CES 2008: Comcast Talks 100 Mbit/s 'Net Access for Consumers

[mikemorel]

For those of us looking for alternative hi-def experiences...(I have Comcast cable/internet hookup.)

Comcast introduces open-cable platform

LAS VEGAS--Few probably would have expected the chief executive of the world's largest cable company to stand on stage at the Consumer Electronics Show and announce that we no longer need cable boxes.

But that's exactly what Brian Roberts of Comcast did here during his keynote speech.

He's OK with it because he has something bigger planned. He used his speech--the first ever by a cable industry executive at CES--to announce the beginning of an "open" cable services platform called Tru2way, which enables cable service to be integrated directly into a variety of consumer electronics devices. Initial partners include Motorola, TiVo, Intel, Samsung Electronics, Microsoft, LG Electronics, Panasonic, Cisco Systems, and Sun Microsystems.

When a consumer buys a device with Tru2way, she can bring it home, plug it in, and get all interactive cable services available from a traditional set-top box.

"It's a totally different business model," Roberts said. "Virtually the entire cable industry will support Tru2way by the end of this year." By that time, supported devices will already be available, he said.

The platform is Java-based with open APIs, so that software developers can write applications once that will work across nearly every device and any cable system.

TiVo is demonstrating here at CES how its DVR, or digital video recording, service works as an application on a Comcast set-top box, and Microsoft is working to enable all cable services to be received directly to a Media Center PC without need for a cable set-top box, according to Roberts.

Next, Roberts introduced Toshihiro Sakamoto, president of Panasonic AVC Networks, who gave his own keynote here Monday, to discuss how Tru2way will be enabled on two Panasonic high-definition televisions. A 42-inch and a 52-inch TV branded with Tru2way will have cable services built right in, so no cable box is needed, and only one remote is required, Sakamoto said.

The pair also brought out the AnyPlay, part set-top box, part portable DVR branded by Panasonic and Comcast that Sakamoto showed off during his speech.

Comcast's chief promised to outdo satellite at the high-definition content game. "Comcast will put 1,000 HD choices in every Comcast HD home by the end of the year," Roberts said. "What satellite says they'll offer pales in comparison."

Part of that promise is based on a new system architecture Comcast will soon incorporate, called Project Infinity, which Roberts said will enable 6,000 movies to be delivered "instantaneously" on demand every month, half of them in high definition.

To introduce a new online-entertainment portal, Roberts brought TV and radio host Ryan Seacrest on stage. Called Fancast, the site enables users to find any piece of entertainment. It will allow streaming of certain shows and downloads of movies, and it will link to the iTunes Store, if it doesn't have it. Fancast will also show when a TV show is playing and make scheduled DVR recordings, it will find where a movie is playing and link to Fandango.com to buy tickets.

To enable faster downloads of HD content, Roberts announced that Comcast is testing out wideband, a faster option than broadband that would enable a 2-hour HD movie to download in 4 minutes. Wideband uses four or more standard analog channels at once to achieve speeds of up to 100 megabits per second. The technology will be rolled out to "millions" by the end of this year, with more to come, "if it's as popular as we expect," Roberts said.
...

No wonder MS doesn't give a crap about hi-def optical...

[chocobomog]

Originally Posted by mikemorel

For those of us looking for alternative hi-def experiences...(I have Comcast cable/internet hookup.)

Comcast introduces open-cable platform

I have Comcast as well and occasionally use the On Demand to watch HD movies. This feature replaces renting, not buying. While the movies are in HD they are technically only 720p and are no where near the quality found on Blu-ray movies. I will use it to watch a movie I have no intention of buying and I'm too lazy to go to Blockbuster to rent it or wait for it to be sent to me from Netflix.

Comcast On Demand is nice, but it won't replace Blu-ray.

[cooper1010]

i wonder how much more i'll have to pay to comcast for that?!

[mikemorel]

Originally Posted by winstonshu

"gay"? how old are you that you're resorting to these homophobic characterizations?

Just trying to figure out where this custom comes from. Did you invent it?

tell me more. how's the business model going to be applicable to you? i'll bet you're going to looooooooove renting all of your hi def movies from here on out, eh?

Well 100 mb/sec downloads seems like a great breakthrough in alternative hi-def distribution. People talk about 10 years before this becomes commonplace. Comcast is rolling it out to millions this year. Downloading a 2 hour hi-def movie in 4 minutes? I think that's big news.

are 10 threads a day on this same subject really necessary from weeping HD DVD fanboys?

Hardly weeping. Actually I'm quite excited.

edit: oh yeah, /facepalm.

Sweet.

[Darkfalz]

...Yeah, to be honest - I've hoped all along for digital distribution, and speeds of 100mbps could certainly make that more a reality to consumers... in any case, to be able to use my media center to replace my cable box would rock... this is big news. Thanks for the post, Mikemorel.

[winstonshu]

Originally Posted by mikemorel

Just trying to figure out where this custom comes from. Did you invent it?

i can't imagine no one else uses it, but i have no idea where i got it from.

Well 100 mb/sec downloads seems like a great breakthrough in alternative hi-def distribution. People talk about 10 years before this becomes commonplace. Comcast is rolling it out to millions this year. Downloading a 2 hour hi-def movie in 4 minutes? I think that's big news.

it's great. if you're interested in renting. i'm interested in renting some movies (especially ones that i haven't seen in the theater). however, i'm not particularly interested in paying each time to view those movies (and there are a lot of them) that i want to watch several times... like, say, batman, spiderman, the pixar stuff, ad nauseum.

or wait... are you saying you're not interested in ever owning the movies?

Hardly weeping. Actually I'm quite excited.

sure you are.

Sweet.

here's another one then... /facepalm.

[ack_bak]

Originally Posted by mikemorel

Well 100 mb/sec downloads seems like a great breakthrough in alternative hi-def distribution. People talk about 10 years before this becomes commonplace. Comcast is rolling it out to millions this year. Downloading a 2 hour hi-def movie in 4 minutes? I think that's big news.

As a previously dissatisfied Comcast customer, I will believe it when I see it. I lost my broadband for almost 2 weeks when I lived just outside of Washington, DC and was a Comcast customer. I called them every day. They kept telling me there was nothing wrong in my area, yet many other neighbors had the same issue. They finally fixed the problem two weeks later. No Internet for 2 weeks sucked big time. They also promised me a credit for those two weeks, and even after 3 phone calls and an email I never saw the full amount. Comcast customer service completely blows. I had them for years. I would like to see how the service works and how good the actual end result is. Is it MPEG2? MPEG4? How much compression? What kind of audio? How long can you keep the movies?

I guess we will find out within a year, but I would not expect too much from Comcast.

Hardly weeping. Actually I'm quite excited.

Would you have been this excited if HD DVD would have landed Warner?

[Deadmeat]

In 5 years, the US will eventually reach Japan/Korea like broadband speed. This is not if, but when.

Blu-Ray has 5 years of useful lifespan before everyone goes downloading.

[viciousnip]

It's about freakin time the US gets caught up in broadband.

Japan and Korea has had 100megabits for years now.

Doesn't stop them from buying physical media though.

w/ 100 mbits we might start seeing some nifty Blu Ray DVRs like they have in Japan though.

[ack_bak]

Originally Posted by Deadmeat

In 5 years, the US will eventually reach Japan/Korea like broadband speed. This is not if, but when.

Blu-Ray has 5 years of useful lifespan before everyone goes downloading.

So why do they sell Blu-Ray players and movies in Japan then?

[mitchl]

Originally Posted by Deadmeat

In 5 years, the US will eventually reach Japan/Korea like broadband speed. This is not if, but when.

Blu-Ray has 5 years of useful lifespan before everyone goes downloading.

In just 5 short years? Woo Hoo!!! You wanna bet that even in a suburb of a major city I won't have it? I still can't get DSL 6mbs even though it started becoming available 5 years ago, it isn't within 3 miles of me. -- I am stuck 2 tiers below that.

The majority of Americans don't live in places where the cable and phone companies are doing jack crap about infrastructure. That we can even have cable modems relying on 15 year old or older cable lines is lucky.

[Blueguy]

Screw download speeds. Just give me all the available channels in HD.

Bleh, I don't care. I have Charter. Sucks to be me.

Originally Posted by ack_bak

So why do they sell Blu-Ray players and movies in Japan then?

Not to mention, that's "The average speed of broadband." I wonder how big of a hit that number would take if they factored in all the homes that don't even have access to broadband. Speed isn't the real problem. Access is.

[winstonshu]

Originally Posted by Blueguy

Screw download speeds. Just give me all the available channels in HD.

Bleh, I don't care. I have Charter. Sucks to be me.


Not to mention, that's "The average speed of broadband." I wonder how big of a hit that number would take if they factored in all the homes that don't even have access to broadband. Speed isn't the real problem. Access is.

nope. speed, access, AND price are the real problems.

[mikemorel]

Here is Amir's take on it at AVS...

I don't know about the Panasonic device getting anywhere. But Comcast is certainly talk of the town. I missed Roberts' keynote but apparently he demo'ed the 100 mbit/sec broadband access which uses channel bonding (combining) to get such high rate. Claim to want to roll it out aggressively by next year. I guess Verizon has them concerned with FIOS. Competition it seems, is GOOD!

With 100 mbit/sec, achieved rates would be around 80 mbit/sec, about 2-3X of what we get with optical discs. If it comes as soon as 1 to 2 years, and all it takes is a new cable modem, we have an interesting discontinuity in the advancement of ulta-high-speed broadband.

Of course, they could attempt to keep the bandwidth for their own services and not let you have it in which case, it won't be so good. But let's get the infrastructure in place and argue later .

Here is more to read: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2704,2246933,00.asp

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showp...postcount=3837

[chocobomog]

First Comcast has to worry about it $1.77 trillion dollar fine from the FCC.
http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/01/08/comcast-could-receive-hefty-fcc-fine-for-throttling-bit-torrent/

What good is having these speeds if Comcast throttles them?

As it has been said before, promoting a download service is pointless and does not belong in an HD smackdown:

A. Comcast is not available everywhere, nor is it used by everyone where it is available
B. The technology is still year(s) away, and then it will only be used by early adopters. Mass adoption is many years away
C. On Demand movies compete with rentals, not purchase-to-own. In a materialistic society, people want to own products, not pay for them each time they watch them
D. Movies are lower quality On Demand than on disc, even with more bandwidth, Comcast would rather split the bandwidth to serve more paying customers than use the bandwidth provide super-hit bitrate HD downloads to fewer people.