Older Sky+ box provided for new install
 

On 2007-03-12, John Russell wrote:
"David Taylor" wrote in message
...
On 2007-03-09, DannyT wrote:

I totally agree. What Sky is offering is certainly not VOD. David's logic
is flawed.

In what way?

What is the _functional_ difference between what Sky are offering and
VOD?

Note that for any VOD service there will be equipment at each end,
how it works is immaterial.

VOD which is nothing more than "Forced Recording" is miss-selling.

I'll ask again: what is the _functional_ difference between
what Sky are offering and VOD?

The
fundemental aspect of VOD is that the user is in control of the programs he
wants the broadcaster to supply to him, unlike broadcasting where the
supplier decides what "everyone" will get.

The fundemental aspect of VOD is Video _On Demand_. The user is
in control of _when_ he watches any of the available programmes. The user
is never in control of _what_ programs are available. The difference
between Sky and Virgin/NTL's service is merely the size of the "menu".

If you seriously believe that the non-Sky services will grow to the extent
that you can watch ANYTHING you want WHENEVER you want, I expect you'll
be disappointed. They won't pay for the rights to show every program
or film ever made, you'll just have to pick from a selection.

The user has no control over the
progrems sent to the disk, so this isn't VOD.

The user has no control over what programmes Virgin or NTL make
available either!

If you don't like the idea
"Forced Recoding" let's call it "Buffered Broadcasting", but VOD it isn't!

Until you can actually show a functional difference, to the user, between
the Virgin/NTL and Sky offerings I will continue to call it Video
on Demand.

--
David Taylor

Older Sky+ box provided for new install
 

"David Taylor" wrote in message
...
On 2007-03-12, John Russell wrote:
"David Taylor" wrote in message
...
On 2007-03-09, DannyT wrote:

I totally agree. What Sky is offering is certainly not VOD. David's
logic
is flawed.

In what way?

What is the _functional_ difference between what Sky are offering and
VOD?

Note that for any VOD service there will be equipment at each end,
how it works is immaterial.

VOD which is nothing more than "Forced Recording" is miss-selling.

I'll ask again: what is the _functional_ difference between
what Sky are offering and VOD?

The
fundemental aspect of VOD is that the user is in control of the programs
he
wants the broadcaster to supply to him, unlike broadcasting where the
supplier decides what "everyone" will get.

The fundemental aspect of VOD is Video _On Demand_. The user is
in control of _when_ he watches any of the available programmes. The user
is never in control of _what_ programs are available. The difference
between Sky and Virgin/NTL's service is merely the size of the "menu".

If you seriously believe that the non-Sky services will grow to the extent
that you can watch ANYTHING you want WHENEVER you want, I expect you'll
be disappointed. They won't pay for the rights to show every program
or film ever made, you'll just have to pick from a selection.

The user has no control over the
progrems sent to the disk, so this isn't VOD.

The user has no control over what programmes Virgin or NTL make
available either!

If you don't like the idea
"Forced Recoding" let's call it "Buffered Broadcasting", but VOD it
isn't!

Until you can actually show a functional difference, to the user, between
the Virgin/NTL and Sky offerings I will continue to call it Video
on Demand.


It's functionally no different from SKY+ recording! I would go so far to say
that Broadcast TV, or SKY+ recording or VOD are all functionally the same.
They are all about users watching TV programs selected by the supplier. So
functionality is not the issue, shifting control of what is recieved to the
user is the key issue!

This is not a stepping stone to VOD as demonstrated in Japan where
terrabytes of video where avialable via very high bandwidth cable. It's a
Cul de Sac. It's nothing more than an attempt by a company stuck with
broadcast technology to kill off the first steps by the cable supplier to
offer VOD as demonstrated in Japan.