[opendtv] As an Alternative to a Trip to a Video Store, Movies Through a Set-Top Box - New York Times - opendtv

[opendtv] As an Alternative to a Trip to a Video Store, Movies Through a Set-Top Box - New York Times

From: Frank Eory <frank.eory@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Wed, 15 Feb 2006 10:00:07 -0700
Mark Aitken wrote:

>Funny, no where in this article does it ever speak to the fact that what 
>you get "for your money" is a complete OTA (that would be over-the-air) 
>STB (set top box) that outputs HDMI and analog video. Might add a little 
>incentive to buy it if it has a good receiver. But then, I am just 
>assuming that it would (after all, why would anyone offer a crap OTA 
>receiver...?)
>:-)
>
>http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/14/business/media/14movie.html
>
>February 14, 2006
>
>  
>
If you're interested, you can read the white papers about this 
technology on the Dotcast website. They're adding a QAM signal in 
quadrature to the usual AM-VSB NTSC signal, at a level 26 dB below the 
NTSC visual carrier. They use all the QAM formats from 4 to 128, so 
variable data rate is built into the system, up to 4.5 Mbps -- with no 
visible interference to the NTSC signal.

I have no inside knowledge of Dotcast, but it is my impression that they 
have done a thorough end-to-end system design to make this robust. They 
designed the modulator, the demodulator (it's thier own ASIC) and even 
the antenna. Obviously some attention was paid to real-world link 
budgets and margins, and the service appears to be targeted at viewers 
within a station's Grade A contour -- not necessarily "everyone with a 
TV set."

I wonder what they plan to do after February 2009 when there are no more 
NTSC carriers?

-- Frank Eory

>  As an Alternative to a Trip to a Video Store, Movies Through a Set-Top
>  Box
>
>By SAUL HANSELL 
><http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?ppds=bylL&v1=SAUL%20HANSELL&fdq=19960101&td=sysdate&sort=newest&ac=SAUL%20HANSELL&inline=nyt-per
> 
><http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?ppds=bylL&v1=SAUL%20HANSELL&fdq=19960101&td=sysdate&sort=newest&ac=SAUL%20HANSELL&inline=nyt-per>>
>
>Will people pay $230 and hook a new gizmo up to their television sets so 
>they do not have to drive to the video rental store?
>
>That is the question to be answered by MovieBeam, a service being 
>introduced in 29 major markets today. The service was originally 
>developed and tested in three cities in 2004 by the Walt Disney Company 
><http://www.nytimes.com/redirect/marketwatch/redirect.ctx?MW=http://custom.marketwatch.com/custom/nyt-com/html-companyprofile.asp&symb=DIS
> 
><http://www.nytimes.com/redirect/marketwatch/redirect.ctx?MW=http://custom.marketwatch.com/custom/nyt-com/html-companyprofile.asp&symb=DIS>>.
> 
>Disney has brought in new investors and streamlined the service's 
>pricing to offer it on a broader scale.
>
>MovieBeam is built around a technology that broadcasts movies slowly 
>over unused portions of the television signals to set-top boxes that 
>store them on a hard disk. Users will have a choice of 100 movies -- 
>mainly those that have been recently released on DVD's -- with 10 new 
>titles replacing old ones each week.
>
>Consumers will buy the MovieBeam box for $250 from electronics stores. 
>They can send for a $50 rebate, but must also pay a $30 activation fee, 
>making the effective upfront cost $230. The service does not charge a 
>monthly fee, but movies cost $3.99 each for current titles and $1.99 for 
>older ones. (The company will also offer some movies in a 
>high-definition format for an additional $1.) The customers will be able 
>to watch the movie for a 24-hour period.
>
>Tres Izzard, a former Disney executive who is now the chief executive of 
>MovieBeam, said the service was meant to appeal to the 30 million people 
>who rent at least four movies a month. Four-fifths of those rentals, he 
>said, are releases of the sort that will be in the MovieBeam service.
>
>"The hard drive is the back wall at a Blockbuster," Mr. Izzard said. He 
>said that the service would allow customers to rent those films without 
>driving or waiting for DVD's to come in the mail, as they do with 
>services like Netflix 
><http://www.nytimes.com/redirect/marketwatch/redirect.ctx?MW=http://custom.marketwatch.com/custom/nyt-com/html-companyprofile.asp&symb=NFLX
> 
><http://www.nytimes.com/redirect/marketwatch/redirect.ctx?MW=http://custom.marketwatch.com/custom/nyt-com/html-companyprofile.asp&symb=NFLX>>.
>
>Michael Gartenberg, an analyst with Jupiter Research, said he was 
>skeptical that people would pay more than $200 for a box from MovieBeam, 
>plus a fee per movie, when cable systems are offering movies on demand 
>at similar prices through their digital services.
>
>"The pricing model seems to be somewhat questionable here," he said. 
>"People will ask why they need to spend that much money for a box."
>
>Mr. Izzard argued that digital cable reaches only a minority of cable 
>households and that MovieBeam might be more economical to viewers who 
>like movies but do not want the other channels offered by cable systems. 
>The service does not have to appeal to everyone, he said; it will break 
>even if it attracts 500,000 customers. The company will sell the boxes 
>at a slight loss.
>
>Disney sold a majority of MovieBeam for $48.5 million to a group of 
>investors including Cisco Systems 
><http://www.nytimes.com/redirect/marketwatch/redirect.ctx?MW=http://custom.marketwatch.com/custom/nyt-com/html-companyprofile.asp&symb=CSCO
> 
><http://www.nytimes.com/redirect/marketwatch/redirect.ctx?MW=http://custom.marketwatch.com/custom/nyt-com/html-companyprofile.asp&symb=CSCO>>,
> 
>Intel 
><http://www.nytimes.com/redirect/marketwatch/redirect.ctx?MW=http://custom.marketwatch.com/custom/nyt-com/html-companyprofile.asp&symb=INTC
> 
><http://www.nytimes.com/redirect/marketwatch/redirect.ctx?MW=http://custom.marketwatch.com/custom/nyt-com/html-companyprofile.asp&symb=INTC>>
> 
>and several venture capital funds. The MovieBeam box will be sold under 
>Cisco's Linksys brand name.
>
>The major studios have agreed to provide movies to the service, except 
>Sony 
><http://www.nytimes.com/redirect/marketwatch/redirect.ctx?MW=http://custom.marketwatch.com/custom/nyt-com/html-companyprofile.asp&symb=SNE
> 
><http://www.nytimes.com/redirect/marketwatch/redirect.ctx?MW=http://custom.marketwatch.com/custom/nyt-com/html-companyprofile.asp&symb=SNE>>,
> 
>with which negotiations are continuing, Mr. Izzard said. Disney's 
>studios will make movies available on the service on the same day they 
>are released on DVD. The other studios will make them available several 
>weeks later when they are released to video-on-demand services offered 
>by cable systems and Internet rental services like Movielink.
>
>As with other video-on-demand services, most of the rental fee is paid 
>to the studios. Still, studios have been wary about the expansion of 
>video-on-demand services because they could eat into DVD sales, the 
>most-profitable form of movie distribution.
>
>Mr. Izzard said that with MovieBeam's broadcast system, the cost of 
>delivering a movie was negligible. In contrast, industry executives say 
>sending a movie over the Internet typically costs 50 to 75 cents for a 
>transmission.
>
>
>  
>
 
 
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