IP on TV – The Channel Challenge
Battle of the boxes
New-generation DVD recorders can double as TV tuners, recording hundreds of hours of programming to play back at your leisure. X-Box and PlayStation gaming machines not only play DVDs and deliver on-line gaming, but now they also have hard-disk storage.
Last year PC and TV integration came closer when Hewlett Packard bundled the first version of Microsoft's Media Centre software. From October 2005 the latest version of XP Media Centre was offered to all PC assemblers.
Typically you'll get a box that sits alongside your DVD or component hi-fi system, or replaces some of those devices. It comes with a remote control that allows you to switch between normal computing functions and Media Centre mode for music, video viewing, photo manipulation or web browsing. Using a wi-fi or Ethernet connection you can play a music or video file on another computer.
Like new-generation DVD recorders and set-top boxes, Media Centre gives you a 30-minute buffer to rewind to the beginning of a programme while it's still recording, fast forward through the ads, and synchronise the content for use on portable devices. The electronic programming guide will not generally function here as local broadcasters have denied access to their programme codes. Sky uses the Microsoft system for its new decoder, and it will become invaluable if the other broadcasters venture into digital.
Local users will get a small taste of the future with limited access to Discovery Channel and Reuters live news feed over fast Internet. There are also plans for a couple of local "consumer-related" channels via a US server.
Meanwhile Microsoft has just released the latest version of its IPTV platform which is designed to turn phone and Internet companies into distributors of content. The software works with high-end servers and management software, and is expected to herald a new era.
Unlike Media Centre, which is a consumer product using the Internet, IPTV runs in a managed environment over telco networks into the home. Telecom is a serious contender and TelstraClear and state owned Broadcast Communications Ltd (BCL) are taking a long look.
Telecom held a three-month trial in 2003, discovering what we all knew anyway – that people prefer to watch movies on their TV sets not their PCs, and want a wide variety of on-demand content and interactivity. The trial proved that Telecom could deliver good enough quality down its copper digital subscriber lines (DSL). But before a commercial service could be considered, billing for example required a serious rethink; an average 2Gb movie would blow the data cap off most Jetstream accounts.
