DVD-quality video over the Net?

EdgeStream unveiled on Wednesday a new television set-top box that uses its proprietary IPTV software platform and can, according to the company, deliver DVD-quality, on-demand broadcasts over the Net.

The Internet streaming-media developer said the broadband IPV500 set-top box was built by Wyse Technology on a reference design from Intel. The box runs Microsoft's Windows Media Series 9 technology over EdgeStream's IPTV software. EdgeStream also announced that Media Portal Technology will use the box to deliver IPTV to subscribers in the United Kingdom and Europe.

"The EdgeStream software suite provides a highly reliable...platform that will allow us to provide our end customers with full-screen DVD-quality video on demand (as well as) streaming applications in the U.K. and Europe over the public Internet," Graham Cooke, CEO of Media Portal Technology, U.K., said in a statement.

The box comes as efforts to transmit cable-quality video over the Net are heating up, thanks in part to ambitious plans by telephone companies to offer television over their growing fiber and hybrid DSL (digital subscriber line) networks.

Tiny Laguna Hills-based EdgeStream has struggled for years to win recognition for its technology for managing network congestion problems, claiming vast improvements in quality of service for video streams over the Internet.

Recently, the company's technology has piqued the interest of some technology giants. Microsoft and Intel have both agreed to promote EdgeStream's technology as the Wintel duo sets its sights on cracking the IPTV market.

Despite some impressive demonstrations, EdgeStream has yet to ink a lasting partnership with a major broadcaster. Its highest profile deal to date, struck in 2002 with Japan's Softbank to deliver IP video, was not renewed.

This works

I just went to these guys' website and watched the first demo on the demo page. (They have one movie there and a bunch of short clips.) I'm a bit of an afficionado of online video(such as it is, and it aint much...) and the quality was unlike anything I have seen to date. Yeah, the movie was a snooze, but it looked great! I wonder when CinemaNow is going to get this so my kids will stop bugging me about when they can watch the movie...

Amazing

I checked out the demo on the website and I have never seen anything like it. The quality is incredible. This will change streaming as we know it - guaranteed.

Agreed

It does look like they may have something going here. I tried this from several different sites yesterday and it was flawless, even IM'd a buddy in Taipei and he said it looked great there too, which is impressive. For a long time I've been thinking about the implications of video over IP and there is this interesting endpoint that might look something like a hybrid between current cable and Internet offerings: kindof like cable on steroids, with orders of magnitude more choices and everything on demand. Are we inching closer?

[Al Johnsons]

quality is incredible

http://www.analogstereo.com/rover_45_owners_manual.htm

Taiwan is impressed!!

Love this technology! My friend in Asia, specifically Taiwan, was able to stream videos flawessly with great picture quality. Big plus for consumers in Taiwan and Asia as VOD adoption begins to ramp and gain popularity..Keep up the good work!