I just noticed this forum and wondered what IPTV was. I’ve heard of BBC iPlayer, but not BT Vision or Tiscali TV.

I had a look on Wikipedia, but it all seemed very technical and I didn’t really understand it.

Maybe I’m being a bit lazy here, but would anyone mind just telling me very briefly in simple terms what IPTV is?

As far as I understood it, BBC’s iPlayer is just a way of watching BBC programmes online — it doesn’t offer exclusive content — so why does it need to be discussed in a separate forum from the regular TV programmes forum?

In simple terms, it's TV delivered via the internet (or at least not via an aerial or satellite). So it covers Iplayer, ITVPlayer, 4OD, fiveondemand, SkyPlayer and so on.

Cable delivery is a sort of "halfwayhouse", I suppose!

The reason for the separate forum is that there are inevitably different problems with the delivery of programmes using a PC (e.g. "why doesn't ITVplayer work under Vista" etc).


K

True IPTV (as opposed to Internet TV) is broadcast over a private network via ADSL (broadband) through a set-top-box connected to the phone line and to the TV (rather than a PC) and doesn't touch the internet.

This is how TalkTalk TV (was Tiscali TV, was Homechoice) broadcasts live channels and makes Video on Demand available, and is how BT Vision makes Video on Demand available. More is likely to be broadcast in this way in the future, as per Project Canvas, especially in areas that cable has not penetrated.

This forum is really intended for TalkTalk TV and BT Vision customers, but people do tend to discuss Internet TV/VoD such as BBC Iplayer here too.

IPTV is television (TV) delivered as data using a computer network protocol called Internet Protocol (IP). Note though that Internet Protocol (IP) is not restricted to what we call the Internet, it is a general networking protocol. Internet TV is just one form of IPTV, while digital TV delivered as IP data over ADSL (e.g. BT Vision video on demand), cable or fibre are other forms of IPTV. Unfortunately, the term IPTV does sometimes still get mistakenly used to mean just Internet TV.

The IP delivery mechanism for IPTV adds another layer of technical complexity to television delivery, hence a separate forum for IPTV services.

Regards, Jonathan
www.netvue.biz

Hi,

Simple terms -

These forums are for Tiscali And Vision users who can watch TV over their broadband connection and also watch Freeview, via set top boxes.

TV Catchup, free to sign up and use
http://www.tvcatchup.com/