So - why do we need super fast broadband?

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/02/04/tivo_vod/

I hope that was just biased or warped test. If not it doesn't bode well. Take VoD out of the equation and at the moment there's nothing anyone needs FTTP for. We've got all the broadcast capacity we need. More in fact.

I stayed at a hotel recently, where they had video-on-demand (along with the usual satellite & terrestrial channels).

I nearly exploded with rage when I had to navigate through a cumbersome, irresponsive menu system, just to watch the 6 o'clock news on BBC1, instead of "flicking channels".

They do need to think very carefully how this is implemented. People do want choice, but they want to be able to switch on and watch their "usuals" without it being a major operation, as well.

T.

Hotel system are notoriously under powered in CPU terms i.e. cheap

TV viewing is quiet different across the age ranges though, young ones are now used to being able to find their favourite show, rather than having to wait for it.

XBox parties for a favourite film are an example of how things are changing.

young ones are now used to being able to find their favourite show, rather than having to wait for it

is it a societal perogative to pander to this need, or should we just tell them to "get over it already".

Hard to say which is better:

Personal choices as in 'I want'
or
Lead by the hand through what someone decided is the programming for today?

It only becomes an issue when public money is being asked for to build a next generation VOD / TV network, which as the OP implies is essentially what the NGA debate is about.

It get's fogged with various economic imperatives, but is fundamentally about video.

Thus far in human society the "I want" model of entertainment has not prevailed for long, people have had choices of what is made available by others. Widening the choice is fine if it pays for itself, but don't expect me to volunteer to pay or to be happy being taxed to pay for it.

We're still on 4 channel analogue TV to March switchover

In reply to a post by yarwell:

We're still on 4 channel analogue TV to March switchover

We have used Freeview for a long time to give us BBC4 but that's about it.

Just as we accumulated a hundred or so tapes that we never had time to watch in the days before PVRs, our 160GB PVR is constantly having to be pruned a little to record something we do want to view.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

our 160GB PVR is constantly having to be pruned a little to record something we do want to view.

So fit a bigger hard drive

I had the same trouble with my old 40GB PVR (Humax), as it was way out of warranty they told me it would be OK to fit a new HDD, they were bog-standard PC type.

It worked, but I eventually had to take it out again because the drive's power consumption was a touch on the high side for the inbuilt supply.

In reply to a post by billford:

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

our 160GB PVR is constantly having to be pruned a little to record something we do want to view.

So fit a bigger hard drive

Or empty it and start again .

(Also a question of copying what's already there with only laptops available.)

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

(Also a question of copying what's already there with only laptops available.)

Don't know about the newer ones, but on mine you can't (easily) copy- they use a proprietary file system