IPTV is becoming a buzzword used to generally name TV distribution using IP networks. Some IP content distributors that only offer limited services making subscribers believe this is a full service with all the features of legacy digital cable are also using this term very loosely.

There are several camps on this subject. On one side some industry experts firmly believe that the infrastructure of our current IP networks is solid enough and is ready for full-blown HDTV distribution over IP. As you will see below...

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There are a few smaller telcos/service providers that are delivering true IPTV the right way, in my opinion. Unlike Verizon's FiOS passive-optical network, my service provider, SureWest, provides a dedicated 100Mbps bidirectional Ethernet connection over fiber. While PON provides 1Gbps, it is not dedicated to a particular residence. It is used to send nearly all the channels possible to everyone, all at the same time. The space left over for Internet is small. With SureWest's system, and several other smaller companies, a smaller but dedicated 100Mbps is provided to each home. Internet service is sold in synchronous 10, 20 or 50 Mbps bandwidth blocks (download AND upload at the same speed.) The remaining bandwidth is used for IPTV. Only the channels requested by the STB are transferred at a time. This is similar to AT&T's U-Verse, but 50-90 Mbps of bandwidth is available, not 20 Mbps or less. This allows less lossy compression to be used. SureWest currently uses MPEG2, but planning on converting to MPEG4/AVC (H.264) in the near future. Currently, Discovery HD Theater takes up approximately 18.2 Mbps and is the best HDTV I've ever seen. With overhead, this would nearly max out the AT&T U-Verse connection (albeit, H.264 uses 12 Mbps or less for the same quality). Even with MPEG2, I can watch more than 3 channels in HDTV in my home and still be blazing away on the Internet. THIS is the proper way to deploy fiber and IPTV.

For those curious, SureWest (aka Roseville Telephone) is an ILEC from Roseville, CA ... near Sacramento, CA. Unless you live around here, they won't be your service provider, but hopefully more telcos will follow their lead.