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The most common form of video on demand technology involves having a number of available videos stored on a server computer in a central location. When a viewer wants to watch one of these videos, she or he simply requests it, and the server computer sends that video to the viewer. This is how streaming Internet video and the video on demand services of cable TV companies work. They obviously use different technology to transmit the video, but the concept is generally the same.
Another technique that can be used to deliver video on demand is through digital video recorder technology. This is the favored technology of satellite TV companies. Basically, the hard drive of the DVR takes the place of the server computer in this scheme. This is a lot better for how satellite TV works in that because satellite TV doesn't have a distinct connection with every single household that's receiving its service, its programming has to be sent to all of its subscribing households all at once. This model of TV transmission doesn't allow for individual streams of programming that are necessary to deliver video on demand service from a central location. In order to get around this, satellite TV providers simply deliver their video on demand content to all of the digital video recording satellite receivers that are in the homes of their subscribers all in a single burst. Then the subscribers can access that video when they're ready to watch it. This is done periodically in order to provide subscribers with a fresh selection of video on demand options.
The use of digital video recorder technology to provide video on demand service is limited in a number of obvious ways. First of all, the satellite TV provider has to dedicate an entire channel- or several channels- to delivering video on demand content. Second, a household DVR will have a much smaller capacity to store video on demand offerings than a larger server computer or bank of servers.
Neither of the above limitations are particularly dire though. For example, satellite TV providers have enough bandwidth (and are adding more bandwidth) so that dedicating a few channels to video on demand really isn't much of a burden. The relatively limited capacity of household DVR receivers also isn't much of an impediment to video on demand because the licensing of the movies and TV shows, along with other legal issues, is holding up the implementation of comprehensive video on demand at least as much as the limitations of technology like hard drive space. That should give hard drive capacities plenty of time to catch up. This is especially true when you look at how rapidly hard drive capacities are growing these days.
In all, video on demand has a lot of promise to keep us entertained with exactly what we want to watch, and is well on its way to becoming a reality.
Category: HDTVVideo On Demand Technology Becomes More Of A Reality Every Day was written by:Author:Emily SandersonAdded: Mon, 28 Jan 2008 09:14:14 -0500 This Article Has Been Read 205 times View all Emily Sanderson's articlesAbout the Author: E.Sanderson writes articles for consumers who want to find the latest technonoly news about Comcast Cable TV. She has written for many major publications about High Speed Internet and how buyers can find the best deals. |
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