Pioneer’s Live Bittorrent Streaming Device
Written by Ernesto on September 11, 2008Pioneer recently announced a prototype set-top box that supports BitTorrent streaming. The device already caught the attention of the BBC, as it opens up the possibility for TV-networks to offer their content via the Internet without having to spend millions of dollars on bandwidth bills.
The new device from Pioneer R&D is still in the prototype phase, but it has the potential to change the future of TV. It is developed within the P2P-Next project, which is sponsored by the European Union, and includes partners such as the BBC and other TV-broadcasters.
The P2P technology inside the box is Open Source software, and allows the user to stream live content via BitTorrent (picture here, via NTV). Broadcasters will be able to stream to thousands of people, using around the same amount of bandwidth they would use to stream to one or two people. Recent tests have shown that it’s possible to offer high quality video via BitTorrent, which might change how on-demand TV is broadcast.
During a tutorial session at the P2P 2008 conference, Mark from Pioneer presented the new device, and said: “By leveraging the next generation of P2P networking technology, Pioneer is taking steps to bring scalable TV broadcasting and vast on-demand media collections into the Living room.”
The device is 4th generation P2P, which means that it doesn’t use central servers to distribute or moderate the content. Pioneer, nevertheless, made it clear that it will only be possible to access legitimate content with their box “Access to a vast range of on-demand content and broadcast TV in High Definition over the Open Internet is becoming more believable with the integration of 4G P2P technologies into consumer devices,” Mark said.
Worth mentioning, is that the box runs on a 266MHz processor with just 128MByte of RAM. By doing so, Pioneer has set a new standard for what a low-cost processor can deliver using BitTorrent. Several European TV broadcasters are watching the project closely, and we expect to see some consumer trials with this new BitTorrent box in the future.
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26 Responses
What about PPLive in China? Aren’t they doing massive live scale p2p?
Sounds sweet!
“made it clear that it will only be possible to access legitimate content with their box”
Funny! How long before chipped versions and other “breakthroughs” are gonna come out?
A month? two?
These idiots will never learn.
This is great. And i live the way the BBC are using bittorrent for iplayer. Now if they just remove the DRM, i’ll use it.
“The device already caught the attention of the BBC, as it opens up the possibility for **busting into people’s places in the name of almighty content.**”
if they are willing to piggyback people’s bandwidth, then wouldnt it be fair to let said people do whatever they want with said piggybacked data? may i also suggest that they actually pay said people for the use of their bandwidth?
- zanfr
http://www.kruhm.org
“Pioneer, nevertheless, made it clear that it will only be possible to access legitimate content with their box “Access to a vast range of on-demand content and broadcast TV in High Definition over the Open Internet is becoming more believable with the integration of 4G P2P technologies into consumer devices,” Mark said.”
It does not matter what they offer - as long as media companies continue their persecution of file-sharers, and as long as they insist on control of what their users can do with it, there is no reason why anyone should support them.
It’s interesting that television media are working on technologies that will significantly increase their consumers use of bandwidth while internet providers are working on decreasing the amount of bandwidth they allow consumers to use. Considering how many internet providers are also cable providers, this seems like the two directions would conflict with each other.
not really they just want you to use your bandwidth the way they decide…
That sounds kind of like my modded xbox…
Great idea though, if they allowed their content to be recieved worldwide and DRM free. I’m sure most people even wouldn’t mind normal commercial breaks as long as they can watch what thay want, when they want it.
The problem I forsee is, right now customers pay for different cable packages for different channels. How will the money work? Do you “subscribe” to different “network” torrent release groups? Do you pay $X.XX per show? Do you pay a flat fee for X hours worth of content a month? Do you simply pay for unit rental?
It will be very interesting to see how this works out, because it is certain that TV as we know it will fade into something “internety”. How was it when people crated pay-per-view? On demand? Is this the next step?
One Love People Get Ready.
It’s a bit Moironic to have a company aptly named “Pioneer” to pioneer a technology used mainly by sharing and caring individuals. Fuck it if it it’s a 4th generation implementation of the Bit Torrent protocol.They do a better job of manufacturing Grade A DVD Players.
Your response is awaiting moderation.
internet 2 is on the way
How exactly do you watch “live, streaming” BitTorrent shows?
Assuming that they can make it download the chunks in order, how are they going to get it to download fast enough to watch it “live”? Half the stuff I download from BT never gets faster than about 50K/s, which isn’t fast enough to deliver a normal-res AVI file in real-time, let alone any kind of hi-def content.
And what happens when there are no seeders and your show gets stuck at 92%?
“Pioneer, nevertheless, made it clear that it will only be possible to access legitimate content with their box”
legitimate content = media cartel content
it is ironic that p2p born out of a necessity created by a media monopoly should be thought of as a vehicle to perpetrate the life of the monopoly
the P2P-Next project is paradoxically designing systems for yesterday’s models. it might appease the sponsors today but they will not receive repeat funding
oops forgot the tag line …
http://www.h33t.com where filesharing means laughing at The Emperor’s New Clothes
*perpetuate
I don’t know, h33t. Perpetrate works fine for me. ;)
Utter garbage. BitTorrent is not a streaming protocol even with the piece picker hacked. This product will fail.
If you want to replace your cable box then use a protocol built for streaming which carries a QoS payload.
Nice tech, cheers Pioneer.
Just give us the hardware and we’ll take it from there thanks. No need to spend too much time on the DRM - we’ll have it removed within weeks so that the box will actually be useful.
innovations are always good. and its open source project, so it can be used out of that box, i guess.
I agree with post 5.. IF this every takes off (it can’t in alot of countrys, like the UK, our net speeds are slooow compared to most other contrys..), it wil soon claimed that “evil pirates and hackers” are useing it for speading USEFUL files (ie. DRM free).
The internet is already a wash with free content that you can download anonymously. The good thing about this is that it is hardware based.
I however prefer fast private downloads using anonymous BT technology like Ning.
Dan
http://filesharing.ning.com
Everything you can find on the internet is already in the public domain, so go get it for free!
Only a wanker or maybe a rich wanker would consider paying for stuff before you’ve even seen it!
Most of what I download is crap, I only find that out AFTER I downloaded it, If I’d paid for it I would be feeling totally ripped off!
It’s really ironic that the BBC would consider using OUR! technology, no doubt for financial gain of their own.
The P2P-Next project is not open source just a remote port to the API using there servers which will align your content to there business model.
Come on you did not think they would allow you to have access to there source code P2P overlay network did you?…After all the P2P project is backed by media barons.
As for the set-top-box, Thanks Pioneer the boy’s in China will reverse engineer the components for anti-DRPHLEM!
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