Virgin on-demand - streaming?

[admin_exported]

Hello. Does anyone know about how 'on demand' programming works on the Virgin platform? I mean, when you select a programme to watch 'on demand', do you then have to wait while the V+ box downloads the content? Or does it stream the content?

If it does stream, do you have to wait while it buffers some of the content? And how smoothly does it run - is there any jerkiness or are there any pauses for the stream to catch up with what is being shown?

Also, what about with BT's tv on-demand service? Does this stream content? Or does it have to download all or some of the programme before it can be viewed? And what about older 'on demand' platforms such as Home Choice?

If anyone could answer this for me then I would be very grateful.

 

[Anonymous]

You don't need to wait for the program to download, there is a short (about 5 second) delay after selecting the program you want to watch, and then it plays, I have been using the virgin (and previously telewest) on demand service since it started a couple of years back, and I have never encountered any jerkiness or pauses as it streams the content. from the users perspective it is just like watching normal TV with the added bonus that you can pause, rewind and fast forward.

It is the only true on demand TV service widely available (apart from kingston communications on demand services in parts of Hull), and it works very well. The cable networks are a high bandwidth IP based network. The cable box sends a request accross the network to the Virgin servers and the requested program is streamed to the box in a similar way to how video is streamed over the internet.

The big difference between cable and internet streaming is that, the interent is a chaotic mish mash of networks, using many different types of physical networking infrastructure and cabling which is not under the control of any single company, therefore, ISPs, content providers etc can not guarrantee quality of service form point ot point. This makes reliably streaming large volumes of time sensitive data (such as a TV program) difficult, even with very fast broadband connections since although your end connection to the net (to your ISP) may be fast, the quality of the connections between your ISP and the content provider can not be guaranteed at all, not to mention issues of bandwidth contention.

Cable on the other hand is a closed network deployed, controlled and operated by a single company who can therefore guarantee the quality of connection from your home to their servers. This makes the service much more stable, reliable and allows them to provide faster connections. So when cable broadband says it is 8Mb or 20Mb etc, those are the speeds that you are actually likely to get most of the time. ADSL broadband over phone lines which claims to be 8Mb is only likely to reach that figure occaisionally.

Although the cable network carries phone, TV and broadband, since the network is all controlled by 1 company, they are able to set their networking hardware to prioritise time sensitive data (the phone and TV) and then allocate the left over bandwidth to the broadband This is known as "quality of sevice scheduling" (QOS) and ensures that your TV and phoen operate exactly how you would expect. This is something that is not likely to appear in the forseeable future in Internet TV sevices.

 

[Andy Clough]

I have the Virgin V+ service and it works well, exactly as described above. Very occasionally get slight picture break-up during streaming, but it's only happened once or twice in 18 months, so not a major problem.

 

[John Duncan]

[quote user="Andy Clough"]
I have the Virgin V+ service and it works well, exactly as described above. Very occasionally get slight picture break-up during streaming, but it's only happened once or twice in 18 months, so not a major problem.
[/quote]

Andy, just out of interest, do you still have that V+ flyer to get it installed for 75 quid?

 

[Anonymous]

Thankyou very much rigadig and Andy. So, considering the inherent limitations of the internet, how well does BT Vision cope? And, how does it keep to standards acceptable, again considering the limitations of the internet? In fact, does it keep to acceptable standards? And how does BT's platform compare to Virgin?

 

[professorhat]

Thinking about this - I don't think BT Vision's efforts can possibly go over the internet can they? I'd be surprised (given that you basically can't guarantee any sort of standard if it's running over the internet). Given BT have control of your phone line, my guess would be this is independent of the internet, but am more than willing to be corrected by someone who knows better. As I say, I'm only guessing!

 

[Anonymous]

I'm pretty sure that BT's service works via the internet, but as BT do have control the phone lines, I guess they are in a position to be able to guarantee the quality of their service.

One other thing I was wondering about Virgin Media - what is the point in the V-box having a hard-drive for storing programmes when you can stream everything on demand, without any delay, anyway?

 

[northantsbloke34]

[quote user="BenjaminHart"]
I'm pretty sure that BT's service works via the internet, but as BT do have control the phone lines, I guess they are in a position to be able to guarantee the quality of their service.

One other thing I was wondering about Virgin Media - what is the point in the V-box having a hard-drive for storing programmes when you can stream everything on demand, without any delay, anyway?
[/quote]

Not everything is available on demand. So having a hardrive comes in very handy and you can also connect it to a dvd recorder to keep anything you want for good like a film etc

 

[Anonymous]

Some Virgin On-Deman[quote user="BenjaminHart"]
IThe other thing I was wondering about Virgin Media - what is the point in the V-box having a hard-drive for storing programmes when you can stream everything on demand, without any delay, anyway?

[/quote]

Some On-Demand programs are free, some you pay for.

 

[Anonymous]

I have V+ and as far as I'm aware the programme is not streamed directly. I believe the data is buffered on a reserved part of the hard disk in the dvr and played from there. So the initial delay is whilst the first part of the programme is loaded to the disk and then when it starts playing it continues to buffer the rest of the programme. I've always found it works well!

It's a pity you can't record on demand shows though!