WVP Home Womens Football TV Web TV HELP Contact Us

Help with VOD and WEB TV

Video On Demand (VOD) and Web TV quality can be as good as standard TV and HDTV. If you have a reasonable quality broadband connection that can consistently provide a speed over 2Mbps (ie: a two million bits per second) as many can, you should be able to get the following minimum HQ video quality.

The above picture quality is possible where there is little fast movement, when there is a lot of movement, the quality decreases due to the limitations of the currently adopted speed limits and the available video coding and decoding methods within Windows / TV / Set Top Boxes etc.

The image below illustrates fast football action as a goal is scored at 2Mbps, it looks much better when actualy seen as moving video.

The problems delaying higher quality are the average speed of internet connections at peak times, limitations being imposed by operating systems (eg: MS Windows), computer hardware, set top boxes and industry wide agreements and practices.

Slowest Speed Connections can only receive lower quality LQ video which is limited to 330Kbps, the video screen size is smaller which helps keep the video quality relatively good. The following image is an example of a 330Kbps version (actual size shown 360x288 PAL).

The following image is a 330Kbps version of the example above (actual size shown 360x288 PAL) and looks much less clear, although it looks much better when actualy seen as moving video, it is relatively poor quality due to the speed limitations.

Help with SLOW INTERNET Connections

Unfortunately a number of people are provided with poor quality connections by their ISP's (Internt Service Provider), not all ISP's provide the same thing although it may appear to have the same name and specification as others.

If it is the ISP at fault it can be a simple matter to move to a better one even if you've signed up for a long time, the important point is, is the ISP failing to provide the promissed service? and how can you easily find out.

If you were promissed up to 2Mbps (2 million bits per second) or more you are entitled to get reasonably near this when there is no internet congestion (eg: off peak times), you can easily run connection speed tests at any time using the speed test link below. The following image shows an actual speed test of an unlimited 8Mbps connection from a leading ISP (cost 19.50 UK pounds per month Sep 2006) at a peak time (7pm UK), this is almost 70% of the promissed speed at peak time all the way from New York City USA.

Try the Speed Test Link click here

Some ISP's deliberately restrict your available speed, this can be due to monthly use limits being exceded when you do not have an unlimited service or it can just be they wish to maximise profits and cut the available speed (some seem to assume users will be too dumb to realise what is going on). High performance unlimited internet connection packages are relatively cheap if you look around, 24Mbps is already available in some areas for as little as 20 UK pounds per month, which puts some of the 2Mbps packages (12 times slower) costing around 15 UK pounds per month into perspective (prices correct at Aug 2010).

Help with PROBLEMS

It is important to keep your TV / Set Top Box or Computer System and media player up to date by downloading the available updates, a missing update could stop you playing enhanced video content.

If you are not technicaly inclined it can be worth asking your TV or computer shop or techy friend for help and advice.

The rush to Video On Demand (VOD) by new players like the BBC, Virgin, BT, Sky and others (we've already been providing VOD for 10 years) presents its own problems of draining available internet speed and a conflict of interest for those who provide both internet connections and Video On Demand, there's already evidence suggesting that some are giving there own VOD services priority, thus slowing their competitors VOD and reducing the quality available at the customers internet connection. We hope Ofcom will stamp out any such practice.

Somtimes the cause of slow internet connection performance can be your computer operating system, eg: MS Windows. For example, years ago, many people changing to a new Windows XP computer suddenly found their internet connection speed slowed drasticaly (compared to Windows 98SE). The problem in many cases was Microsoft (the Windows software maker) had changed Windows XP without telling users that they would need to change special hidden settings within Windows XP to get their original connection performance, it took months to find this out, once done speed increased 400% back to normal.