@Home to limit video downloads
news.com
@Home to limit video downloads
By Corey Grice
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
November 30, 1998, 11:50 a.m. PT
@Home Network will limit the length of broadcast quality video downloads over its high-speed cable network, the company revealed in its latest regulatory filing.
A quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission shows that the company has limits on "streaming video services that include video segments longer than ten minutes in duration."
@Home executives said the limits apply only to broadcast-quality video segments that carry images at a speed of 30 frames-per-second--a technology that few, if any, Internet companies are currently delivering. Most streaming video over the Net occurs at 15 frames-per-second.
Cable systems are divided into several 6 mHz channels. For example, a system with 750 mHz of power has the capacity to deliver up to 125 channels.
@Home's high-speed network occupies the same space on its cable operator partners' systems as a standard television program, one 6 mHz channel. So there is currently no way for @Home to deliver TV-quality video--plus data services and Internet access--in that same space.
"There's no technically feasible way to do it on any network," said @Home spokesman Matt Wolfrom. "If every user wanted to suck in TV quality video it would bring down any network."
The 10-minute time limit serves as a reminder that, despite the industry's efforts, broadcast-quality video-on-demand, full half-hour newscasts, or downloadable movies are still far from being a reality.
@Home believes the ability of "multiple users to access video-on-demand at TV quality over a single channel is nowhere near reality in the next five years."
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