Don’t want satellite? Nowhere near a cable network? Well one option that’s coming in autumn is the BT Vision box. I have written about this before but basically it hooks up to a broadband connection to enable users to download video on demand and many other things. Also on board is a digital TV tuner so viewers can catch all the channels in the Freeview package.
If you were hoping for a bit of HD though, you may have some wait. Sure the box, which is manufactured by Philips, is HD compatible, but according to BT it could be several years before it actually pulls in any high definition programming.
I had a chat with Dan Marks, CEO of BT Vision today and he confirmed that BT had no immediate plans to deliver HD content to the box. I had wondered if any HD content would be available to download over the web, but Dan Marks thinks that this could be some years away.
Unless a user has a very, very fast connection streaming is out of the question. As for downloads, it apparently takes ninety minutes to download a standard definition movie on a 2Meg connection, you can times that by at least four for HD. So unless the standard broadband connection speed rises significantly, or HD codecs become more efficient it could be a while before HD via BT Vision happens. The potential white knight could be HD via Freeview, but as has been well documented it could be years before a HD channel or two launches via a terrestrial service. Personally I think some HD fans would be prepared to leave the box downloading a HD film over night so they could watch it the next day. But given the choice between doing that and switching a satellite or cable box on and being presented with a load of HD programming I know which one I’d opt for.
Still, the BT Vision could be a box that bypasses the early adopters and hits the mainstream from day one. We’ll have to see about that. There’ll be some more background on BT Vision and some more words from Dan Marks on Tech Digest in the next few days.
For those of you who live in London, a company called Video Networks whose product Homechoice has been streaming video and providing VOD for a good number of years now. Your local exchange needs to have a Homechoice LLU. I wonder if this will prompt Homechoice to go Nationwide with its service or maybe those plans are already in place....
I don't know if HD is available yet in France, but the French have had a BT Vision type of service for a while now. The connection speeds in France are often at least 20meg, even in your average town - the UK's badly lagging behind...
I think now is a good time for a catch up with Home choice. I'll get one of the bloggers on the case. It'll be interesting to hear their take on HD
what codecs and delivery system do they use in the USA for their OTA free HD channels and what would stop that being used in the UK?
they have a few HD channels and digital channels free to their ariels. I've never understood how they can do that in the US but over here they're saying there isn't enough bandwidth
I spoke to one of the reps at Homechoice a while ago and he mentioned that they were working on a HD service and it could be out before the end of the year.
To Nealesh: -
Home Choise is owned by Tiscali, no HD service is provided and they make it extremely hard to cancel your contract. If you move home, you are required to pay a large cancelation fee or start a new 12 month contract.
Although Home Choise is one of only 2 IPTV providers in the UK (the other is only available in Hull and is run by a company called Kingston Communications) it only offers a limited amount of the services that are causing people to proclaim that IPTV is future of television.
One such featue, which you mentioned in your post, VOD allows you can choose TV shows (such as 'Sex in the city' and 'Buffy the vampire slayer') and music videos (most genres) from a menu and watch it instantly but the choice is worryingly limited and in the case of popular shows like '24' a charge applies.
I would strongly recomend that people DON'T subribe to home choice as it's over priced, it doesn't support HD and on three seporate occations while I was a subscriber there was a total loss of service (Digital TV and Broadband) that last for more than 12 hours.
Couldn't agree more about Homecoice/Tiscali, their customer service is the pits, and they have frequent outages. When we moved house we had to phone on 4 separate occasions to try and get our account transferred to our new number, every time having to give the same information, and finally after a month without broadband I was told it would be another 15 working days. I made a formal complaint and they then admitted that the first person I had spoken to a month earlier had not put my details on the system for transfer in the first place so I had been waiting for nothing. Their VOD was useful but their broadband was very unreliable and the box crashed with dreary regularity. Don't touch them.