Comments on: DirecTV’s Nomad Now Available – Does Copying, Not Streaming

By: Jencie Fajardo

Jencie Fajardo — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 08:37:00 +0000

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By: Jencie Fajardo

Jencie Fajardo — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 08:37:00 +0000

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By: HTphile

HTphile — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 02:57:00 +0000

This seems pretty pointless. There are already DVR programs like beyond TV that can allow you to do this for much less than $150. Without streaming they really missed the mark.

By: HTphile

HTphile — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 02:57:00 +0000

This seems pretty pointless. There are already DVR programs like beyond TV that can allow you to do this for much less than $150. Without streaming they really missed the mark.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 21:09:00 +0000

very valid points. All we can do is hope, BUT, hoping aside, I must say that I have already experienced the value of “porting” shows from my DVR. I started using my nomad yesterday and my kids are already addicted! They loaded up their ipod touches with their TV shows and it made for a pleasant long drive to grandma’s house.

By: MegaZone

MegaZone — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 18:28:00 +0000

Never assume. Even if the HW *can* do streaming, it does not do it today and there are no announced plans to add it. So no one should buy a Nomad based on that. The Nomad is not a streaming box, it is a store-and-forward device. That may change someday, but not today.

Getting streaming to work well isn’t as simple as it seems at first. Not truly doing it well anyway. You need to be able to transcode at different resolutions, bit rates, and even frame rates for optimal performance. You need to be able to adjust based not only on the display device, but also on the network in between. And you need to be able to adjust on the fly as conditions vary – a device moves from WiFi to 4G to 3G, moves through different coverage areas, etc.

A Slingbox PRO-HD can go from 160×120 up to 1080p with variable levels of compression, frame rates, etc. It can adjust them all automatically, or you can manually tweak one or more of the parameters (depending on the SlingPlayer you’re using) and it’ll make the trade offs to optimize the stream. I’ve streamed at 160×120, less than 200Kbps, and 10-15fps on a Palm OS Treo 680 on an EDGE network, and I’ve streamed 1080p at 8Mbps on a LAN. I’ve regularly done 720p at 2-3Mbps across country to my laptop. (I set the resolution as it best fits the 1440×900 display resolution.)

Can the chip in the Nomad handle the demands of transcoding at all the variable settings? Presuming it can, will DirecTV invest the resources in producing the software – both on the box and in the clients – to do streaming properly?

I’d guess the HW probably can do it. The question is if they will, and secondarily, when.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 16:18:00 +0000

what makes you think that it won’t be able to support streaming down the road with a firmware update? if it can transcode video, one can only assume that it would be able to do so in real-time and even adapt the bit-rate to the available bandwidth and then stream it to the mobile clients.