more on "unused" portion of their DSL lines to broadcast video signals.

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Damien V. Del Porto" <damien () delporto org>
Date: June 11, 2005 3:08:19 PM EDT
To: Brad Templeton <btm () templetons com>
Cc: Bob Frankston <Bob2-19-0501 () bobf frankston com>, dave () farber net,  
'Ip ip' <ip () v2 listbox com>, "David P. Reed" <dpreed () reed com>
Subject: Re: [IP] "unused" portion of their DSL lines to broadcast  
video signals.


The channels are broadcast one at a time.  The box they install  
requests the channel from the central office.  The signal travels  
from the decoder box to the router (which is assigned two IPs on  
different subnets, one for the internet and one for the tvs) and onto  
the CO, which then beams back the required information.  I have taken  
a look at it and the way it actually works is that each channel is  
assigned an IP and a unique port (8208).  It uses UDP.  I have  
managed to hack my router so that I can divert the signal to my PC.   
Im working on getting the PC to act like a TIVO.

An interesting anecdote, as far as the bandwidth is concerned, is  
that I was originally setup with the decoder box set to NTSC instead  
of PAL.  The technician didn't catch the problem because I have a  
multisystem TV.  The signal was stuttering every 5 seconds or so  
until I figured out that I had to switch it to PAL.  I was told on a  
forum that the reason was that the NTSC data was slightly bigger  
because the resolution was higher.  Which goes to show that what  
they've managed only barely fits in the assigned bandwidth.  -d

Brad Templeton wrote:


> On Sat, Jun 11, 2005 at 01:07:12PM -0400, Bob Frankston wrote:
>
>
> > using the "unused" portion of their DSL lines to broadcast video   
> > signals. There are some 40 channels (there are only 5-7 channels   
> > available over the air and w/o satellite). The DSL line charges,  ...
> > the service is using 4 Mbits or so of the total 6-8 available.  
> > The  base subscriber package is 512/128 (which will be doubled for  
> > free  next month to 1M/320), and can scale up to 2.
>
> I have to admit, 40 channels of quality TV in 4 megabits is not  
> something
> I would have believed possible.  That's just 100 kbits per channel.
>
> Are you sure about these numbers?  I would venture the need for  
> more like
> a megabit.    MP2 transmission in the usa uses between 9 and 15  
> megabits
> for HDTV and 3.5 megabits for SDTV, digital cable and satellite use  
> less
> and with MP4 you can drop much lower, but nowhere close to 100kbits.
>
> On the other hand, you could do a bittorrent style cable channel to  
> DSL
> customers with today's bandwidth.




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