Monthly Archives: July 2012

Last week, we examined some of the notable consumer trends coming out of my makeshift over-the-top (OTT) video lab. This week, and as promised, a bit more – starting with the remote control clutter multiplier.

The window ledge in the lab is already piled with more than a dozen hard, plastic remotes. We’re all wearily familiar with the desire for fewer remotes, but with over-the-top, there’s a multiplier: Software-based remotes.

Nearly every gadget in the lab comes with a software version of its guide. Which means alongside the “hard clutter” of the remotes on the ledge is a lot of “soft clutter” of remotes on the iPad, Droid and iphone screens.

Broadband usage in the lab: We all saw the kerfuffle, in May, right before the Cable Show, about Netflix not liking Comcast’s foray into the Xbox. That’s the one where Xbox users can view subscription video via the Xfinity app, and the bits consumed don’t count against their broadband bit cap, which was upped to 300 Gigabytes per month.

Here at the lab, it’s a little hard to fathom using 300 Gigs. (I realize I will eat my hat for this someday.) Comcast’s online account tools show that we used 10 GB in April, 16 GB in May, and 9 GB in June. Granted, the lab only goes over the top on OTT video activities one day a week, when my trusty assistant, Sara, comes in to put the 15+ boxes through their paces.

So last week, we turned everything on, and kept it on. At press time, the meter had jumped from 10 GB to 22 GB – 8 percent of the cap — even though the Roku timed out sometime over the weekend. Extrapolating that out, we’d spend maybe 60 GB a month, if everything streamed constantly.

Lastly: Finding signal for everything is “non-trivial,” as my engineering friends would say. Granted, most people don’t fiddle around with a dozen gadgets, all for the purpose of consuming television. But as this column has noted before, the more IP-connectable stuff you get, the more you’ll start thinking about signal.

In the case of the lab, this meant not just installing a second cable modem (IPv6!), but also an HDMI switch, to move around between the different devices. It’s not extraordinarily difficult, but it does involve a lot of futzing….someone hand me the remote?

This column originally appeared in the Platforms section of Multichannel News.

This week marks one year of sampling a large variety of over-the-top video hardware and software in a makeshift office lab. Why: To understand why people cut the cable cord, or hang out on the “connected” side of today’s Internet-connected TVs.

Seems a good time to share some findings.

1. What I use the most, of the over-the-top services: Amazon Prime. Why: Amazon was first to offer Downton Abbey Season 2, which I could watch on a Vizio screen at home, while “getting steps” on the treadmill. (I am OCD about 10,000 steps per day, thanks to the Fitbit, to which I am wonderfully addicted.)
After that, and still on Amazon Prime: Tanked. Tanked is a family viewing activity, marathon-style – but, alas, the main TV in the house isn’t Internet-connected. So I brought home a Sony streamer, which was dissed at the lab for its clunky on-screen remote (it’s as clunky on the Sony PS3.) But, it has Amazon Prime. The Tanked binging continued in the living room.

2. Observation: Be careful what you wish for, in terms of user experience. OTT apps like Netfix and Amazon, as well as cable video apps like xFinity, can use or not use various native features within each streaming device. Which means that the same app behaves differently, one screen to the next. (Maybe we’ll all just get used to this?)

When marathon-viewing Nurse Jackie on the Vizio screen, for instance, the Amazon app keeps track of episodes I’ve seen with a simple check mark. No such feature on the Sony streamer upstairs. Same app, same show, but you need to remember which episode you watched last.

The flip side of that, which comes with DLNA, is that any software-based video app can leverage native device features that are cool or handy.

Example: At the Cable Show in June, on a back wall of the CableNET area, Cox showed how its Trio guide had taken advantage of a native feature inside a Sony connected TV, such that in-show navigation happens on a scroll bar, frame by frame. It looked great.

3. What I use the most at work: Comcast’s “AnyPlay,” fed by Motorola’s “Televation” box. Live streaming cable TV on the iPad. Love it. Make it do trick-play, I’d love it even more.

That’s a short walk through a year’s worth of OTT-ing in the lab. Next time: What all that streaming did to the broadband meter; the puzzle of getting signal to everything; the multiplier on remote control clutter.
This column originally appeared in the Platforms section of Multichannel News.

A lot of new devices hit the radar this summer, many of them from Google following its 2012 I/O conference late last month.

But Goliaths like Google aren’t the only action. On the smaller side, we’ve ordered another device from a startup company – Simple.TV. So while we wait (impatiently) for the toys we’ve pre-ordered, here’s a rundown of the gadgets that will soon be arriving in the lab, and those that we’ll likely leave on the shelf a little while longer.

Simple.TV is an 1080p HD tuner and video server that records over-the-air TV to your own USB hard drive, while supporying standard DVR trick-play functions, like pause/rewind on live TV. But Simple.TV also streams shows to other devices (currently Roku boxes and iOS phones and tablets; more to come soon, the company’s website promises.)

Simple.TV offers a premier service for $4.99 per month, which adds automatic recordings, an EPG and program metadata, and unlimited remote streaming for up to 5 users.

And in case (like me) you’re wondering how your slow Internet connection can handle 5 different video streams, the Simple.TV hardware also supports adaptive streaming – meaning that the video quality can be scaled back if the bandwidth is too low.

Adaptive streaming is both blessing and curse, though. It’s tech-talk for what we used to call “down-rezing.” As in, “don’t down-rez my stuff, man.” For that reason, part of the testing will definitely involve video quality assessments on multiple screen sizes.

Unlike any of the other devices in our lab, Simple.TV comes from a small start-up company (we pre-ordered the device on the crowd funding website Kickstarter). With that in mind, it will be really interesting to give this device a spin and see how it stacks up against the others.

(image source: DigitalTrends.com)

Sony NSZ GS7 ($200 list price, available July 22)
I had a chance to check out this 2nd-generation Google TV device at CES, and we’re looking forward to putting it through the paces in the lab. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that too much changed, content-wise, since the first iteration of Google TV.

Meaning there’s still no Hulu Plus app, and Google TV’s browser is still blocked from playing video on virtually all service provider websites. But there are some pretty significant improvements to the hardware, in the form of a new ARM-powered processor and 3-axis motion-sensitive remote control.

We’ll keep you posted.

(image source: Engadget)

Vizio Co-Star ($100 list price, release date TBA) is another 2nd-generation Google TV device, with the same dual-core Marvell Armada 1500 processor as the Sony NSZ G27. But this device comes preloaded with the OnLive streaming game service (there are conflicting reports about when and if Sony devices will support OnLive)

(image source: VentureBeat)

Google Nexus Q is one of the more unique devices we’ve heard about lately – described as the “world’s first social streaming media player,” the Nexus Q is a mysterious spherical gadget that clocks in at very the high price of $299. Unfortunately, the price tag seems especially steep in this case because the Nexus Q has less functionality than a Google TV device.

(image source: Wired.com)

For starters, the Nexus Q only streams media from Google Play. You heard right, no access to Netflix or other services, and you can’t even play video files or music from a network hard drive or USB stick.

Why so expensive, then? The Nexus Q is supposedly designed with audiophiles in mind, with an internal 25-watt amplifier powering 4 stereo outputs (unfortunately, at this point the Nexus Q can only play compressed streaming content, the idea of which makes most audiophiles I know cringe). The Nexus Q also has a ring of LED lights around the center of the device, so you can impress your buddies with a light show that works in time with the music.

But first you’ll need to upload your music library to Google Music before you can play it on the Nexus Q (not an easy feat, if your music collection looks anything like mine). The Nexus Q is intended to be a social device – so theoretically you could have a bunch of people over, and using your own Android phones and tablets you can all collaborate on playlists (using the home library) and share your favorite YouTube videos on the TV. But theory doesn’t always work out in practice, and according to initial reviews the party was sort of a bust.

For starters, the Nexus Q doesn’t ship with a remote control and it doesn’t have hardware buttons – you need an Android phone or tablet to access most controls. And what’s more, according to Engadget’s review the Nexus Q app currently works only with devices running the just-released Android 4.1 Jellybean. Unfortunately, right now only 1 in 10 Android devices even have Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (Holy Fragmentation!). Google had better get on its promise to support “any Android phone or tablet running Gingerbread or higher” if it wants a successful release of the Nexus Q.

On the bright side, it appears that the Nexus Q might just be worth the exorbitant price when hacked. But as it is now, the Nexus Q won’t be joining us in the lab anytime soon. After all, we’re still running Android 3.2 (Gingerbread) here!

Maybe this is happening to you, too. A conversation begins. It’s about over-the-top video, or usage-based broadband, or any of the tangents that go with the new world of video on TVs and screens not necessarily connected to a set-top box.

Then you hear it: “Title 6 video.” Here’s an example, from several batches of notes. “Look. To be a multichannel video provider (MVPD), you have to comply with the Title 6 rules.” Here’s another: “Anyone with a video server at the edge of the network wants to think they’re an MVPD. But they’re not Title 6.”

And because “Title 6” is a term that’s been around for so long (nigh on 30 years), the natural reaction is to nod solemnly: Ah yes. Title 6.

Which raises the question: What is Title 6 video?

Short version: It’s an outgrowth of the FCC’s Communications Act, and is the chapter that includes the Cable Act, etched in 1984. Title 1 is general info; Title 2 regulates common carriers; Title 3 applies to broadcasters, and so on up to Title 6, cable.

It mandates all the things one needs to do, in order to be a cable operator. Or, in regulatory lingo, an MVPD.

Here’s a sampling of what’s in the Title 6 rules: Franchising. Closed captioning. Must carry. Ownership. Emergency alerts. Blackouts. PEG channels. Program Access. Navigation devices.

There’s more, but it turns out that Title 6 is more dated than practical, these days, given the volume and pace of technological change over the last 28 years. Why: Those rules were made at a time when signal paths were in silos, and few of them. Phone service came from the phone company over twisted pair. Cable TV came from cable operators, over their plant.

These days, everything’s an app, with plenty of pathways into the home.

Should any guy with a video server at the edge of the network be considered an MVPD, without complying with Title 6 commitments? The kneejerk answer is no. But maybe a better question is this: Rather than try to shoehorn old rules into a new scene, why not ask what’s to be expected from video providers?

There are those who would say that the over-the-top video community views such regulations as a toolkit, from which to help themselves to the assets of others. Take the good or doable parts – think program access and compulsory copyright. Leave the rest, like retransmission consent and the complexity of the Title 6 obligations.

That’s a very short look at a very complicated cog in the tech regulatory machinery. More to come.

This column originally appeared in the Platforms section of Multichannel News.

by Leslie Ellis // July 09 2012

More than a decade ago, an MSO exec halted a staff meeting to make this exasperated observation: “Tools, tools, tools – can we just have one meeting where I’m not being asked for more tools? How many tools do we really need?”

At the time, Comcast was AT&T Broadband, and the tool in question related to the monitoring of an “open access” (remember that?) trial.

But the question – how many tools do we really need? – is decidedly evergreen.

The latest case in point is the home network, itself an extension of the HFC plant, with gadgets and screens that live better with signal. And they’re all cross-linked.

Today’s home networks make mixed use of MoCA (Multimedia Over Coax Alliance), Ethernet, and Wi-Fi to move stuff around. On top of that, there’s DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance),  poised to let us share component resources – tuners, hard drives – amongst screens. And that’s just the IP (Internet Protocol) side of the equation.

Here’s how one engine-room guy put it, over a fish taco last week: “So in the home you have a QAM set-top that’s pulling video into the home network. And an advanced wireless gateway, handling data and voice. And lets throw in an IP set-top.

“The IP set-top gets video from the QAM box, but it gets its user interface through the data side.

“A customer calls: Something’s wrong with my set-top. We say, is it a video problem, or a data problem?” (At which point he made the “d’oh!” face.)

Which brings us back to tools. And silos of people — video people, data people, voice people.

One answer getting a lot of play in tech circles is TR-069, where the “TR” stands for “Technical Report.” It’s an outgrowth of what’s now called the Broadband Forum (formerly the DSL Forum; DSL is a telco thing, which might explain why cable’s coming around to it only now.)

TR-69 is sort of like an IP-based SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol), in that it provides ways to move data back and forth, for purposes of troubleshooting, say, a home network. Or, as the Broadband Forum itself puts it: “The TR-069 standard was developed for automatic configuration of modems, routers, gateways, set-top boxes and VoIP phones.”

Great, right? Yes, if you’re ok with devils and details. While TR-69 can fetch data from different networked devices –assuming they’re plumbed with the right client profile – it lacks the job-specific tools to make diagnostic sense of that data.

What tools are needed? One for bridging into workforce management. One for customer care reps. Engineering tools, to see what’s going on. And some kind of blended video/data tool, because how things work for QAM-based video are vastly different than how they work on IP-based video.

So. How many tools? I’d go with “lots.” (And good luck with that.)

This column originally appeared in the Platforms section of Multichannel News.