[maosee]

just wondering how much, given synchronous speeds (same upload and download); are you all willing to pay for a 10Mbit connection?

i would pay $120 a month. that would be my limit.

[jvd]

no more than 40$ a month.

[epicstruggle]

with static ips and some other perks 90$

dynamic ip 75$

epic

[MPI]

I currently pay $43 for mine, as I said in the other thread.

The absolute highest I would pay for it would probably be about $80. But at that price point they would probably lose 70% of their customers.

[nutball]

Ummm... well I've had 1MBit for a few months now and have hardly used it to full capacity (so I've downgraded). So in that sense ... I wouldn't pay any more for 10MBit than I would for 1MBit.

[Diplo]

10 Mbit seems overkill for home use.

[pcchen]

Not really. You can have high quality VOD on a 10Mbit connection. Imagine that: streaming HDTV content directly through Internet! That would be cool

[Diplo]

Originally Posted by pcchen

Not really. You can have high quality VOD on a 10Mbit connection. Imagine that: streaming HDTV content directly through Internet! That would be cool

A good answer apart from the small fact that there are very few sources of HD video you can stream from the internet, and most of those are just demonstrations. As I say, at the momemnt most people wouldn't have a use for it. Maybe in a few years we'll see streaming HD movies (once the DRM implications are resolved) but it ain't happening yet

[Simon F]

Originally Posted by pcchen

Not really. You can have high quality VOD on a 10Mbit connection. Imagine that: streaming HDTV content directly through Internet! That would be cool

I've seen some HDTV content and, frankly, I'm not impressed yet. Seems that they are much more agressive with the compression ratios than, say, DVD standards and some things tend to suffer <shrug>.

[Leto]

50$

I am most of the time content with the 512/256 I have.

[pcchen]

Originally Posted by Simon F

I've seen some HDTV content and, frankly, I'm not impressed yet. Seems that they are much more agressive with the compression ratios than, say, DVD standards and some things tend to suffer <shrug>.

I tend to agree. I think a 720p or even 1080i/p content could have a good use of higher bitrates. 20Mbps ~ 30Mbps should be fine

[EDIT] I am currently using a 2M/512 ADSL connection, about $40 per month. I am not planning to upgrade in near term, though.

[Nick[FM]]

I pay ~70USD for my 8/1 at home. I think it's reasonable.

[Basic]

And I thought I paid too much for my 10Mbit. I think it's ~€30. (Just a RJ45 ethernet wall outlet.) That is however shared bandwidth, but usually there aren't (m)any other sharing it, so I get pretty much all of it for myself.

But the bottleneck is rarely at my ISP, so it only matters when connecting to very fast sites.

[MPI]

Originally Posted by Diplo

A good answer apart from the small fact that there are very few sources of HD video you can stream from the internet, and most of those are just demonstrations. As I say, at the momemnt most people wouldn't have a use for it. Maybe in a few years we'll see streaming HD movies (once the DRM implications are resolved) but it ain't happening yet

Well, I get three TV channels streamed on-line from my ISP(about 2Mbps multicasted). In the neighbouring city they have VOD "rental" kicking off soon through the MAN. Another pretty cool thing is that they have digital cable TV distribution over ip, to the cable TV distribution points where you have the decoding -> no digital decoding box needed at home.

You can't just see what is here _now_(who the hell starts VOD when everybody sits with 512 lines?), you have to see the _possibilities_.

[zurich]

I pay ~$30 USD for my 5/1 connection.

[Druga Runda]

Originally Posted by zurich

I pay ~$30 USD for my 5/1 connection.

you live in broadband heaven... is that Switzerland?

[T2k]

Optimum Online (cable service by Cablevision) is already 10Mbit/1Mbit and it's $29.95 for the first 6 months and $49.95 thereafter - TriState area: NY, NJ, CT.

[DemoCoder]

720p @60hz is defined by ATSC as 18Mbps. However, if you watch movies on cable/satellite, they are likely *not* digitally remastered at 720p (like Terminator 2 Extreme Edition), but instead, merely existing 480i content that has been upconverted. Producing content for 720p requires rescanning the original film frames at higher resolution, which most TV stations are not going to pay to have done for the Monday night movie of the week. That is, if say, NBC wants to show E.T. at 720p, they don't license the original content from Amblin, rescan at HD resolutions, reedit, and broadcast. More than likely, they take a video or DVD feed and upconvert.


Moreover, on satellite networks like DirectTV (which I have) the compression is pretty bad, partly I suspect because of upconverted content, and partly because of the codec parameters they are using. In fact, on a channel by channel basis it is different. For example, Star Trek Enterprise (SDTV) on UPN is *horribly artifacted*

The only channels that have real HD content are thoses specifically produced for HD, with HD cameras or mastering, like Discovery Channel HD. If you buy the T2 Extreme Edition (only 6Mbps bitrate), and play it through an HTPC on your HDTV, it looks far better than what you get on terrestial HDTV, even though the bitrate is lower.

The T2EE just looks amazing on my Samsung 5805w and PLV-70. I never thought MS's VC-9 codec could be so good.

[T2k]

Voom has a lot of real HD channel as well as upconverted - and even an upconverted movie looks far better than its original, not to mention real HD channels...

[pcchen]

I just find out that my ISP have a new 12M/1M service, and cost just a little more. I already applied for the upgrade.

[Simon F]

Originally Posted by DemoCoder

The only channels that have real HD content are thoses specifically produced for HD, with HD cameras or mastering, like Discovery Channel HD. If you buy the T2 Extreme Edition (only 6Mbps bitrate), and play it through an HTPC on your HDTV, it looks far better than what you get on terrestial HDTV, even though the bitrate is lower.

I was refering to video that I've seen that was specifically from a HD digital tape and so, presumably, has been telecined to the correct resolution. It's the noise presumably due to low bit rates, especially in the low frequencies, that I found objectionable.

[Leto]

Whats the bitrate on a DVD?

[Diplo]

Originally Posted by Leto

Whats the bitrate on a DVD?

AFAIK it's variable, depending on how it was encoded (typically this is governed by how much is needed to be fitted on a disc). The maximum theoretical rate is 9.6 Mb/s but the average DVD is more likely to be around 3.5 - 4.5 Mb/s.

[horvendile]

Answer to original question:
Right now I pay about US$50 a month for a VDSL line that is capable of something like 12Mbs/9Mbps. So I guess I'd pay that... and a little more. But not much. Unless, of course, the only alternative is 56k modem, in which case I'd easily pay US$100 and be happy to do it.

[MPI]

Originally Posted by Diplo

AFAIK it's variable, depending on how it was encoded (typically this is governed by how much is needed to be fitted on a disc). The maximum theoretical rate is 9.6 Mb/s but the average DVD is more likely to be around 3.5 - 4.5 Mb/s.

More like 6 - 8Mbs typically IME, but as you say, it depends on how long the movie is and how much extra material they like to cram in. Only really long movies dips down to 4Mbps.