D* Plans on 2,000 VOD titles; 'As Much as Possible' Will Be HD

DirecTV Plans 2,000 VOD Titles
'As Much as Possible' Will Be HD; Users Can Order Programs Online

DirecTV's upcoming launch of the first satellite-provider video-on-demand service will include 2,000 movie and television titles, with "as much as possible" in HD.

The service will launch in July for DirecTV customers with current-generation HD DVRs. Networks that currently offer VOD content&mdashsuch as Discovery and Showtimewill have their own VOD "channel" environment. The most popular content will be housed on DirecTV satellites, while the bulk of the library content will be delivered via the HD DVR's broadband connection.

"We have a commitment for 2,000 titles at launch, and that will continue to grow," said Eric Shanks, DirecTV's executive VP for entertainment. "We're pushing for as much as possible [in HD].

It will be a pretty small subset at the start, because there's not a whole lot of HD on demand."

The launch date for customers without HD DVRs has yet to be determined.

In addition to traditional television series and movies, DirecTV plans to encourage programmers to upload topical, short-form video. Such material could launch on the broadband server, then automatically switch to satellite once the VOD interest hits a certain level.

"If all of a sudden a news story about Don Imus is a very high-trafficked clip, the system will push that over to the satellite since everybody wants to see it," Mr. Shanks said.

Though cable operators have dismissed DirecTV's plan to launch a satellite-based VOD service as faux-VOD, Mr. Shanks said the operation will be very similar to the cable experience. Programs stored on the satellite will be available instantly, while users accessing library content via broadband can immediately begin watching the program "live" as it streams.

The only difference compared to cable VOD is that users will have to wait until the library content completely downloads before they can, for instance, skip forward to the end of a program. The rate of download will vary, determined by the user's broadband connection.

To help make the experience more seamless, DirecTV is planning to launch a new TiVo-like feature that will allow HD DVR users to order VOD programs (or schedule any DirecTV content for recording) online or by mobile phone.
"You will be able to browse titles on directv.com [and] have it waiting for you ready to go on your DVR when you get home," Mr. Shanks said.

The launch will coincide with a relaunch of DirecTV's music and photos service, through which users can stream photos and music from their home computers to their DirecTV set-top boxes.

The VOD service is part of DirecTV's effort to take the lead in the HD race, primarily by launching 100 HD channels by the end of the year. DirecTV's cable competitors have responded by ramping up their own declarations of HD boosting, but fellow satellite provider EchoStar has remained silent about any HD plans and generally declines media interviews on the subject.

"Unless [EchoStar has] a satellite hidden up their sleeve, I'm not aware of any launches," Mr. Shanks said. "You can track the rollout of local HD from Dish and get a sense of what speed they're moving, which is slower than us."

This article is part of TVWeek.com's High Definition newsletter, a weekly source of breaking HD news, articles and interviews written by Senior Reporter James Hibberd.

Even as an E* subscriber I had to chuckle when I read this part. He has a point, especially with the second statement. Just recently, Dish decided to launch only 7 of the HD RSN's they had uplinked instead of all of them. Apparently launching all of them was too big of a task or too expensive

I've never had a VOD service, so I must ask. Do you pay for each and every individual show/movie (like PPV), or is it subscription based?

From what I read some is free and some you pay for so I guess till it is rolled out we won't know pricing and like you I have never had it either.

i'm new to vod - is this a free service if you have a certain package, will it be ppv, or do you sub to the service?

thanks

jamie

Some services have both...

Sounds good. Hopefully they'll get Howard Stern now.

OOPS
Sorry about the redundant post but thanks for the info!

jamie

Goodbye any hope for better HD PQ.

Interesting that the bulk of the content will be SD, yet it's only the HD-DVRs that will be able to receive the content at first, with no date set for SD equipment. Seems like shooting yourself in both feet at the same time.

Why? If most of it is via broadband it would have no effect at all on satellite bandwidth.

That's because the HR20 is ready for it. They would have to figure out if the R15 is even capable at this point.

Comcast OnDemand is essentially free to all dig cable users--DVR or not.

The vast majority of programming is free--movies, cable channel shows, music videos/concerts, workout videos, kids programming....and lots more, actually.

In terms of HD, my area has seen a huge jump in HD OnDemand stuff. Currently there are close to 30 (I believe-not in front of the TV right now) free HD movies this month. All "catalog" titles. Lots of other HD stuff---Discovery HD Theater (Planet Earth episodes, and other programming), Nat Geo HD stuff, CBS primetime HD shows (right now only original CSI and Jericho--available 24 hrs after first airing)....lots of stuff really. Pretty much every major cable channel has OnDemand programming available on Comcast (although most is SD).

The "not free" consists of current PPV movies (most also available in HD), current theatrical indie flicks courtesy of IFC (cost about 8 bucks a pop--but they are in some big-city theaters now), premium channel stuff (free if you subscribe to them--HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, Encore, Starz and Howard Stern all have some HD OnDemand available) and other PPV events (WWE, boxing, etc).

I'm watching my First VOD GD title From Comcast. One of my All time Favs Escape From New York, the Transfer is OAR and looks Gorgeous, but and it's a somewhat big But, it has a see thru Logo for Fear.net in the corner, and occasionally some pop ups. I can live with it because it's free, still I'd rather not have this, part of the Free I guess.

The most popular content will be housed on DirecTV satellites, while the bulk of the library content will be delivered via the HD DVR's broadband connection.


So would I plug my HR20 (uh, once I get one) to my Comcast broadband for dowloading DirecTV VOD content, or am I now going to need to purchase broadband from DirecTV?

Does this mean that more HD channels are going to come on-line during this time? Or are they going to wait until the new sats are launched?

And it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect Comcast and other Cable companies to block access to the DirecTV servers because of "undue strain" on the network that degrades the service for other users (Point to TOS). Obviously, this would just be an excuse, although, if they are streaming HD video, a somewhat legitimate one.

Actually it would be unreasonable to expect that. If cable MSO pulled that, they already have the FCC breathing down their butt....if that happened, the FCC would tighten the regs down so tight on cable that they would rue the day they thought of that.

So they are really in a Catch-22.

True, but they already are cutting people off for excessive usage (compared to others on one's node) so if one is a heavy D* HD VOD user he/she may have to look out for "excessive use" violations. It would be easy to pile up a lot of transfer even if one only downloaded 2-3 HD shows a day. Of course, this is assuming D* doesn't compress the file down to MPEG4 @ 2.5MB/S...hah.

All I'm saying is the cable company is not going to be happy with their bandwidth being used to provide "satellite" TV and if they can come up with a way to prevent it that doesn't flag them for FCC regulation they will be doing it. D* should probably be sending some support to the folks fighting for Net Neutrality...

Cheers,

Only idiots like Mediacom would be so stupid - and then again they will cause a fallout that will cause every cable MSO to suffer.

"I invented VOD, tell'em Fred"

Stern is a hack!

Correct. HR20 is already network capable and has been for months. Just plug it into your router from your broadband connection (Cable, DSL, FIOS, whatever) and you're good to go.

In addition right now you can stream music and pictures from your PC to the HR20 and streaming video from your PC is something coming soon.

Can this streaming be accomplished with a wireless connection? I have a HR20 and thought it was still a dumb unit wrt network connections.

Are the USB ports still unuseable?

Comcast won't cut a user's service unless he exceeds 200 GB in a month - typically more. Assuming HD content at 5 Mbps, which I think is optimistic, that's about 100 hours per month. I highly doubt DIRECTV would have so much HD VOD content available that a person would approach 100 hours. And don't forget that the most frequently viewed VOD content will be delivered by satellite, not broadband.

You would have to get a wireless link change the wired connection to wireless. Other than that, there shouldn't be a problem. Even the slowest WiFi is faster than normal broadband internet speeds.

My 12mbit Cox cable, and the 16mbit Comcast, and 15/30mbit FIOS available in other areas would beg to differ .

Not via USB. But there are vast threads on DBSTalk about wireless connections using wireless bridges or wireless game adapters. The HR20 has been networking for nearly 6 months now.

I did say "normal". Very few customers actually have those options. In most areas, 6Mb is the top end. But, it's getting more common. Of course, wireless G and N have all but taken over - and those faster broadband customers are likely to use that faster technology, anyway.

Either way, WiFi will be plenty fast for the service.

Let's not start the Hoo Hoo vs. Dopie and As$#ole stuff!

Although as a fan of both. (Yes you can be a fan of both) It would be great to have HowardTV and O&A's XM feed.