BT Vision: A threat to NTL?

[HDFootyMan]

Will BT's new Freeview/IPTV/VOD Box be a serious threat to the NTL Empire?

http://www.btvision.bt.com/

I've tried to compare the BT box against NTL's Free TV pack - I've probably made a few mistakes here and there (its been known to happen ), so feel free to correct me.

Pros of BT Vision over NTL Starter pack:

• Near live Premiership footy from next season via VOD ()
• Better interactive that actually works
• Faster software compared to NTL's CR3 (couldn't be much slower)
• Cheaper movies (up to £2.99 compared to £3.50 on Filmflex)
• 1000 movies on demand (compared to Filmflex's 500)
• 7 day EPG
• PVR built in with 160GB Hard Drive, Series Links, HDTV ready (requires V+ box on NTL at extra monthly cost).
• All VOD content uses MPEG 4, compared to MPEG 2 on NTL. This means much more recording space on the BT box compared to NTL's V+ Box (at extra cost).
• Freeview reception and BT Broaband coverage map much larger than coverage map of NTL's Cable Network.

Pros of NTL starter pack compared to BT Vision:

• BT Broadband required for VOD. Not Cheap.
• BT VOD currently requires wired internet connection to PVR box - not required on NTL (until wireless link is available on BT Vision in 2007)
• BT Vision traffic is given priority on BT's Broadband network and supplied routers - but any internet issues could result in naff picture while streaming VOD content. Not an issue with NTL VOD.
• Better interactive means more red dots on your TV screen
• Much cheaper installation cost (at least until BT Vision's self install kits arrive in 2007)
• Cheaper music videos (20p compared to 29p on BT Vision)
• BBC Catch-Up available (not available on BT until 2007)
• Sky One is standard on NTL Starter Pack; MIA on BT.

[Horizon]

Not until BT can deliver a fast broadband service 20cm beyond their exchanges If, as with the Telcos in the States, BT install fibre to the home or much closer to the home, then it'll become very interesting.

Originally Posted by Chris Howell

• HDTV ready

Non starter until they get peoples average speed higher or there is a big leap in compression.

[Stuart]

Well, having actually *watched* BT Vision in John Lewis (Oxford Street) the other day, and seeing the appaling image quality (news 24 was blocky as hell), I don't think that NTL or Sky currently have much to worry about.

[dranny69]

does bt vision have any sky channels?

[Toto]

All VOD content uses MPEG 4, compared to MPEG 2 on NTL. This means much more recording space on the BT box compared to NTL's V+ Box (at extra cost).

And they need it, MPEG4 is better compression from a transmitting point of view, but it obviously has a negative impact on the picture quality as Stuart mentions.

[RS100]

Also you need to be in a DTT (FREEVIEW) area and have a tv aerial already install or otherwise you can only view VOD

[Nedkelly]

As rs100 said you might need a new aerial to watch this and if you live a long way from a bt exchange and unable to bt broadband then its not much cop:

[etccarmageddon]

Originally Posted by Stuart C

Well, having actually *watched* BT Vision in John Lewis (Oxford Street) the other day, and seeing the appaling image quality (news 24 was blocky as hell), I don't think that NTL or Sky currently have much to worry about.

in that context though it's just a freeview box showing news 24.

[popper]

Originally Posted by Toto

And they need it, MPEG4 is better compression from a transmitting point of view, but it obviously has a negative impact on the picture quality as Stuart mentions.

'it obviously has a negative impact on the picture quality'

NO thats not right toto, its MPEG4/AVC and thats far better than mpeg4/ASP at lower bitrates,Mpeg2 doesnt even begin to come close at these low bitrates, but you already know this!.

and the Decoder (FPGA ?,DSP)part of the box can obviously match the settings for the encoding part as regards levels decoding etc with ease, else why an industry matching pair, so thats not it.

they dont use liberate as the middleware do they ?, perhaps thats taking the cpu cycles, but then again it would'nt effect the decoding part.....

AVC has the lossless encoding , now it might not be using that option right now true, but its apparent that if they can make a realtime HD AVC encoding at 6mbit/s that looks perfectly fine to the the techs and they can, then its reasonable to assume that theres some tech problem with the current broadcasting setup or the shop boy did something wrong when he set it up to show the punters.....

their able to get broadcast quality HD AVC down to the same bitrate as NTL use for the SD mpeg2 in some limited fashion now, and soon enough it will be good enough to ship to the headends, ask creative, i think he saw it at the industry show .....

if BT Vision is going something wrong than thats one thing,but the AVC tech is perfectly fine.....

[SOSAGES]

bt vision is a great idea but its let down by them not thinking about it properly and chucking a load of good money away.

[HDFootyMan]

Personally, I can see a lot of people signing up for it just for the near-live Football matches (unless NTL/Virgin start advertising the fact that they won the internet deal for near live matches).

As for the blocky News 24, that was just the Freeview reception in that area.

I welcome the competition that BT Vision provides, especially for VOD content which up until now, has been more or less exclusive to NTL (not including methods requiring knowledge of the internet like Five's VOD service). When BT start advertising their 1,000 movies on VOD, maybe Filmflex will stop boasting about their 500 movies and start actually adding more movies to their service.

[just21]

NTL had a list of 500 vod movies in the paper on saturday.

[HDFootyMan]

Originally Posted by just21

NTL had a list of 500 vod movies in the paper on saturday.

Yeah......your point?

What happens when (if?) BT start doing their 1000 vod movies adverts with headlines like "double the number of movies then Cable" ?

Originally Posted by Chris Howell

Yeah......your point?

What happens when (if?) BT start doing their 1000 vod movies adverts with headlines like "double the number of movies then Cable" ?

Like that will happen this side of the blue moon .