Sorry if this post is a little off-topic here, but I am rather new to forums at large, and I don't know where to post it otherwise (any suggestions?). So, since we talk about streams at large here, I am posting it here.
I have been watching the Italian TV broadcasting scene for a while, bat I never got fully into it as a consumer. The scene has been changing a lot, recently with the introduction on "Free Air" satellite decoders and with the apploval of the "Gasparri" law. My considerations apply to Italy, but most of them should apply world-wide as well.
To date, there are several ways a video stream can enter your house in Italy. There are so many types of video streams (maybe even Mr. Gasparri knows them all).
1) Cable [CBL]
In Italy there is no cable TV.
The only way to receive video over a cable is via IP. Fastweb is the only operator that offers this service, in two flavors:
1.1) Fast ADSL (2 and 4 Mbit/s), that requires a very high quality copper wire and short connection to the telephone exchange (actually to the SL "stadio di lines")
1.2) Fiber Optics, available only in few areas
Fastweb uses rather new technologies, and presents serious security threats to users that connect their PC directly to their WAN. An hardware firewall is strongly recommended for Fastweb users.
Signal Type: IP packet stream
Support (home): Ethernet cabled LAN (is WiFi fast enough to handle video streaming?)
Quality: average
2) Satellite [SAT]
2.1) Free Air. A "Free Air" decoder is now priced at around Euro 100
2.2) Subscription. Sky is the only subscription operator available for italian users. Its prices start from 20 Euro/month for theis basic offer ("Primo Sky") plus 7 Euro/month for decoder rental. A decoder with CAM module ("smart card") is required
Signal Type: modulated digital signal in the 10 GHz range
Support (home): coaxial cable
Quality: good
3) Digital Terrestrial TV [DTT] [DVB]
Three types of decoders are available:
- Type 1, non-interactive, priced around Euro 150
- Type 2, interactive, priced at about Euro 200, requires a return channel for interactivity (does it use only modem over POTS or can it use a permanent Internet connections like ADSL?)
- Tyoe 3, highly interactive, allow you to save on hard disk (PVR)
Signal Type: modulated digital signal in the 900 MHz range (not sure)
Support (home): 75 Ohm coaxial cable (not suer)
Quality: don't know (seen in TV news seems good, people I heard said it is poor)
4) Analog Terrestrial TV [ATT]
It's the Plain Old TV Service (POTS!)
Signal Type: modulated analog signal, in the 900 MHz range (not sure)
Support (home): 75 Ohm coaxial cable
Quality: poor
There are a variety of devices that handle a single type of video stream (an input/ouput matrix would be interesting.). The ultimate device would be able to handle them all.
Personally I will wait a while for technologies and standards to stabilize. Then I will be looking for:
A) A flat LCD TV (not very big, 30" maximum) with integrated Type 2 (interactive) DTT decoder. An Ethernet interface, with the ability to stream [CAB] a PC signal, as well as to interact with a PC, would be a plus.
B) An external Type 3 DTT decoder with a fast PC interface (USB 2.0 or FireWire) that allows me to record video streams on hard disk (PVR)
Negopus.
Author
Topic: Video streams in Italy (slightly OT) (Read 3748 times)