• Compression CODECs facilitate video streaming services.
• 9.8 million Internet video subscribers targeted for 2007.
• Adult video content helps grow IP delivery systems.
• Personal media players begin to playback video downloads.
An emerging home entertainment revolution is coming offering personalized video entertainment from new services that deliver live streaming programming, video-on-demand (VOD) or near VOD content over high-speed Internet connections.
The advent of video-over-Internet Protocol systems is being facilitated both by rapid adoption rates of high-speed Internet access services and new video compression CODECs that make possible the efficient streaming and downloading of data-intensive video within the relatively narrow constraints of Internet pipelines.
Just as it has done with the delivery of text-based content and MP3 music, the Internet is carrying a wide variety of video programming sources that can be accessed and personalized conveniently for the user.
The future continues to grow brighter for this delivery method. Vast libraries of titles can be offered on regionally located servers one day to enable a viewer to see virtually any video title at any time for a purchase fee or through a monthly subscription model.
Although Internet video services today offer mostly below DVD-quality images and sound, new compression technologies are on the way to enable the viewing of even high-definition TV programming over the Internet eventually.
New multi-channel Internet video services have sprung up offering virtual video-on-demand convenience via media center PCs or new broadband Internet connected TV set-top boxes. Meanwhile, new classes of video service providers, including traditional telephone companies, are looking at video-over-IP technologies to deliver cable-TV like services to subscribers.
This is poised one day to rival traditional cable and satellite TV systems or packaged media, as a major television service delivery medium. These new subscription services are providing video programs ranging from movies and sports to special interest content and interpersonal communication.
Although gaining in popularity, the number of Internet video service users remains small in comparison to users of VOD services of digital cable TV and satellite systems. Packaged media sales remain many times higher than those.
Internet TV Subscription Rates Grow:
According to market research firm In-Stat/MDR, consumer online streaming video subscriptions grew to 2.7 million in 2004 and are expected to reach 9.85 million in 2007. So-called premium “content” in consumer online subscription video streaming services will drive further expansion of the trend, In-Stat predicts.
The four leading drivers of premium video-over-IP content include sports-related programming; movie and TV streaming video services; general interest premium streaming video services and video-over-IP video communications services.
Adult Content a Market Driver:
The current content leader for Internet video is adult movies. Adult video actually blazed the trail for Internet video delivery, and remains the reference for gauging the success of more mainstream content services. According to In-Stat forecasts, the annual value of consumer-oriented services will surpass the annual value of the adult content in 2005.
Compression Standards on the Way:
The key enabler of the delivery of video content over the Internet are new data compression technologies that will simplify the handling and transfer of video on the Internet while preserving as much as possible the quality of the original source material.
MPEG 4 Stakes its Position:
One promising system called MPEG 4 now is being finalized as a potential standard for video compression. The MPEG 4 H.264L technology, which has emerged in part from Apple’s QuickTime technology, provides high-efficiency encoding and decoding (CODEC) algorithms that are expected to be used widely for digital television and videoconferencing applications, In-Stat predicts.
The system is being explored for use with HDTV as well as standard definition video content. In 2004, several manufacturers introduced DVD video players that are capable of decoding MPEG 4 encoded discs for playback.
Among other things, the MPEG 4 system adds new rich media formats, including enhanced graphics and multiple audio tracks, and provides extensions that will enable interactivity. For more information on MPEG 4, see the MPEG 4 Forum website at http://www.m4if.org.
DivX Digs In:
The world’s most popular MPEG 4 compatible video compression technology – called DivX –numbers more than 75 million users worldwide. Currently popular in Europe and other international markets, the system was developed by DivXNetworks, and is sometimes called the "the MP3 of video." The system offers DVD-quality at 10 times greater compression than MPEG 2 files. This allows placing full length films on CD discs or transferring them over broadband Internet connections. Many step-up DVD players slated for 2005 will be capable of decoding DivX encoded content.
Microsoft Promotes WMP:
Most content available through the major sports, movie and general interest video subscription services available today, is encoded using Windows Media Player (WMP) technology and Microsoft’s digital rights management (DRM) technologies. A number of content rights holders, thus far, have opted for Microsoft’s DRM technology to safeguard their intellectual property, giving the software giant a leg-up among Internet video service providers.
Users of WMP content usually must use a Windows-based personal computer, or another device equipped with a Microsoft-specific decoder capability. The content that has been encoded using Microsoft Windows Media Technologies can be played back on selected portable handsets and X-Box video game console, and soon will be able to be decoded by some Internet Protocol (IP) set-top boxes.
Personal Media Recorders May Spark Video Downloading:
Just as portable MP3 music players helped to ignite a range of online music download distribution vehicles, a crop of new personal media recorder/players that bring video recording and playback capabilities to mini hard disk drives (HDDs) is poised to spark demand for downloading movies and video programs from Internet sources. In 2005, nearly a dozen manufacturers had plans to distribute hard drive players with large color video screens. These can be used to store and watch movies that typically are delivered in any of a number of MPEG 4 formats. However, the distribution of movies for these devices has been held back as content distributors try to work out a form of digital rights management and content protection solutions that will pass muster with the studios that control the rights to the content.
