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Video On Demand Almost Here For San Franciscans

Posted by timothy on from the tremble-gently-at-the-thought dept.

BeatlesForum.com writes: "Looks like San Francisco-area folks could be in for a taste of video when you want it, according to this article from Reuters. The article mentions that we will be able to start and stop the on-demand stream whenever we want. Kinda sounds like TiVo now, except you still have to fit around the broadcast schedule. Interesting statistic quoted from the article, though: it is expected that 5.5 million homes will have VOD by the end of the year. Imagine being able to pull up 2001: A Space Odyssey at 2:38 a.m.."

3 of 159 comments (clear)

  1. 3 Mb/s required by Animats · · Score: 3, Insightful
    For this to work, the network must deliver a unique Mb/s data stream from the headend to each consumer. How many cable plants can do that today?

    Clearly this is possible, but what are the costs like?

  2. More lame California-centric crap. by Bowie+J.+Poag · · Score: 3, Insightful



    "Imagine being able to pull up 2001: A Space Odyssey at 2:38 a.m.."

    Wow, you Californians are high-tech!!!

    Ever heard of Kazaa, Lopster, or freakin' BLOCKBUSTER?

    --
    Bowie J. Poag

  3. What about HDTV? by Animats · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is a whole new infrastructure to support sub-NTSC quality video. Will this slow the transition to HDTV? Or will you be able to order movies as a 1080p 24fps 16:9 stream? If you could do that, getting a HDTV monitor would be worth it.