How does Video on Demand work?

Question

(Also known as TV on demand)

How is the Video on Demand technology used and how does it function?

Answers will be much appreciated.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Virgin Media has video on demand, you can rent films, but it will be saved in your rentals, on your telly, so no returning fees or anything. all you have to do, is select the film you want, and you can buy it for 24hrs, and when it runs out, it cancels rental, and is removed from your rentals. I hope this has helped.

Answer 2

Each video channel is allocated a certain amount of bandwidth (I think 6 Mhz which is about 60 Mbps)

There is some reserved "channels" that are used for various other purposes.

One of those is internet where there is a dedicated channel that is broken up into timeslots where different users on the same cable can send upstream to the cable company. Then several channels are used for the download. That is why your uplink is much less then your downlink. There are also several channels reserved for VOD with the same concept as above.

When you get past the channel layer it is basically TCP/IP. Therefore you can broadcast to everyone or send to a specific MAC or IP address of your Illico box.

On each cable link there is a maximum amount of people that can get a VOD but I suppose Videotron does a best guess and determines what is the amount of channels they want to reserve for VOD and how many maximum people they expect at any one time.