Re: BBC iPlayer goes HD, time to drop STM
 

Couldn't virgin do some kind of deal with bbc like local caching virgin end then they save on bandwidth

Re: BBC iPlayer goes HD, time to drop STM
 

That's been mentioned before - people complained that it would break net neutrality

Re: BBC iPlayer goes HD, time to drop STM
 

I don't know if anything came out of it, but the BBC did talk about doing this. Not sure if Virgin would like it though. While it would reduce the strain on their network, they might view it as potential competition for the Cable TV iplayer which they are using to sell Cable TV.

Re: BBC iPlayer goes HD, time to drop STM
 

I think the bottom line is that VM really can't keep claiming that their service is "unlimited" now, as there are very clear limits on the amount of iPlayer, for that matter any streaming TV service you can watch. 1 hour of programming in an evening is hardly excessive or limited to 5% of customers.

Hopefully my latest complaint to the ASA will now be irrefutable, but to be honest I'm not convinced they have the level of understanding required to realise that. That's why I'm banking on the limited amount of time watching TV will put it in terms they can understand.

Re: BBC iPlayer goes HD, time to drop STM
 

Even if you are right all the ASA can do is stop Virgin from using the 'unlimited' term. They can't make them change anything else

---------- Post added at 18:16 ---------- Previous post was at 18:13 ----------

Also Virgin only advertise as the 50Mbit service as suitable for HD streaming

http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html...d_content.html

Re: BBC iPlayer goes HD, time to drop STM
 

From the sounds of the problems people have been having with STM speeds dramatically dropping that claim is probably false too.

Re: BBC iPlayer goes HD, time to drop STM
 

Some people when they see something on iPlayer want to watch it straight away, watching at their leisure being right now.

Let's cut the crap here shall we, you know as well as I do, or perhaps not going by previous posts, that all cable operators see themselves as content providers and will use whatever limitations they can get away with in order to ensure their customers use their monetised methods, VoD, PPV, to access that content.

---------- Post added at 17:57 ---------- Previous post was at 17:54 ----------

I do hope you're getting paid extra for posts like this on here Ben. Given that you're a call centre guy in Manchester this can't be part of your normal job description so definitely some customer re-education work in your own time is worth some cash.

Re: BBC iPlayer goes HD, time to drop STM
 

You told me I had been place on your Ignore list. I suggest you put me back on there if you don't like what I say

Re: BBC iPlayer goes HD, time to drop STM
 

i suppose seeing VM provide iplayer free on their tv services that they actually give a toss if people are getting STM on the BB side of things.

Re: BBC iPlayer goes HD, time to drop STM
 

Why not introduced a metered tariff - similar to your gas or electric meter for example? Then you could download as much as you wanted - provided you paid for the extra?

Re: BBC iPlayer goes HD, time to drop STM
 

What, like they already do for mobile broadband (which by the way if you go over the allotted bandwidth you pay for, can be charged up to about £1 or £2 a megabyte - upwards of £1000 a gigabyte)? Sure, just open the floodgates for them to make more money from us feckless idiots.

Re: BBC iPlayer goes HD, time to drop STM
 

Interestingly back in 2005 NTL were proposing to do just that, introducing 10Mb as standard with different tiers of usage packages being made available. Of course it never did happen, far too sensible an idea!!!!

See CF news item on the proposal here:
http://www.cableforum.co.uk/article/...ed-as-standard

Re: BBC iPlayer goes HD, time to drop STM
 

Would cost Virgin too much money. A number of people with low usage who are presently paying 20 quid a month go onto the new tier and pay less.

VM also claim to be unable to offer us a facility to track our usage - this would be absolutely required with a metered tariff.

Not going to happen, would cost VM money, people would complain like crazy, just look at the fallout from the Time Warner trials.

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/101942

You're off ignore, but VM have plenty enough spokespeople and PR men without you joining in. Suggest you look at a couple of recent posts by other members of staff, both helpful, informative, yet accepting of criticism and not deeply up the company's backside. Appreciate the assistance you provide here, unsure if it's necessary to be putting down your customers because they disagree with or give criticism to your employer, you come across as a VM spokesperson at times.

---------- Post added at 22:44 ---------- Previous post was at 21:23 ----------

That won't help, the VM<>BBC bandwidth isn't the issue it's from the edge of VM's network to the customer's cable modem that's the issue.

Re: BBC iPlayer goes HD, time to drop STM
 

I'm also curious as to whether STB VOD counts towards your broadband bandwidth usage and thus STM limit.

Re: BBC iPlayer goes HD, time to drop STM
 

STB VoD doesn't use the broadband internet network. You do talk back to the VoD servers via the same equipment however the VoD itself is delivered as some transport streams on the video network, not IPTV.

Also STM works (basically) on the MAC addresses of devices. The STB will not have the same MAC as the modem so any STB activity, interactive, VoD, etc, will not count in any way towards the modem's STM counters.