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Archives
 May 2001 Issue
Supplanting the Personal Video Recorder: Are subscription-based personal video channels on your horizon?
By Robert E. Chism, Concurrent Computer Corp.
Network-based personal video channels offering simultaneous recording, no storage limits and zero hardware costs could challenge personal video recorders.
Personal video recorders (PVRs) have caused quite a stir lately. Some say they are one of the most exciting and innovative technology products to enter the consumer market in the last year.
Many analysts predict that PVRs will alter consumer television viewing habits and radically affect the television industry. The inherent ability of the PVR to allow television viewers to simultaneously record and play back many television broadcasts with full interactive control is compelling. It represents a vast technological improvement over VCRs.
The next step
By leveraging the high bandwidth associated with the broadband transport infrastructure and video-on-demand (VOD), cable operators will have the ability to introduce network-based personal video channels (PVCs). This combination will provide the consumer with significantly increased capabilities.
For example, the consumer will no longer be required to program a recording device or rely on self-programming based on viewing history. Any type of programming is subject to errors, often leaving the consumer without the desired program.
Network-based PVCs provide other significant advantages over in-home PVRs. A limitation on the number of simultaneous recordings that may occur no longer exists. Most in-home PVRs are only able to record one program at a time, whereas network-based PVC programming is basically unlimited.
In-home PVRs also have fixed storage limitations based on the size of the disk in the unit. Network-based PVCs will provide the consumer with virtually unlimited storage capacity because thousands of subscribers will be able to view simultaneously a single stored program. Not only will the consumer be able to control live broadcasts, he or she essentially will experience TV-on-demand by having up to a week's worth of programming available for viewing at any time. Network-based PVCs will eliminate the need for programming a recording device--instead, a library of programs will be available on demand.
Consumers will not need to buy an in-home PVR, and have it become obsolete. Network-based PVCs are simply a software application that will be downloaded to the consumer's set-top box.
Upgrades are easy, and the consumer won't face upgrade costs as technology advances. The cost associated with network-based PVCs is not only distributed between all subscribers, but uses the broadband transport and VOD infrastructure already in place.
The network-based PVC could easily be offered as a subscription service. As a subscription service the consumer might be presented with a PVC channel in the channel line-up. Once a consumer has selected a PVC channel with an enabled program, the consumer will be able to experience full interactive control of the live broadcast.
Assuming the network-based PVC were initiated on a program basis, an additional channel application could be developed. This would provide a programming library, or essentially TV-on-demand. The consumer would then simply select the channel and program, and view the desired programming selection at his or her convenience--with full interactive control. Once the programs are stored on the video server, the system is simply performing video- or TV-on-demand.
Technical considerations
Although VOD stream utilization is estimated at 10 percent to 25 percent, network-based PVC simultaneous stream utilization could easily range between 30 percent and 80 percent of subscribers. Ultimately, consumer viewing habits will change drastically, and each user of the system will want the flexibility associated with a personal connection such as the Internet. The system architecture associated with network-based PVCs must scale accordingly. The session setup and stream control will need to be distributed across the network architecture to ensure that latencies are kept to a minimum.
One possible system implementation for a network-based PVC is shown in Figure 1. The block diagram depicts a distributed architecture with a headend PVC library server and hub servers. In this approach, a PVC broadcast quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) is used until the consumer requires a unique session for interactive control.
A network-based PVC system will need to encode both digital and analog signals in real time, load content files on a storage system, create trick files (such as fast forward and rewind), and play out within minimal transport latency. Creating the trick files may be the most difficult challenge in minimizing the overall transport latency. It should be possible to achieve overall system transport latencies of less than five seconds. Using today's technology, a single 19-inch rack of equipment could provide thousands of hours of program storage, storing a week of programming for a variety of channels (see Figure 2).
Network-based PVCs will drastically change viewing habits. Each consumer ultimately will establish his or her own connection and experience personalized TV without the dependency of a program schedule. Being able to control live broadcasts will enhance the viewing experience, whether the viewer replays a desired segment or pauses to address an interruption. Network-based PVCs also provide significant advantages over VCRs and in-home PVRs.
In today's hectic world where personal time is always at a premium, network-based PVCs will provide unparalleled viewing convenience and choice.
Robert E. Chism is vice president of development for Concurrent Computer Corp. You may reach him at .
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A New Service
Cable operators can leverage bandwidth and VOD capabilities to introduce network-based personal video channels (PVCs), which provide consumers with increased capabilities compared to currently available personal video recorder (PVR) technology. Improvements include easier programming for the consumer, no consumer hardware cost, easy upgrades, unlimited storage capacity and simultaneous recording.
PVCs could be offered as a subscription service, with an additional channel application developed that is essentially TV-on-demand. A possible system for a network-based PVC is a distributed architecture with a headend library server and hub servers. The system must encode signals in real time, load content files on a storage system, create trick files (such as fast forward and rewind), and play out within minimal transport latency.
Using current technology, a 19-inch rack of equipment could provide thousands of hours of programming, and allow for an entire week of programming to be stored for a variety of channels.
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DVRs/PVRs: Industry Moves with Deliberate Haste
By Jonathan Tombes, CT Senior Editor
Cable operators are gradually bringing digital video recorder (DVR) technology within their own networks.
Charter Communications, for instance, is working with vendors on both set-top and peripheral solutions.
Motorola and ReplayTV (now part of Sonic Blue) joined Charter last year on an ongoing project aimed at devising a set-top platform capable of digital storage.
The software is destined for Motorola's DCT-5000, the advanced digital set-top that Charter decided to deploy in two major markets this fall. DVR functionality is expected in DCT-5000s shipped in the fourth quarter of this year, Jim Henderson, Charter vice president for corporate development and technology, says.
Motorola is aiming to enhance its emerging DVR platform by incorporating software from Gotoit Media that can "slice and dice" a program by manipulating its metadata. Gotoit's technology enables the kind of personal video recorder (PVR) experience associated with the TiVo box.
Additional work between Charter, Motorola and Sonic Blue involves the development of interfaces on a "sidecar" or peripheral device for the DCT-2000.
Charter is already trialing existing ReplayTV devices in some systems, but the new interfaces should improve user experience, Henderson says. "You're not using infrared blasting as you had done in the past."
Meanwhile, Charter is pursuing a similar strategy with Scientific-Atlanta, which is adding DVR features to the design of its dual-tuner Explorer 8000 set-top.
S-A licensed driver software that controls the hard drive and MPEG decoder from Keen Personal Media last fall, and in February it acquired iintelligencestorage management software and a preference engine from MetaByte Networks.
"The first release of the software will be more of a DVR application," Robert Van Orden, S-A vice president of product strategy for subscriber networks, says. "A future release next year would have the preference (engine)."
Charter is also looking at Keen Personal Media's standalone box that complements S-A's 3000-class digital set-tops already in the homes of some digital cable subscribers.
Keen has been working with Motorola as well, Henderson says. "So time will tell whether there's a ubiquitous device that goes across both."
As a further hedge in Charter's DVR/PVR strategy, last November the operator agreed to acquire 300,000 Pace Micro Technology 750 Home Gateway Boxes over the next three years. Pace says this box promises "better-than-VCR functionality."
Other operators
Like Charter, other operators began testing the DVR waters last year. Time Warner Cable launched a ReplayTV trial, and Comcast began offering ReplayTV and TiVo as a leased service in select markets. AT&T Broadband launched a six-month joint marketing trial of ReplayTV in Denver and Boston last November.
Interest of digital cable subscribers in this technology is "very big," an AT&T Broadband spokesperson, says.
Time Warner moved into deployment mode on DVR-enabled set-tops by ordering a batch of Explorer 8000s, but its strategy is also diversified, partly as a result of the AOL merger. Not only does AOL/Time Warner own a percentage of TiVo, but in a deal with the media conglomerate struck in January, TiVo gained access to $43.5 million and many media properties.
Meanwhile, an aggressive campaign is well underway for Ultimate TV, a Microsoft DVR product that bundles DirecTV's satellite service with hardware from Sony and RCA. TiVo also has integrated with DirecTV receivers. It may be time for the cable industry to pick up the speed and push back.
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 Back to May 2001 Issue
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