Mar 5 Podcast #415: Switched Digital Video
Last week Braden wrote that Cablevision is planning on rolling out network DVR (Cablevision To Roll Out RS-DVR In April) functionality in April. This technology has got us excited because it shows that Cable is pushing itself to compete with Satellite, FiOS and U-Verse. One area that cable still falls a little short when compared to these other services is the number of HD channels they offer. A new technology called Switched Digital Video is being deployed that will allow cable companies to increase the number of HD channels they offer. But not every is happy about it.
Listen to the show
Today's Show:
News:
- Survey: A Third of Customers Interested in 3D TV
- Rumor: Apple prepping HDMI Macs
- Apple trying to store your video in the cloud
- TiVo unveils Series4 'Premiere' DVRs with enhanced online integration
Other:
Its our five year anniversary and you get the prizes!
To enter simply follow us on Twitter. Follow Ara at hdtvpodcast and follow Braden at BradenRussell We'll select winners at random and announce them on our April 2nd show. Here is what you can win:
- Audioengine 5 (A5) Premium Powered Bookshelf Speakers.
- INSTEON Home Theater Lighting Control Kit
- The RedEye Remote Control System
- Aperion Home Audio Link™ System
- Calibrated Measurement Microphone from Cross-Spectrum
Open to residents of continental US only
Switched Digital Video
Last week Braden wrote that Cablevision is planning on rolling out network DVR (Cablevision To Roll Out RS-DVR In April) functionality in April. This technology has got us excited because it shows that Cable is pushing itself to compete with Satellite, FiOS and U-Verse. One area that cable still falls a little short when compared to these other services is the number of HD channels they offer. A new technology called Switched Digital Video is being deployed that will allow cable companies to increase the number of HD channels they offer. But not every is happy about it.
What is Switched Digital Video?
Switched video sends programming to customers in an efficient manner so that bandwidth is freed up on the system. Its not that the head end of the cable system can't receive hundreds or even thousands of channels, its that it can't send them all down the line. So if only one person wants to watch Lifetime it needs to be sent to everyone.
The new system uses fiber optics to send all the content out to nodes throughout the service area. The fiber optic network has much higher capacity however most neighborhoods do not have fiber to the home. As a result something has to be done to get the video from the node to the home. Each node services anywhere from 1 to about 2000 homes.
Only the video being watched is actually sent to the homes. So if all 2000 homes are watching the same show then only one video stream is sent. The cable company has years of data suggesting that 2000 people will never watch 2000 unique channels. They are counting on the load balancing to offer more content which include more HD, Video on Demand, and Network DVRs.
When a home requests a channel from the distribution hub it checks to see if someone is already watching it, if not the hub creates a new QAM channel and sends it down the line. This new virtual channel number is mapped to the number that your cable system uses. So the one person who wants to watch Lifetime simply selects channel 225 to watch, even though it may be transmitted on channel 613. There must be two way communication for this system to work. Therefore you will have to use a cablebox. This has some people upset.
What about my Tivo and HTPC?
If you have a Tivo or HTPC with a cable card there are storm clouds on the horizon. When your cable system deploys SDV you will no longer be able watch and record your favorite programs. As stated earlier SDV needs to be able to communicate with the node in order to request the channel number for the programming. Since Tivo and current cable card don't know how to talk to the node your tuners will no longer be able to lock onto your favorite channels.
The FCC has a mandate to the cable companies requiring them to open up their systems to third party devices. That's how we got the CableCARD. Tivo uses the CableCARD and and Internet connection to provide a DVR experience that is better than the cable company's. And that is probably the main reason cable is dragging its feet on this. They want to be the only source for your DVR service. If you have an HTPC then you are out of luck too. You don't pay for Tivo but with Media Center software you have probably the best TV experience and the cable companies can't charge you a premium for that.
When will I get Switched Digital Video?
Cable companies started rolling out the technology in 2008 to about 25 million homes, by 2009 that number rose to 35 million. Time Warner is rolling out SDV in three markets (Los Angeles, New York City, and Dallas) that will add another 6 million homes. Comcast and Cablevision also have plans for a roll out this year. Analysts are predicating that 90 million homes with be served by SDV by 2012.
From an investment angle BigBang Networks Inc sells SDV equipment to Time Warner and have installed switches in 28 million homes. When Comcast goes SDV then take a look at Cisco and Motorola since they provided equipment for Comcast's trial with SDV. Aris Group Inc and Harmonic Inc also provide equipment for the technology.
Reader Comments (16)
Well no Saturday Delivery by USPS will effect heavy users as I couldn't just stand the Canadian equivalent of Netflix called Zip as Canada post in already really slow add to that no Saturday delivery of mail I was lucky to get 3 movies a week.
Guys,
Thanks for the update on SDV and its rollout schedule. However, one clarification regarding SDV and TiVo. Here in Northern Virginia, we've had SDV activated for over a year on Cox Cable and I've been using it with my TiVo HD since SDV rolled out. Cable companies introduced a set top box called a Tuning Adapter (TA) to allow TiVo and other cablecard users to receive SDV channels. Cox offers this box for free to cablecard users. It acts as the bi-directional node needed to manage SDV signals. With a TA in the loop, the TiVo operates just as it did before SDV was introduced. Teething problems getting company technicians educated and keeping the TA, TiVo, and cablecard in synchronization with the cable headend have resulted in many complaints. Generally, after more than a year in use here, everything works. However, I've had several failures which required technician assistance. I've noticed two main problems with this approach to implementing SDV with TiVos. One, the cable company cannot diagnose failures from the headend or technical customer service end because signals are still one-way into the TiVo versus two-way into their rental settop boxes and DVRs. They can only tell you that you are getting a signal into your house. Second, there is a fair amount of finger pointing when customers cannot get everything to work right. TiVo blames the cable company and the the cable company blames TiVo. They both blame the cablecard and TA manufacturers. If or until tru2way systems deploy which will solve these problems, keeping a TiVo operating throughout the SDV transition requires patience and troubleshooting knowledge. My 80 year old mother would never put up with it.
Addtionally, I've been using the Aperion Home Audio Link (HAL) system for a few weeks and I highly recommend it. Your review was spot-on. It was plug-and-play simple. I am using one transmitter and two receivers. The transmitter is plugged into a USB port on my computer and the recievers are plugged into two AV receivers located about 40 feet away. I pipe iTunes music and internet radio to the recievers. Everything works flawlessly. I now wonder if I can use another transmitter with additional reciever to pipe audio wirelessly to my subwoofer without causing synching or interference problems.
As always, you are in my top ten podcasts and have been for five years. Happy anniversary.
The Triange ist Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area in NC. Go Heels
SDV sounds like what AT&T U-Verse is doing with their system. I hope that we don't get anymore big ugly beige boxes in the neighborhood when the rest of the cable providers switch to this type of service
I have Time Warner cable in Los Angeles. I have 1 HDTV with a HDDVR and 4 older TVs with no set top boxes at all because I just plug the coaxial cable into those older TVs to get non-HD programming. When SDV is rolled out here, will I need to get STBs for all of my TVs?
Parenthetically, why isn't CableCard offered on all TVs? (My first Panasonic plasma came with it, but I've noticed that most new TVs do not have CableCard.)
Ditto what Dave Jones said (SDV, Tivo and the Tuning Adapter) for me in Laguna Niguel CA on Cox.
When you test the Dell Zino I hope you will hook it up to a TV tuner and report on how well you think it works as an over the air DVR.
Another Zino test request. The ATI Radeon HD 4330 video card has builtin upscaling. How well does it work? How does it campare to the Oppo DVD upscaling system.
to Mark... It is because cablCard is a terrible outdated technology, I am a cable tech and it can take hours to get one cable card to work in a tv or third party stb. This is mostly because they don't sync well with the cable headend. This is not just my opinion but also the opinion of my uncle who is a lead programmer for digeo, who told me that if it weren't for cablecard, a government mandated hardware solution, that a software/firmware solution would've been developed that would've led to much greater adoption of such devices. Let the flame war begin...
To Mark,
If you have a TiVo or other cablecard enabled set-top box which is not provided by your CableCo, to recieve SDV channels you will need a Tuning Adapter Set-top box to enable each device to receive and change SDV channels. Older TVs which you own will not receive SDV channels, though all CableCos that I'm aware of continue to transmit digital/analogue non-SDV channels. You should check with your specific CableCo to determine their implementation procedures.
To Mike,
My experience and that of thousands of TiVo customers mirrors your views. Cablecards are notoriously unreliable. I've replaced three in one year. My TiVo, cablecard, Tuniing Adapter setup looses synchronization about once every two months. Sometime it resyncs itself and other times it requires my intervention to troubleshoot and get it all operating again. Indeed cablecards were the result of a governmant mandated solution to open up competition and unshackle customers from having to use their cable provider's equipment solely. The effectiveness of this government mandate, impacts of its practical implementation, and whether or not other alternatives would have been implemented and worked more effectively is open to endless debate on forums which specialize in these issues.
Just a comment about Apple streaming from the cloud. Why would you wish restrictions on how many machines can watch your cloud content? It's you and your password, right? So only you can watch it, right? So why have DRM and number of machine limitations?
This is (theoretically) the answer to everyone's problems. I want to watch a movie on my tv, it gives me a high res version. And if I stop and want to watch the rest on the train, I can pick it up again, at iPhone resolution.
And downloding it to iPod for the road trip? If it's the same as current iTunes, you can have 5 computers and an unlimited number of portable devices, so again, why lock the cloud copy just because it's on an iPod?
The 'theoretically' part comes if you can't get a good cloud connection, but you'd think a 1 or 2GB buffer shouldn't be much trouble on the player and should be plenty to keep up full quality playback, fast forward and rewind.
Then, I'd like the player to keep the copy of the movie until it runs out of space and needs to delete it to buffer incoming content.
LOL @ 10:42! Ara, it's pronounced "KOK QUIT LAM". It's essentially an eastern suburb of Vancouver.
Tim (who's never been there)
HDHomeRun CableCard and SDV Support is coming!
As a user of two HDHomeRun boxes on Cablevision I was worried after hearing your SDV podcast that I would lose my ability to record broadcast network and other unencrypted shows over cable.
I went to the SiliconDust web site to investigate further and discovered that they are developing an HDHomeRun box that supports CableCard and will also support switched digital video when used with the Tuning Adapter mentioned in one of the posts above. It will support recording two channels, but will require two cablecards to do so. I imagine that it will need two Tuning Adapter boxes as well.
They showed it at CES.
Cost will be $ 249.
According to their posts they are getting it certified right now and will be beta testing it in April. maybe the HTGuys could beta test it?
Here are the links to the Silicon Dust website, press release, forums, and twitter account that describe this product.
SiliconDust web site:
http://www.silicondust.com/
Silicon Dust Press release describing cablecard HDHomeRun
http://www.silicondust.com/press
HDHomeRun Twitter account which has posts about this product.
http://twitter.com/HDHomeRun_US
SiliconDust Forum discussing this version.
http://www.silicondust.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=38&sid=7c5f0bc0e57ad82994c8dc082430113b
Love the show. Keep up the good work.
Update on SDV/Tuning Adapter problems - Time Warner Cable in Columbus, OH has been troubleshooting Tuning Adapter problems since March 2009. I've been an actively involved customer on this problem since October '09. As of March 2010, the problem has been traced to SDV EMM Subscription Expiration/Renewals via two-way messaging between the DNCS (head-end) and the Cisco 1520 STA Tuning Adapter that connects to the 2 cablecards ($5/mo) on my TiVo Series 3 DVR. Time Warner has "forced" continued activation of my signal/channels until CIsco provides a systemwide patch to Time Warner in March/April. TWC Columbus estimates that 13% of its Tuning Adapter customers are affected by this problem, based on a survey of 500 households. Either the Tuning Adapter cannot successfully send replenishing messages to the DNCS or synchronization is lost when checking/sending EMMs. Often times neither Time Warner nor Cisco can "see" my Tuning Adapter on the network when it is up and running. Clearly, if the system was working correctly, both vendors would see the Tuning Adapter as they monitor the network.
When the Tuning Adapter is down, I can also go to another TV in the house that has a regular Time Warner cablebox, dial in the SDV channel I want, and then I can successfully tune to it via the Tivo and Tuning Adapter in my living room. This effectively bypasses the SDV mini-carousel by bringing the channel into the local neighborhood group and making it available without adjusting the Tuning Adapter. Yes, it's a really ugly solution, but it works better than having to reboot or replace Tuning Adapters every 30 or 60 days like I'd been doing for the past several months. I've lost count of the number of cablecards and tuning adapters that have been replaced in vain over the last six months, not to mention all of the new cabling and new compression fittings that have been installed in an effort to troubleshoot what essentially now looks like a Cisco problem.
Todd,
I've been following SDV, TiVo, Tuning Adapter implementation across the country since inception and I hadn't heard of your particular issues. Very interesting and enlightening. Thanks. At one time I had the specs and circuitry diagrams for the Cisco Tuning Adapter. I studied them for about a month and determined that implementation would be ugly because of the high number of variables which could knock the entire system offline and low number of error-correction processess. This included the CableCos inability to do meaningful troubleshooting from the head-end because this TiVo/Tuning Adapter/Cablecard implementation was a one way process. It is true the Tuning Adapter does communicate with the head-end allowing limited communication, but that in no way allows effective troubleshooting. On a per customer basis I expect the CableCos have spent a huge amount of money getting these systems up and keeping them stable versus the normal CableCo customer who has a rented DVR. Tru-2-way, if and when implemented, should go far in alleviating these problems. It will require a new generation of TiVos.
CableCos rental DVRs have not changed in years. The GUI is something they should be ashamed of given today's technology. This is the single reason I continue to embrace TiVo technology despite occasional glitches. I unfortunately will not recommend TiVo to my tech challenged family and friends who live in areas where SDV is being implemented because of system instability. They have an expectation their TVs will work 100% of time just as they always have. For them, one or two problems a month requiring personal troubleshooting or technician assistance is simply not acceptable.
I look at SDV as the cable companies getting around contractual obligations with networks.
Say for instance when Comcast wants to offer us channel A, then they need to sign a contract with Network A1. As part of that contract they also have to offer us Channels B, C, D, and E.. The thing is no one in there right mind watches B, C, D, and E, they are in the package just to charge more. ( ignoring comcast passing that cost on to us )
Under SDV the cable company still offers those channels, so they are within the contract. But because no one watches them, they use up no bandwidth.