I wrote:
> Here in KC, TimeWarner Cable now has Movies On-Demand, about 50 or > 60 different movies available whenever you want to watch them. In > addition, they have Comedy Central On-Demand (8 30-minute episodes > of various shows and several 2-3 minute long clips from South Park, > etc.), Showtime On-Demand, Cinemax On-Demand, HBO On-Demand, Food > Network On-Demand, Cartoon Network On-Demand, and many others, in > addition to 150 or more regular channels and 20 or 30 music channels. > And they offer cable modem access through AOL Highspeed, RoadRunner, > and I believe one other service. How does this fit in with the > scenario above?
Erik replied:
They have coax at least coming from the pole into the house.I'm not sure what you are asking. But unless they have fiber to the home, the maximum bandwidth of the coaxial cable must be about 1000MHz (at best). Each program typically requires around 6MHz, although from your description it must be a digital system so they could compress that somewhat. What exactly does "on-demand" mean? When you select a program does it start instantaneously or is there a delay? How much do they charge for this service?
But you are correct, it is digital (I had forgotten). Actually, over the same coax cable, they have both analog (about 70 channels) and digital cable. We use a splitter on our cable out of the wall and run one side through the digital box and into one VCR, and the other side into another VCR so we can record two channels at once as long as at least one is from the analog side. And from another cable downstairs, we have our internet access. I was told I could use another splitter and have both VCRs and the cable modem attached to the same cable, and they offered to sell me an in-line amplifier to make certain I would have enough signal :-)
As for On-Demand services, there is usually a 20 or 30 second delay at most. The movies typically run anywhere from $1.95 to $3.95. The premium channels-on-demand like Showtime On-Demand are a monthly subscription of $6 or $7 (the $6.95 that Julia mentioned sounds right). That includes access to a few movies, ten episodes each of two or three original series, at least for Showtime, and a few specials. On-Demand services for channels like Food Channel and Comedy Central are free, and offer about the same amount of stuff.
I believe they use compression, but I'm not sure how much. I only very occasionally notice any digital artifacts.
Is it possible that they have separate neighborhood nodes for the digital cable and cable modem services, allowing them to provide more bandwidth for each individual user? Is this what you mean by "headends?"
Thanks in advance for your insight into this, I appreciate it.
Reggie Bautista
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