesting to see how these trends hold as this population ages. I think that these younger groups will continue to use these new technologies, but that there viewing habits will be similar to those of their parents today.

Portugal Telecom Adds 101K TV Subscribers in 4Q08

2009-02-20T10:06:00.000-08:00

Portugal Telecom added 101,000 Meo TV subscribers in 4Q08, ending the year with a total of 312,000. This includes both IPTV and satellite customers. Its Meo services offers 110 channels and 1,500 video on demand assets. The company stated that 45 percent of its IPTV customers have used video on demand are buying an average of 2.8 movies per month.

Portugal Telecom has included content from its Internet portal on the Meo TV platform, including news and geo-referenced information, such as traffic, weather and pharmacies onscreen The Meo set-top boxes are all HD ready, using MPEG4.

Portugal Telecom's TV success continues. It again added far more TV subscribers than broadband subscribers.

The company did not state how many IPTV subscribers it has. One of our readers said that IPTV accounts for about 2/3 of the total. This would give a bit more than 200,000 IPTV subscribers.

Cox Traffic Management Strategy

2009-02-13T10:46:00.001-08:00

I have made a post on my Telco 2020 blog on Cox Cable's strategy for managing traffic on its broadband network. Its approach makes a lot more sense than the monthly usage caps that other operators are adopting.

FTC Report on Self Regulation of Interactive Advertising

2009-02-13T10:37:00.000-08:00

I have posted an article on my Telco 2020 blog on a new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) report on the effectiveness of self regulation for interactive advertising. The report outlines significant issues with self regulation. I think that we will need regulation in this area before long.

BT Adds 56K IPTV Subscribers in 4Q08

2009-02-12T11:04:00.000-08:00

BT added 56,000 BT-Vision IPTV subscribers in 4Q08 giving it a total of 376,000 at the end of the year.

Subscriptions picked up a bit in the quarter. The market in the UK is quite competitive with a strong satellite service leading the pack. BT is facing a problem in delivering competitive HD services due to the relatively low speeds of its broadband services. It has not yet committed strongly to VDSL or FTTH architectures.

Free Up to 2.9 IPTV Capable Subscrbers

2009-02-12T10:52:00.000-08:00

Free in France now had 2.9 million unbundled subscribers at the end of 2008, nearly all of who are capable of receiving IPTV programming on their Freebox gateway/set-top box. This is an increase of 534,000 from the end of 2007.

The company did not report on IPTV viewing. I believe that there are about another 150,000 IPTV subscribers that are part of its Alice France Telecom Italia acquisition. In my mind Free has more IPTV viewers than any other provider globally.

Telia Sonera Adds 27K IPTV Subscribers in 4Q08

2009-02-11T09:33:00.000-08:00

Telia Sonera added 27,000 subscribers across all of its operations in 4Q08, giving it a total of 477,000 at the end of 2008. The country by country results were:

Sweden added 4,000 new IPTV subscribers giving it a total of 324,000 at the end of the year.
Norway added no new IPTV subscribers and ended 2008 with 10,000.
Denmark added no new IPTV subscribers and ended 2008 with 1,000.
Lithuania added 19,000 new IPTV subscribers and ended the year with 67,000.
Estonia added 4,000 new IPTV subscribers and ended 2008 with 75,000.

Telia is continuing to experience slow growth in its IPTV services. Only Lithuania is showing strong growth.

Singtel Adds 13K Subscribers in 4Q08

2009-02-10T12:15:00.001-08:00

Singtel added 13,000 subscribers to its mio TV IPTV service in 4Q08, ending the year with 59,000 subscribers. The additions in the quarter were driven by promotions and by the mio Home bundle, which includes mio TV, fixed broadband, and a fixed line at a monthly fixed price. SingTel expanded its sports content during the quarter with broadcast rights secured for the Italian Serie A soccer matches.

Singtel got itself out of the doldrums that it experienced in the previous quarters of 2008. Hopefully this trend will continue.

Shanghai IPTV Service

2009-02-10T10:41:00.000-08:00

Light Reading has published a video of an interview with BesTV, the joint venture between China Telecom and Shanghai Media that runs the IPTV service in Shanghai. It describes the services, including interactive services, that are available in Shanghai.

This interview discusses the advanced IPTV services that make Shanghai one of the most advanced IPTV offerings in the world. The U.S. and Europe is generally lagging behind Shanghai in terms of interactive TV services.

ATT to Slow U-verse Deployment

2009-02-09T10:44:00.000-08:00

The latest DSL Prime email from Dave Burstein stated that ATT will reduce the number of new homes added to the U-verse foot print from 8 to 9 million in 2008 to 4 million per year through 2011.

This looks like a result of the current financial fiasco. ATT's U-verse has been quite successful, I wonder why the company is backing off now. Maybe because it is starting to understand the limits of its VDSL approach compared to Verizon's fiber-based approach.

Digital TV Delayed in the U.S.

2009-02-05T14:47:00.000-08:00

The U.S. has delayed the analog sunset from February 16 to June 12. I have also written about this on my Telco 2020 blog.

This will not have much effect on the IPTV or even the Pay TV market in the U.S. Any increase in subscribers due to the analog sunset will be more than matched by losses due to the current recession.

IPTV Penetration in France Reaches 35%

2009-02-05T14:23:00.000-08:00

The French telecom regulator ARCEP has posted a report (in French) that the penetration of IPTV services has reached 34.6% of the ADSL lines in the country. It stated that there were 5.643 million IPTV subscribers and 16.299 million ADSL subscribers at the end of the third quarter 2008.

The penetration of IPTV in France is one of the highest. Without rigorously checking, I think it is number two after Hong Kong.

UNE EPM of Columbia has 30K IPTV Subscribers

2009-01-30T13:47:00.000-08:00

TV LATAM published an article that stated that UNE EPM in Medelin, Columbia has 30,000 IPTV subscribers. UNE plans to extend its service to Bogota and grow to 150,000 IPTV subscribers before the end of 2009.

TV LATAM said that this is the largest IPTV deployment in South America. There is significant potential in this continent for IPTV if the regulatory issues that exist in many companies are favorably resolved.

Charter Introduces 60 Mbps Cable Modem Service

2009-01-29T13:21:00.000-08:00

Charter has introduce a 60 Mbps downstream DOCSIS3.0 cable modem service in St. Louis, Missouri. This service will be priced at $129 per month for its video customers.

This is a premium offering that goes well beyond what ATT can offer with U-verse. Not too many people can afford such a pricey package, so it is not a direct attack on U-verse. Charter will have to bring the price of the service down before it will make a real dent in ATT's success.

ATT Adds 264K IPTV Subscribers in 4Q08

2009-01-28T09:46:00.000-08:00

ATT added 264,000 U-verse IPTV subscribers in 4Q08 ending the year with 1.045 million subscribers. The company achieved its goal of 1 million IPTV subscribers by the end of 2008. Its U-verse service now reaches 17 million homes.

ATT completed its rollout of its whole home DVR and two stream HD support by the end of 2008.

ATT made good progress and has established U-verse as a significant competitor in the U.S. pay TV market. It has stated that it will continue its investment in this service while it cuts CapeEx in other areas.