Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] Warner Backs Blu-ray, Tilting DVD Battle

["Jonathan King" <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

On Jan 6, 2008 9:45 PM, Mike Miller <EMAIL:PROTECTED> wrote:
> On Sun, 6 Jan 2008, Jonathan King wrote:
>
> > But Mike is being very pessimistic abount internet bandwidth. Our $35
> > per month internet service here (Verizon FIOS) is 5 Mb (bits!) per
> > second, but we could get 15 Mb (bits!) per second for $50.
>
> OK, but your optic fiber system isn't available everywhere

Nope, that's true. But it could be.

> and, if my math
> was right, you need about 23 Mbps (bits again) to watch HD without
> starting the download well in advance of viewing.  But...

The fiber is clearly capable of much more, however. The bit rates they
offer are arbitrarily chosen to comfortably exceed cable and DSL in
the area for a good price, but not to go any higher than they "need"
to.

> > That would be almost 2 MB (bytes!) per second. I don't know everything
> > about their infrastructure, but I do know they support HD cable on the
> > same fiber, suggesting to me that bandwidth per se is not the issue for
> > them.
>
> I guess the point is that they can give us the bandwidth whenever they
> feel like it (when it's in their economic interest to do so) -- at least
> for those of us with certain kinds of connections like cable or fiber.

For fiber, that's certainly true. For cable, I'm not sure that would
always be true.

> Are they already doing HD Pay Per View on cable?  DirecTV does it via
> satellite:

Evidently, they are doing this. I just noticed this:

http://www22.verizon.com/content/fiostv/on+demand+and+ppv/on+demand+and+ppv.htm

We don't get cable, though, so I don't know how nice this service
works. (Basically, we don't watch enough TV for it to be worth it to
get cable since they were still trying to charge extra for HD *and*
you only get a deal with a two year commitment, which we can't take
because we're renting.)

> Thanks, Jon, I think I get it now.

The gist of this is that I liven the lap of digital luxury, and you
just wish you could sniff my broadband goodness. :-)

jking

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