On-demand media has grown as a trend for a number of years as has the power of online sharing. Sites like YouTube among others have been fundamental in the growth of on-demand video and content, as have digital content stores like Apple Computer’s iTunes service. HDTV were until recently used only for watching broadcast TV. The recent switch to the digital broadcasting platform by many media regulators led to the transition to digital video.
Viewing video online has become a popular and widely accepted way to access media over the last decade. The technology to deploy and host video has been developed and fine-tuned to meet the various hardware requirements often associated with the Internet. There are a number of reasons why online video cannot entirely replace broadcast TV.
The Cost
While online video is often free, the cost to access and enjoy online video without hindrance has significant costs to the average consumer. Although broadband internet prices continue to fall, the cost to stream and watch video remains high because the technology needed to implement it is not available.
The Hardware Requirements
Online video requires more hardware than the HD broadcast platform. The broadcast platform relies on a signal that is sent and received by a tuner built into an HD TV. Online video technology was written for computer hardware and has yet to be re-written to support TV sets. A number of HD TVs do support flash video and some online streaming services, but the technology has not yet become widespread. Most flash video and on-demand video uses progressive scanning instead of interlaced scanning.
Progressive scanning is an imaging technology that creates every line of the image being rendered in succession to deliver a smooth and flicker-free HD picture. There is another image scanning technology, interlaced scanning. For online video, progressive scanning is more ideal. HD TV allows both interlaced scanning and progressive scanning to be used alongside one another as most HD TVs display several HD formats including 720p, 1080i and 1080p.
Overall, online video is being integrated into HD TV sets to create a more interactive experience. There are a lot of steps that need to be taken to make online video more accessible. HD TV is the perfect partner platform for online video.
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