.....note, only on VOD!
Quote:
Originally Posted by greeninferno
Isn't the talk of HD coming " soon " rather academic at the moment ?.
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Overall, yes.
Quote:
Originally Posted by greeninferno
COULD they launch as of RIGHT NOW say ITV HD, C4 HD using MPEG2 so all existing V+ customers can receive them OR
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VM could launch a few HD channels (CH4HD and ITVHD) and probably will, but that will be it for 18 months+.
Quote:
Originally Posted by greeninferno
Is the physical state of the network up to carrying all or any of these channels at this moment in time ??
Has the network to be upgraded PHYSICALLY i.e. servers etc. so that BEST case scenario ALL 30 odd channels that Sky has COULD TECHNICALLY be broadcast a la Docsis 3 for 50 Mbit broadband ?
OR agian is this a chicken-egg scenario. Virginmedia need the assurance from Sky in place BEFORE they spend the money to upgrade the network.
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No idea what you mean about assurances, once a contract is signed, that's it.
As for the network, Berkett gave a very insightful presentation to the City last year in which he explained exactly what capacity VM has. So here it is (roughly):
VM has 750Mhz of frequency (capacity) on their network. This is split into 75 slots, or channels. VM use these slots like this, as at November of last year:
28 - Analogue TV
31 - Digital TV
2 - 10mb broadband
4 - 50/20 broadband downstream
4 - 50/20 broadband upstream (being implemented now)
6 - VOD/Interactive tv
1 analogue tv channel = about 6 (of good quality) digital SD channels or 2 HD channels. More channels can be squeezed in, but the quality goes down.
So you see that by switching analogue off, (no major upgrades necessary) VM will have oodles of capacity, but at the moment they have room for about 30 new SD channels, or, could squeeze in 4/5 HD channels.
New compression and transmission technologies will allow VM to have even more channels in the future, so capacity is not a problem, it's just how they CHOOSE to use it. VM don't need to "broadcast" channels over broadband yet using DOSCIS3, they have a cable tv network for that! But, eventually all channels will be "broadcast" over broadband, but that's several years away and will free up even more capacity.