Cable Forum - View Single Post - How Video On Demand Works (long and technical!)

~Dan~ · 04-04-2008, 05:02

Am I right in thinking there's only a certain number of streams available at any one time, and that if too many people want to use the on demand service there won't be enough streams available for everyone?

Tonight TV was really rubbish so we had to resort to watching some stuff on on demand. We watched the first half hour show fine with no problems. When starting the second one I got the message about on demand not being available but tried again and it worked. After watching that half hour show I tried to start a third one. I was getting the message about on demand not being available popping up all the time but persevered and eventually got as far as the part where the programme is about to start, only it never started. Now effectively the box had crashed. I was unable to press the "tv" button to abort and go back to the tv (had to pull the plug on the STB). Whoever wrote the on demand software forgot to program for the possibility of the stream not being available and to allow you to press the tv button to abort and go back to the tv, so the box crashes. I'd hope that the software will be improved on in the near future.

04-04-2008, 05:02	#62
~Dan~ Inactive Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 80	Re: How Video On Demand Works (long and technical!) Am I right in thinking there's only a certain number of streams available at any one time, and that if too many people want to use the on demand service there won't be enough streams available for everyone? Tonight TV was really rubbish so we had to resort to watching some stuff on on demand. We watched the first half hour show fine with no problems. When starting the second one I got the message about on demand not being available but tried again and it worked. After watching that half hour show I tried to start a third one. I was getting the message about on demand not being available popping up all the time but persevered and eventually got as far as the part where the programme is about to start, only it never started. Now effectively the box had crashed. I was unable to press the "tv" button to abort and go back to the tv (had to pull the plug on the STB). Whoever wrote the on demand software forgot to program for the possibility of the stream not being available and to allow you to press the tv button to abort and go back to the tv, so the box crashes. I'd hope that the software will be improved on in the near future.