HD PVR Benchmarking Study

German Market Ranking and International Best Practice Examples

Who´s Best Practice and how user-friendly are the services?

The convergence of media is accelerating. In particular new, IP-enabled devices are providing a new generation and variety of applications and services which going far beyond the traditional business model of television. Network operators, web companies or OEMs are launching new platforms and aggregating content to generate new revenue streams or to differentiate themself from increasing competition. With services as EPG, PVR and VoD becoming a standard, the challange today is to ensure the quality of usability and functionality and thereby to increase the overall user experience of the new powerful devices in the home.

However, inpppropriate User-Interfaces (UIs) are widespread. But in more complex systems, with a wide range of applications and services, the menu structure and navigation as well as the arrangement of items and listings becomes more and more important. As experts in the digital TV landscape and frontrunner in terms of convergent services, we decided to take a deeper look on the next generation of HD PVR Set-Top-Boxs which are available in the German market and to analyse them in terms of usability and functionality. To see the outcome of our analysis in a broader context, we also reviewed the latest generations of connected TV devices and provide international best practice examples.

Overall, this study gives you insights in the German PVR market and will help network operators, media companies, device manufacturers and marketers to develop new or to improve their current products and services in terms of user experience and functionality.

Click here to download an excerpt of the study.

The printed study is available for EUR 290 (incl. taxes) and can be ordered via mail: jn(at)thebrainbehind.com

 

Table Of Contet

0 INTRODUCTION

1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

2 METHODOLOGY

3 RESULTS OF THE HD PVR USABILITY BENCHMARK

3.1 German HD PVR Provider and Boxes

  3.1.1 Kabel BW - Humax iHD PVR-C

  3.1.2 Sky Germany - Pace Sky+ HD PVR

  3.1.3 Tele Columbus - Kaon HD PVR 

  3.1.4 Unitymedia - Echostar HD PVR

  3.1.5 T-Home Entertain Cisco Media Center 300/301 HD PVR

  3.1.6 maxdome - Winbox DVB-S2 HD PVR

  3.1.7 VideoWeb - HD+ Hybrid Receiver 600S

  3.1.8 KDG – Sagemcom HD PVR

3.2 Aggregated Results & International Best Practice Examples

  3.2.1 Configuration and Set-Up

  3.2.2 General Menu / Look and Feel

  3.2.3 Electronic Program Guide

  3.2.4 Video-on-Demand

  3.2.5 Personal Video Recorder

3.4 Preview: Vodafone Germany Sagemcom STB

4 HYBRID TV SETS

5 FUTURE FEATURES AND SERVICES

5.1 Recommendation Engine & Personal TV

6 CONCLUSIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS

7 APPENDIX

7.1 Fact Sheets & Screenshots