cable at home

 

Maybe Viper is on to something. Here's some more "info":

http://thunor.spaces.live.com/blog/c...724D!149.entry

Nothing "official" but this could give some insight as to why Microsoft has been so vague & quiet since the weekend. Maybe the announcement just isn't all that.

Who knows.

I can't imagine M$ reps would give all this info to some random blogger at their CES booth but nobody else in the world.

In either case I'm done speculating until we get something official from M$.

 

Seems DirecTV doesn't want to catch a beating from all these IPTV services though.

DirectTV will have 100 national HD channels in 2007

 

Not enough overhead left on the pipe, you can't count on 5Mb being available all the time. Service would suck if you cut it that close to the peak bandwidth. 5Mb should be fine for SDTV though. And downloaded HDTV.

Checkout some of microshafts already encoded 720P VC1 clips, they are 8-9Mb.

Squeezing that down to 3.5-4Mb just wont work. BUT SDTV at 3.5-4Mb should look like a DVD.

-David

 

Microsoft making a low-cost stand-alone HD-DVD Player?

 

Ya, they launched those 3 new satellites (2 launched for sure, not sure about the 3rd). And have new H.264 receivers out now.... they have capacity for 1200+ HD channels.

Hopefully the broadcasters are ready to do HD on all of those channels. As TNT is only a part-time HD channel. They stretch everything else to HD resolution. Which I actually prefer anyway.

 

So you got me doing some more research into AT&T's new 35Mbit service and FIOS.

WTF BATMAN....

http://www.newnetworks.com/fioslightspeed.htm

I never realized we were paying taxes and fees for shit we have yet to see.

 

wait, didn't you already agree with me??

in either case, we already established that Xbox's EXISTING 720p downloads come in at about 6Mbps. That's a good bit below 8-9Mbps.

beyond that i/we were just going on the assumption that you could get VC-1 encoded 720p content down below 4Mbps (which is all you need to reliably stream through most cable services - with a buffer) and still look decent. but yeah, 2-3Mbps (which you'd need to stream reliably) was probably a pipe dream.

i guess the dream remains, as i've expressed in previous AZ video codec discussions, media companies should embrace On2's VP7 like software & internet companies have. VP7 can easily achieve broadcast quality 720p at or under 3Mbps.

 

wow. that's sickening.

and here we go letting shit fucks like AT&T acquire BellSouth and once again become a monopolistic monolith.

 

Ya, I agree it's just the quality is unknown to me at those lower bitrates. So it puts some FUD into my thoughts.

Regardless I'm excited to see this launch! It'll be one of many IPTV services to come IMO.

 

ugh, this pisses me off to no end....

 

me too, although I just found out today AT&T is almost ready to launch U-verse (fiber to your house) service here in KC. My address shows up as available, but when I called they aren't quite ready yet. But will be VERY soon

 

Here's a link to a video of iRiver's 2007 lineup.....the new clix is fucking slick, and their shuffle competitor is interesting as well.

http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/09/v...07-ces-lineup/

 

click and look through the pics... crazy 108 inch lcd tv...# 9/12

 

this isn't really CES news, but related to the discussion. RoadRunner is upgrading capacity to 10Mbps in homes in my area. They've already completed one town and most others should be soon.

Got the word from friends who work at TimeWarner.

 

^^ is this limited to the Albany area, or NY state as a whole?

 

i've no idea. i got the story while in the middle of chain-sawing people in Gears of War. i'll ask for more details tonight

 

Damn, hopefully they do that system wide. I'd love more bandwidth...

 

after they beta tested RR in albany when i was there for grad school
as well as beta tested the debit card technology, i daresay that
the capital region will get to test first and then spread out to the rest of us.