Quote:
Originally Posted by KRosh
The challenge is how to get high-definition TV signals into a computer, without hooking it directly to a cable line.
HDTV is a HUGE bandwidth hog. Transmitting HDTV signals in real time, using usual MPEG-2 compression standard, means sending data at 18 to 20 megabits per second. The typical user connection, delivers data at only 1.5 to 3 Mbps, of course there are faster out there but we are talking typical.
Even with new compression format, MPEG-4, it's not just a compression issue, it's an issue of transporting the signal over the Internet. In order to get around this issue some companies have adopted proprietary players (an example is VUDU) that use buffering and error correction to compensate for the lower speeds.
I think this is what A1r3k is referring to when he says most people do not know what it takes to view your content in HD
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It's more of an issue than just bandwidth speed. As I found out when I went to encrypted h264 .mp4's on claudia-marie.com s members area. Streaming on the web puts the load of processing on the USER.
I can stream as many full length vids as I want on her members area at the same time, doesn't even make the cpu of the server budge.
BUT, if you encode them at a high bit rate...then the USER can not watch them without it constantly stopping and starting and "stuttering" etc.
I originally encoded at a variable bit rate of 2-6 megs per second. The vids looked awesome. Not even a tiny bit of pixielation even when there was a lot of fast movement and big titties flying around.
And I had no problem watching them on my computer. But, what I didn't take into account is the fact that most surfers out there have their computers loaded down with resource hogging programs that are always running in the background.
90% of my user base were writing me and bitching that they couldn't get the vids to play correctly. So I had to re-encode everything down to 1200 kilobits per second. Had to do some tweaking to get it to look good. But now I'm happy and so are my customers.
Bottom line is...as of now, there is NO way to stream "real" hd. And it's not the bandwidth speed that is the issue. It's the cpu on the users end being overwhelmed. The higher the bit rate, the more cpu is used on the user end.
Having said that...tube sites are't using encrypted streaming or h264 .mp4's anyway. They are simply setting up light http on their server and streaming .flv's. So they aren't gonna be doing anything special anytime soon until they spend some money. And I don't see that happening either.