Enciris Technologies has unveiled HD video compression technology aimed at solving problems with reducing bandwidth and storage requirements.
The LT-100 is a Windows Media Video/ VC-1 HD video acquisition and compression board.

Filed under: Industry, Cable, Internet

It's already delayed its controversial broadband capping plan in a number of markets, and it looks like Time Warner Cable has now gone one big step further in Rochester, New York (one of the initial test markets), where it has reportedly scrapped the new tiered pricing plan altogether. As you no doubt recall, the plan was more or less modeled on cellphone pricing plans, and had intended to cap customers' data usage at a certain level and charge upwards of $1 per GB for any overages (eventually maxing out at $150 per month). That, naturally, didn't go over so well with folks, and even New York Senator Charles Schumer eventually got in on the act and complained directly to Time Warner Cable. Of course, this still doesn't officially mark the end of the pricing plan in other markets, but it certainly seems to be getting increasingly difficult for Time Warner Cable to move ahead with it.

[Thanks, Phil]

Time Warner Cable scraps broadband capping plan in Rochester, NY originally appeared on Engadget HD on Thu, 16 Apr 2009 15:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Misc, Internet

Public rage stalls Time Warner trials of consumption-based internet originally appeared on Engadget HD on Thu, 16 Apr 2009 11:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Meru Networks has introduced what it says is the first wireless LAN solution optimised for delivering high-quality video over the new generation of IEEE 802.11n networks.
The company's Video Services Module (ViSM) is designed to address video-delivery issues specific to 802.11n networks - which are susceptible to unpredictable loss rates that can negatively impact video quality.

Filed under: Industry

In a move seemingly designed to further our frustrations with broadband providers, Time Warner Cable has soft-announced an "unlimited" package once its new data caps go into place... for an affordable $150 monthly charge. Responding to criticism over the company's plans to start capping usage and charging for overages, Landel Hobbs clarified the provider's stance, letting users know that the capping would be limited to a $75 ceiling, thus (when paired with its top tier plan) would provide "virtually unlimited" usage. Virtually unlimited. Here's a rundown of what the COO proposes:

• A limited package for "light users" at 1GB / monthly, 768KB down / 128KB up, with overage charges of $2 / GB / month.
• Road Runner Lite, Basic, Standard, and Turbo packages at 10GB / 20GB / 40GB / and 60GB caps, respectively, and overage charges at $1 / GB / month.
• A big daddy, 100GB Turbo package at $75 / month with overage fees of $1 / GB, which, when coupled with that magic threshold of $75 in charges, becomes the "unlimited" plan.

We only have two questions, guys. First, how will you let end users know they're hitting caps? Right now there's no centralized solution for monitoring bandwidth. Even cell phones show minutes used, so will you give us the infrastructure for broadband monitoring? Secondly -- instead of giving users a "virtually" unlimited package, why not just sell an unlimited package at $150 a month? The impression we get is that you want to leave the door open for aggressive users, and that your capping of capping charges might be a moving target in the right situation.

[Via eWeek]

Time Warner Cable lays out broadband capping plans, says $150 for "unlimited" use originally appeared on Engadget HD on Fri, 10 Apr 2009 10:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Industry, Cable, Internet

No, folks -- this is no prank. Time Warner Cable really is throwing caution (and public opinion) to the wind and moving forward with its evil consumption-based internet billing. If you'll recall, we heard that the operator was trialing the method -- which imposes premium rates on big broadband users -- back in early 2008, but now it seems it's quietly hoping to roll it out into more major markets. Starting this month, TWC will start gathering information on its customers' internet use in Austin, TX, San Antonio, TX, Rochester, NY and Greensboro, NC; if all goes "well," consumption billing will hit those markets this summer or sooner. We'll point you to the read link if you're interested in just how outrageous these capped plans look (particularly for internet TV viewers), but we'd be remiss of our duties if we didn't share this gem of a quote from TWC CEO CEO Glenn Britt: "We made a mistake early on by not defining our business based on the consumption dimension." Thanks for clarifying, Glenn-o.

[Thanks Kevin, image courtesy of Corbis]

TWC moves consumption-based internet billing to more markets originally appeared on Engadget HD on Wed, 01 Apr 2009 14:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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More than 10 per cent of TVs sold worldwide could have 3D capability by 2011, rising to 16 per cent or 2.8bn sets by 2015.
That's the prediction of research by Screen Digest, which suggests that technological advances mean today's 3D cinema viewing experience will soon be possible at home.

Filed under: Internet

After a small but vocal amount of Netflix users got the world thinking that it was pulling a Comcast and putting caps on computer-based Watch Instantly users, the outfit's Chief Product Officer Neil Hunt has come forward to clear the air. He makes clear that Netflix's aspiration is to "deliver to everyone the best bitrate that their broadband connection can support," also noting that congestion "could affect some users, but not others, at some times, but not always." He also notes that different titles and encodes for different playback device types "may come from different CDNs or different servers at a particular CDN, so they may have different paths and different bottlenecks." We'd encourage you to hit the read link for the full explanation, but we're already seeing enraged Roku users bark back by his dodging of the so-called out-of-sync audio issue that's evidently still present. We'll go ahead and warn you, Netflix -- you can't please 'em all.

Netflix lays out official response to bandwidth capping allegations originally appeared on Engadget HD on Mon, 23 Mar 2009 15:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Industry, Internet

Depending on your choice of computing platform, possession of dedicated streaming hardware, and love of otherwise forgettable '80s films, Netflix's Watch Instantly service is either a godsend or a gimmick. Regardless, nobody likes arbitrary bandwidth caps, and that's what Riyad Kalla at The "Break it Down" Blog claims to have spotted, finding that Watch streams on his Xbox take multiple minutes to buffer, but that those on his PC (using the same connection) can take hours -- if they work at all. Doing a little snooping he found he was being capped to about 50kbps per download thread on his PC, but if he spawned ten such threads he was able to get over 700kbps. Something, it seems, is issuing a per-thread cap, but is it really Netflix? Or, rather, is it his Qwest DSL line doing a ham-fisted job of managing bandwidth? We've seen similar issues intermittently, but nothing consistent, so we're not quite ready to call this an internet-wide conspiracy just yet, but would love to hear about your streaming experiences lately.

[Via Slashdot]

Is Netflix putting caps on computer-based Watch Instantly users? originally appeared on Engadget HD on Mon, 16 Mar 2009 07:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Texas Instruments has launched a new video processor specifically aimed at removing video designers' concerns about video format support, network bandwidth or system storage capacity limitations.
Called the TMS320DM365 DaVinci, the processor includes production-qualified H.264, MPEG-4, MPEG-2, MJPEG and VC1 codecs.

Movial has announced a new software application that offers PC-to-PC, and PC-to-Mobile HD video.
Victor Donselaar, president of Movial, said the Communicator PC 7.2 HD video calling technology significantly reduces the CPU and bandwidth utilization compared to other technologies.
He said this enables users to run multiple applications at the same time.

While more operators are beginning to offer HD video-on-demand services, live streaming video continues to pose infrastructure and bandwidth problems.
HDTV.biz-news.com spoke to Alex Mashinsky, CEO of DigiMeld, about the challenges of streaming video - and developments that could open-up the service to millions of viewers.

Test transmissions in the UK have successfully received high def pictures compliant to the DVB-T2 standard using a real-time demodulator.
The BBC, which performed the tests, says this is the first time anywhere in the world that a live end-to-end DVB-T2 chain has been demonstrated.

Filed under: Industry, Cable

You hear so much tough-talk and blustery grand-standing these days over data capping that it's hard to take any of it too seriously. A recent announcement by Comcast, however, is sending chills down the collective spine of Engadget (and seriously threatening to put a crunch on Thomas Ricker's... er, "movie" downloads). The company recently confirmed that it will begin capping its residential broadband service at 250GB per month (or roughly 124 SD movies) come October 1st, and could simply terminate customers who violate the cap more than twice. Of course, 250GB is a pretty large chunk of bandwidth, so you'll have to be entertaining some pretty hefty habits to break that bank. Then again, who likes the Man breathing down their pipeline?

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Filed under: Industry, OTA, Satellite

Oh noes! Merely months after Freeview execs were celebrating the surprising uptick in Freeview HD users, in flies word that bandwidth is already becoming an issue. You see, Freeview was initially launched as a "satellite only service using MPEG-2 video compression software," while the HD terrestrial component uses MPEG-4. Transponder space on the Optus D1 satellite is "rapidly being used up, and any further expansion of data bandwidth would require Freeview broadcasters to purchase more space from Optus." If the old MPEG-2 system was suddenly canned and replaced with MPEG-4, every last satellite Freeview user would be forced to buy a new set-top-box. We shouldn't have to explain the glaringly obvious problem with that scenario. Thus, the only stop-gap solution is to simulcast the signals, which obviously requires oodles of bandwidth. Unfortunately, broadcasters are gun-shy about dropping even more cash to expand the available space without assurance of a good return on their original investment, so as of now, expansion plans wait while bigwigs figure out where to get more funding.

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Cable, satellite and IPTV providers will be able to pack more HD video onto limited bandwidth using technology developed by NextIO and Broadcast International.
The companies have teamed up to combine NextIO’s ExpressConnect solution and BI’s ultra-high speed video compression technology.
By combining the technologies it will be possible for video providers to deliver live HDTV at compression levels four to six times higher than is currently possible.