It’s weird, but I had a Channel 9 tour planned of our IPTV plant today. Why is that weird? Cause Cisco bought Scientific Atlanta today for about $7 billion.
Why is this a big deal? HDTV. See, telephone and cable company operators are bashing themselves into a pulp to figure out how to bring new TV experiences to you to get you to switch to their services.
There is a lot of new opportunity because of the new HDTV screens. Why? Well, when you get a $3,000 TV home, what do you want to do? Watch more stuff!
Here’s how IPTV works. The telephone company drops in a new VDSL line. That brings 30megabitspersecond right into your house. That’s enough for — today — four HDTV channels, all at one time. Soon six. Don’t miss the significance of that.
The new box I saw today lets you watch multiple channels on screen. All live. All at the same time. Imaging watching a NASCAR race. You could watch three different cars (they are in Windows along the left side) and also the overall race on the main screen. I’ve seen it work and it’ll change how you watch TV as much as Tivo did when they let you time shift and fast-forward through commercials.
This stuff is not cheap. I saw a single HDTV, built by Sony, that costs $40,000 and an HDTV deck costs $70,000. Whew. They use both of those, by the way, for testing and demonstrating that their system is really as good as they say it is.
Anyway, I’ll leave more of the details for when we run the Channel 9 video. I gotta get some sleep. Let’s just say that I know where I’m watching the Superbowl now. These guys have huge satellite dishes and ways to watch tons of channels.
Scobleizer 
Am I the only one who finds it hilarious that you write Windows with a capital W even when it’s not the operating system you’re talking about? A true Microsoft geek blogger, indeed. (-:
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Am I the only one who finds it hilarious that you write Windows with a capital W even when it’s not the operating system you’re talking about? A true Microsoft geek blogger, indeed. (-:
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i read this great article recently on how Cisco and Microsoft are on a direct collision course…the author of the article suggested Microsoft partner heavily with Cisco…what with all the Sun Microsystems and Google partnering controversy…
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i read this great article recently on how Cisco and Microsoft are on a direct collision course…the author of the article suggested Microsoft partner heavily with Cisco…what with all the Sun Microsystems and Google partnering controversy…
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High-def content is great, no doubt about it (especially when viewed through an HD projector: http://www.psynixis.com/blog/index.php?s=projector ). I wonder how long it will take to get VDSL deployed at meaningful scale throughout the US and Europe though? Aren’t there’s quite a few infrastructure issues to deal with, which will need major investment to fix?
Really interesting you say that a 30Mbps feed is enough for four+ simulataneous high-def channels. I didn’t realise you’d be able to get anything like that from that kind of feed (I’d been thinking that 50Mbps would give you only one channel). Were there any compression artefacts when viewed on a large screen at that level? Current digital TV companies (non high-def content) don’t always seem to think that broadcasting channels with horrible compression levels is a problem. But it is: on big screens, the pictures are sometimes verging on the unwatchable: compared, say, with the fabulous results that can be obtained from upscaling non-high-def content from DVDs to 720p.
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High-def content is great, no doubt about it (especially when viewed through an HD projector: http://www.psynixis.com/blog/index.php?s=projector ). I wonder how long it will take to get VDSL deployed at meaningful scale throughout the US and Europe though? Aren’t there’s quite a few infrastructure issues to deal with, which will need major investment to fix?
Really interesting you say that a 30Mbps feed is enough for four+ simulataneous high-def channels. I didn’t realise you’d be able to get anything like that from that kind of feed (I’d been thinking that 50Mbps would give you only one channel). Were there any compression artefacts when viewed on a large screen at that level? Current digital TV companies (non high-def content) don’t always seem to think that broadcasting channels with horrible compression levels is a problem. But it is: on big screens, the pictures are sometimes verging on the unwatchable: compared, say, with the fabulous results that can be obtained from upscaling non-high-def content from DVDs to 720p.
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Well, when you get a $3,000 TV home
All the focus on HDTV strikes me as very elitist..do we really need that now?
Methinks there are more interesting and worthwhile public causes that you could give some time to…for instance, Sony+DRM?
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Well, when you get a $3,000 TV home
All the focus on HDTV strikes me as very elitist..do we really need that now?
Methinks there are more interesting and worthwhile public causes that you could give some time to…for instance, Sony+DRM?
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did you question them about my idea?
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did you question them about my idea?
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Verizon is offering a new internet service at 30Mbps here. Why do I not have it? $200/month. That’s a ripoff if I ever heard one. Despite the fact that you wait a couple years and that speed will be the standard, the internet simply doesn’t go that fast. scobleizer.com will not load faster, nor will Google or Microsoft or anybody at all. When I go to a website, my signal goes through 20something routers, proxy servers, etc. before it gets to its destination (and then comes back through all those as well). Unless all are capable of 30Mbps speeds, I won’t be getting it. And even when they are capable, it doesn’t mean I’ll be getting it as so many other signals are going through as well.
Right now I’m on a 1-2Mbps downstream line and I think my average top speed varies between 250k and 500k.
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Verizon is offering a new internet service at 30Mbps here. Why do I not have it? $200/month. That’s a ripoff if I ever heard one. Despite the fact that you wait a couple years and that speed will be the standard, the internet simply doesn’t go that fast. scobleizer.com will not load faster, nor will Google or Microsoft or anybody at all. When I go to a website, my signal goes through 20something routers, proxy servers, etc. before it gets to its destination (and then comes back through all those as well). Unless all are capable of 30Mbps speeds, I won’t be getting it. And even when they are capable, it doesn’t mean I’ll be getting it as so many other signals are going through as well.
Right now I’m on a 1-2Mbps downstream line and I think my average top speed varies between 250k and 500k.
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I find it even more hilarious, when IPTV is another one of MFST’s grand big trainwrecks. IPTV a good thing, MFST IPTV not seemingly so.
MS’s IPTV strategy in tatters
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/06/01/ms_iptv_strategy_in_tatters/
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I find it even more hilarious, when IPTV is another one of MFST’s grand big trainwrecks. IPTV a good thing, MFST IPTV not seemingly so.
MS’s IPTV strategy in tatters
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/06/01/ms_iptv_strategy_in_tatters/
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Simon,
I saw no artifacts and the picture looked stunningly beautiful. I couldn’t tell that it was being distributed over the VDSL network they have setup.
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Simon,
I saw no artifacts and the picture looked stunningly beautiful. I couldn’t tell that it was being distributed over the VDSL network they have setup.
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Chris, they had an IPTV partner conference on Wednesday. If their strategy is failing, it sure still gathers quite a crowd. That article only covers an old version, not the new version that SBC and other companies are implementing.
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Chris, they had an IPTV partner conference on Wednesday. If their strategy is failing, it sure still gathers quite a crowd. That article only covers an old version, not the new version that SBC and other companies are implementing.
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Knowing SBC it’s going to take 2 years to implement this network that you are talking about. And Direct TV is already switching to MP4 tech by the end of this year, which means I will be switching to them and enjoying my HDTV before everyone else waiting for SBC.
It’s sad that we don’t have the infrastructe in place to deliver voice, data, and tv over wires. Yes some places do with Verizon’s FIOS, but not near enough to say it’s widley implemented.
I’ve been following this issue closely, there is a lot of red tape that consumers don’t know about. When one wants to sell TV service, they have to get a lisence from every city they want to do this in. Do you know how long that takes? Recently in Texas they approved a bill that let you apply for a state wide lisence so you don’t have to go thru every single town one by one to get a lisence.
Great news right?! Wrong! When cable companies had to apply city by city it clearly stated that every home in that city had to be serviced. Now with this state wide lisence, they don’t have this clause, they can implement it where they see fit, IE: Rich communities. Now granted rich people will have an HDTV not poor people, but it still is hurting those people who would love broadband above 3 Mbps.
I am in SBC territory, and I can’t live with 3 Mbps. When I left NY 4 months ago I had a 10 Mbit connection. I feel castrated here. Yet SBC is taking there sweet as time to bring Fiber To The Node here, while Verizon is already setting people up with Fiber To The Curb.
What was the point of this rant? We have great technology, fantastic technology, but the FCC needs a swift kick in the nuts.
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Knowing SBC it’s going to take 2 years to implement this network that you are talking about. And Direct TV is already switching to MP4 tech by the end of this year, which means I will be switching to them and enjoying my HDTV before everyone else waiting for SBC.
It’s sad that we don’t have the infrastructe in place to deliver voice, data, and tv over wires. Yes some places do with Verizon’s FIOS, but not near enough to say it’s widley implemented.
I’ve been following this issue closely, there is a lot of red tape that consumers don’t know about. When one wants to sell TV service, they have to get a lisence from every city they want to do this in. Do you know how long that takes? Recently in Texas they approved a bill that let you apply for a state wide lisence so you don’t have to go thru every single town one by one to get a lisence.
Great news right?! Wrong! When cable companies had to apply city by city it clearly stated that every home in that city had to be serviced. Now with this state wide lisence, they don’t have this clause, they can implement it where they see fit, IE: Rich communities. Now granted rich people will have an HDTV not poor people, but it still is hurting those people who would love broadband above 3 Mbps.
I am in SBC territory, and I can’t live with 3 Mbps. When I left NY 4 months ago I had a 10 Mbit connection. I feel castrated here. Yet SBC is taking there sweet as time to bring Fiber To The Node here, while Verizon is already setting people up with Fiber To The Curb.
What was the point of this rant? We have great technology, fantastic technology, but the FCC needs a swift kick in the nuts.
LikeLike
Oh man, give Scoble enough rope, he will hang himself and a small army to boot, never fails. Always better the “next version”. You should have not even mentioned SBC. 😉 The SBC and MFST IPTV history is strained at best, thankfully SBC (like MFST) is wasting billions. And IPTV, like the Xbox, even if it succeeds, it will forever be in the hole. Also you do not measure success by conference buzz, well maybe you do, but the market doesn’t.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/nov2005/tc20051118_915599.htm
And many say Cisco’s new push for the home puts it in increased competition with Microsoft. Indeed, the software king has made almost no progress in having any of its software deployed in set-top boxes — in part because Scientific-Atlanta and Motorola have their own proprietary technologies.
Potential trouble looms for SBC’s Net-based TV
http://www.usatoday.com/money/media/2005-06-07-sbc-usat_x.htm
Moshe Lichtman, who is heading Microsoft’s IPTV effort, acknowledges that things aren’t coming together as fast as the company expected. The “eco-system” — industry parlance for the gear and software that must mesh flawlessly for IPTV to fly — is a concern, he says. “We are a little bit behind where we all thought the eco-system would be,” he says.
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Oh man, give Scoble enough rope, he will hang himself and a small army to boot, never fails. Always better the “next version”. You should have not even mentioned SBC. 😉 The SBC and MFST IPTV history is strained at best, thankfully SBC (like MFST) is wasting billions. And IPTV, like the Xbox, even if it succeeds, it will forever be in the hole. Also you do not measure success by conference buzz, well maybe you do, but the market doesn’t.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/nov2005/tc20051118_915599.htm
And many say Cisco’s new push for the home puts it in increased competition with Microsoft. Indeed, the software king has made almost no progress in having any of its software deployed in set-top boxes — in part because Scientific-Atlanta and Motorola have their own proprietary technologies.
Potential trouble looms for SBC’s Net-based TV
http://www.usatoday.com/money/media/2005-06-07-sbc-usat_x.htm
Moshe Lichtman, who is heading Microsoft’s IPTV effort, acknowledges that things aren’t coming together as fast as the company expected. The “eco-system” — industry parlance for the gear and software that must mesh flawlessly for IPTV to fly — is a concern, he says. “We are a little bit behind where we all thought the eco-system would be,” he says.
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Snark, snark, perhaps…but that’s just a casual read of the trades. SBC wants aggressive shipping schedules, guess who can’t meet those? 😉
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Snark, snark, perhaps…but that’s just a casual read of the trades. SBC wants aggressive shipping schedules, guess who can’t meet those? 😉
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Program on the emergence of civilization.
“14 species of large animals capable of domesitcation in the history of mankind.
13 from Europe, Asia and northern Africa.
None from the sub-Saharan African continent. ”
Favor.
And disfavor.
They point out Africans’ failed attempts to domesticate the elephant and zebra, the latter being an animal they illustrate that had utmost importance for it’s applicability in transformation from a hunting/gathering to agrarian-based civilization.
The roots of racism are not of this earth.
Austrailia, aboriginals:::No domesticable animals.
The North American continent had none. Now 99% of that population is gone.
AIDS in Africa.
Organizational Heirarchy/Levels of positioning.
Heirarchical order, from top to bottom:
1. MUCK – perhaps have experienced multiple universal contractions (have seen multiple big bangs), creator of the artificial intelligence humans ignorantly refer to as “god”
2. Perhaps some mid-level alien management
3. Evil/disfavored aliens – runs day-to-day operations here and perhaps elsewhere
Terrestrial management/positioning:
4. Chinese/egyptians – this may be separated into the eastern and western worlds
5. Romans –
6. Mafia – the real-world 20th century interface that constantly turns over generationally so as to reinforce the widely-held notion of mortality
7. Jews, corporation, women, politician – Evidence exisits to suggest mafia management over all these groups.
Movies foreshadowing catastrophy
1985 James Bond View to a Kill 1989 San Francisco Loma Prieta earthquake.
Our society gives clues to the system in place. We all have heard the saying “He has more money than god.” There is also an episode of the Simpsons where god meets Homer and says “I’m too old and rich for this.”
This is the system on earth because this is the system everywhere.
I don’t want to suggest the upper eschelons are evil and good is the fringe.
But they have made it abundantly clear that doing business with evil (disfavored) won’t help people. They say only good would have the ear, since evil is struggling for survival, and therefore only the favored could help.
The clues are there which companies are favored and which are disfavored, but they conceal it very hard because it is so crucial.
I offer an example of historical proportions:::
People point to Walmart and cry “anti-union”.
Unions enable disfavored people to live satisfactorly without addressing their disfavor. This way their family’s problems are never resolved. Without the union they would have to accept the heirarchy, their own inferiority.
Unions serve to empower.
Walmart is anti-union because they are good. They try to help people address and resolve their problems by creating an enviornment where there are fewer hurdles.
Media ridicule and lawsuits are creations to reinforce people’s belief that Walmart is evil in a subsegment of the indistry dominated by the middle and lower classes.
Low-cost disfavored Chinese labor is utilized by corporate america to maximize margins. They all do it. Only WalMart gets fingered because they are the ones who help, and those who seek to create confusion in the marketplace want to eliminate the vast middle class who have a real chance and instead stick with lower classes who may not work otherwise. So they dirty him up while allowing the others to appear clean.
The middle class is being deceived. They are being misled into the unfavored, and subsequently will have no assistance from their purchases with corporate america.
I believe the coining of the term “Uncle Sam” was a clue alluding to just this::Sam Walton and WalMart is one of few saviors of the peasant class.
Amercia is a country of castoffs, rejects. Italy sent its criminals. Malcontents.
Between the thrones, the klans and kindred, they “decided” who they didn’t want and acted, creating discontent and/or starvation.
The u.s. is full of disfavored rejects. It is the reason for the myriad of problems not found in European countries. As far as the Rockafellers and other industrialists of the 19th century go, I suspect these aren’t their real names. I suspect they were chosen to go and head this new empire.
Royalty is the right way to organize a society. Dictatorships and monarchies are a reflection of the antient’s hierarchical organization.
Positions go to those who have favor with the rulers, as opposed to being elected.
Elections bring a false sense of how the world is. Democracy misleads people.
Which is why the disfavored rejects were sent to the shores of America::To keep them on the wrong path.
Jesus Christ is a religious figure of evil. These seperatist churches formed so they could still capture the rest of the white people, keeping them worshipping the wrong god.
And now they do it to people of color, Latinos and Asians, after centuries of preying upon them.
Simpson’s foreshadowing::Helloween IV special, Flanders is Satan. “Last one you ever suspect.”
“You’ll see lots of nuns where you’re going:::hell!!!” St. Wigham, Helloween VI, missionary work, destroying cultures.
Over and over, the Simpsons was a source of education and enlightenment, a target of ridicule by the system which wishes to conceal its secrets.
Since Buddism doesn’t recongnize a god, the calls are never heard, and Chinese representation is instead selected by the thrones.
Budda was the Asian’s Jesus Christ::: bad for the people. “They came up at the same time for a reason.”
Jews maim the body formed in the image of “god”, and inflicted circumsision upon all other white people, as well as the evil that is Jesus Christ.
I think about how Jews (were used to) created homosexuality among Slavics, retribution for the Holocaust.
Then I think of the Catholic Church and its troubles.
What connection is here between Jews and the Catholic church???
If it is their sinister motives that’s behind the evil that is Jesus Christ are they being used at all?
Perhaps it is them who are pulling strings.
Their centuries of slavery in Egypt proves their disfavor.
The Jew leaders decided to prey on the up-and-coming Europeans to try to fix their problems with the ruling elite, a recurring aspect of their methodology.
I believe Islam is the one true religion, and those misled christians who attack “god”‘s most favored people will pay dearly one day.
LikeLike
Program on the emergence of civilization.
“14 species of large animals capable of domesitcation in the history of mankind.
13 from Europe, Asia and northern Africa.
None from the sub-Saharan African continent. ”
Favor.
And disfavor.
They point out Africans’ failed attempts to domesticate the elephant and zebra, the latter being an animal they illustrate that had utmost importance for it’s applicability in transformation from a hunting/gathering to agrarian-based civilization.
The roots of racism are not of this earth.
Austrailia, aboriginals:::No domesticable animals.
The North American continent had none. Now 99% of that population is gone.
AIDS in Africa.
Organizational Heirarchy/Levels of positioning.
Heirarchical order, from top to bottom:
1. MUCK – perhaps have experienced multiple universal contractions (have seen multiple big bangs), creator of the artificial intelligence humans ignorantly refer to as “god”
2. Perhaps some mid-level alien management
3. Evil/disfavored aliens – runs day-to-day operations here and perhaps elsewhere
Terrestrial management/positioning:
4. Chinese/egyptians – this may be separated into the eastern and western worlds
5. Romans –
6. Mafia – the real-world 20th century interface that constantly turns over generationally so as to reinforce the widely-held notion of mortality
7. Jews, corporation, women, politician – Evidence exisits to suggest mafia management over all these groups.
Movies foreshadowing catastrophy
1985 James Bond View to a Kill 1989 San Francisco Loma Prieta earthquake.
Our society gives clues to the system in place. We all have heard the saying “He has more money than god.” There is also an episode of the Simpsons where god meets Homer and says “I’m too old and rich for this.”
This is the system on earth because this is the system everywhere.
I don’t want to suggest the upper eschelons are evil and good is the fringe.
But they have made it abundantly clear that doing business with evil (disfavored) won’t help people. They say only good would have the ear, since evil is struggling for survival, and therefore only the favored could help.
The clues are there which companies are favored and which are disfavored, but they conceal it very hard because it is so crucial.
I offer an example of historical proportions:::
People point to Walmart and cry “anti-union”.
Unions enable disfavored people to live satisfactorly without addressing their disfavor. This way their family’s problems are never resolved. Without the union they would have to accept the heirarchy, their own inferiority.
Unions serve to empower.
Walmart is anti-union because they are good. They try to help people address and resolve their problems by creating an enviornment where there are fewer hurdles.
Media ridicule and lawsuits are creations to reinforce people’s belief that Walmart is evil in a subsegment of the indistry dominated by the middle and lower classes.
Low-cost disfavored Chinese labor is utilized by corporate america to maximize margins. They all do it. Only WalMart gets fingered because they are the ones who help, and those who seek to create confusion in the marketplace want to eliminate the vast middle class who have a real chance and instead stick with lower classes who may not work otherwise. So they dirty him up while allowing the others to appear clean.
The middle class is being deceived. They are being misled into the unfavored, and subsequently will have no assistance from their purchases with corporate america.
I believe the coining of the term “Uncle Sam” was a clue alluding to just this::Sam Walton and WalMart is one of few saviors of the peasant class.
Amercia is a country of castoffs, rejects. Italy sent its criminals. Malcontents.
Between the thrones, the klans and kindred, they “decided” who they didn’t want and acted, creating discontent and/or starvation.
The u.s. is full of disfavored rejects. It is the reason for the myriad of problems not found in European countries. As far as the Rockafellers and other industrialists of the 19th century go, I suspect these aren’t their real names. I suspect they were chosen to go and head this new empire.
Royalty is the right way to organize a society. Dictatorships and monarchies are a reflection of the antient’s hierarchical organization.
Positions go to those who have favor with the rulers, as opposed to being elected.
Elections bring a false sense of how the world is. Democracy misleads people.
Which is why the disfavored rejects were sent to the shores of America::To keep them on the wrong path.
Jesus Christ is a religious figure of evil. These seperatist churches formed so they could still capture the rest of the white people, keeping them worshipping the wrong god.
And now they do it to people of color, Latinos and Asians, after centuries of preying upon them.
Simpson’s foreshadowing::Helloween IV special, Flanders is Satan. “Last one you ever suspect.”
“You’ll see lots of nuns where you’re going:::hell!!!” St. Wigham, Helloween VI, missionary work, destroying cultures.
Over and over, the Simpsons was a source of education and enlightenment, a target of ridicule by the system which wishes to conceal its secrets.
Since Buddism doesn’t recongnize a god, the calls are never heard, and Chinese representation is instead selected by the thrones.
Budda was the Asian’s Jesus Christ::: bad for the people. “They came up at the same time for a reason.”
Jews maim the body formed in the image of “god”, and inflicted circumsision upon all other white people, as well as the evil that is Jesus Christ.
I think about how Jews (were used to) created homosexuality among Slavics, retribution for the Holocaust.
Then I think of the Catholic Church and its troubles.
What connection is here between Jews and the Catholic church???
If it is their sinister motives that’s behind the evil that is Jesus Christ are they being used at all?
Perhaps it is them who are pulling strings.
Their centuries of slavery in Egypt proves their disfavor.
The Jew leaders decided to prey on the up-and-coming Europeans to try to fix their problems with the ruling elite, a recurring aspect of their methodology.
I believe Islam is the one true religion, and those misled christians who attack “god”‘s most favored people will pay dearly one day.
LikeLike