IPTV Internet Downloads

As the name suggests this avor of IPTV allows consumers to download and watchon demand content. Most Internet download services are subscription based or pay-per-download and can include a mix of local news and weather, movies, local films and music, an entertainment guide, and classified advertising. A number of the major online Internet based portal sites have recently started to offer their own libraries of downloadable IPTV programming content to Internet users. In most cases standard or media center PCs are used to view Internet downloads; however,some companies have started to provide broadband enabled IP set-top boxes for TABLE 2.6 Technical Characteristics of an Internet Download IPTV Service Characteristic Description.
Networking protocols Standard file transfer protocol (FTP) and hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) standards are generally used to transfer the IPTV content from the server to the client device. The use of these protocols minimizes the possibility that the IPTV content will be blocked by firewalls.
Server technology Standard Web server software is generally used to service requests for on-demand video content.
Network speed The time taken to download an Internet movie depends on the speed of the broadband connection and quality of the video content. Standard definition movies and programs download relatively quickly in comparison to HD based video content. Although broadband is the preferred connection type it ispossible to also use slower dial-up links to access Internet download services.
Network errors Standard TCP error correction techniques are used to correct problems during the downloading process. Storage requirements Both server(s) and client(s) require advanced storage capabilities to support the processing of large IPTV files. Some Internet download applications allow IPTV subscribers to burn a copy of the downloaded video content to a DVD and play in a DVD player.

consumers who do not want to watch videos on their PCs. The technical characteristics of an end-to-end IPTV based Internet download service are shown in Table 2.6.
Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Video Sharing A peer-to-peer video sharing application allows users to watch, share, and create online video content. Using a peer-to-peer video sharing application is quite straightforward and typically involves the download and installation of specialized software. Once the software is operational on the PC, the user simply clicks on a link to download a particular video file. Once the download process is initiated, the P2P video sharing application software establishes connections and starts to retrieve the requested video content from a variety of different sources. Once the video file is downloaded to the local hard disk, viewing can commence.