My Feedback on 1080p service

[MacAran]

I just send in this feedback to OnLive about their choice to not offer 1080p streaming. Maybe people could look at it and sugest improvements, then possible make a online petition with it? O.o

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I feel that your policy on 1080p support for OnLive is based on a fallacy. As I understand it you are capable of it, but are waiting for the internet bandwidth of the majority of your users to be able to reach 10Mbits/s sustained before investing in the hardware for it. Let me explain why this is a fallacy.

The majority of cable internet subscribers take the 12Mbit package, which is really 12Mbit peak, 8 Mbit sustained. This is because there are currently ZERO services on the world wide web that require 10 Mbit sustained bandwidth. I personally use a 30 Mbit pipe, any the only reason I do that is so I can stream 1080p video without waiting for it to buffer. The current ONLY service based use for a 10+Mbit connection is YouTube and like video applications (iTunes) that let you stream in full HD.

Back to the user, they do not BUY bigger pipes because they have no USE for them. They are content to buffer a little while on YouTube if they have to. However, the bandwidth EXISTS. The user simply has to upgrade to the next highest service plan from their ISP. This is where the fallacy comes in. You do not support 1080p streaming because only 5% of your user base could use it. However, only 5% of your user base can use it because you DO NOT support 1080p streaming.

I would highly suggest you do some market research to see how many of your customers would upgrade their internet connection if you offered 1080p. I suspect you'd find that a greatly larger than 5% of your user base would end up using a 1080p service.

One last suggestion: you could consider adding an early adopters 1080p add-on to your subscription plans. Say 2-5 extra dollars a month, however as to not get bad press about ending up with a tiered subscription system with your 10 dollar a month customers not having 1080p you would make it VERY clear that this extra 2-5 dollars a month would NOT be used as profit in any way. 100% of it would go to the purchase of the hardware necessary to support 1080p streaming and the computers to run your games in 1080p. You would simply promise that after your hardware was completely upgraded you would discontinue the extra fee for 1080p and it would be free to all subscribers thanks the to generosity of the early adopters. I see this as a PR win.

[Suarjan]

i know 1080p will come to Onlive as overall bandwidth improves and in the future i think 3d will come too.

[andy-roid]

The way saints row 3 is playing up I don't think onlive can do 1080 they struggle at 720

[zombiefreakk]

The way saints row 3 is playing up I don't think onlive can do 1080 they struggle at 720

Are you talking about framerates our just the game freezing?

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[ryno56]

They are just having issues with the patch they released, it will be running silky smooth in a matter of time. Also, I'm fine with 720P. I will take smoothness over resolution any day of the week.

[Pinesal]

They should have an option like Netflix has to set a bandwidth limit and let us go up to 1080p if we want to.

[kurosov]

I'd like to see more options for the user to control stream quality from bitrate to resolution. Even a higher bit ate 720p stream would be better than a simple res bump and everybody has different hardware/connection configurations anyway.

[zombiefreakk]

They should have an option like Netflix has to set a bandwidth limit and let us go up to 1080p if we want to.

I bet there hardware is set to handle 720p not 1080p at the moment.

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[wardrobeUK]

It would cost onlive more to provide 1080p, bandwidth, equipment , electricty and cooling as its not currently available it cant be cost effective.

As the service started with a monthly fee then went "free to play" i think it may do the same for 1080p in the future.

When the next gen consoles come out then that may prompt onlive to start the service to keep up with gfx, also if the next gen go with digital downloads that will drive up customers needs for fatter pipes which will drive down costs and make it more viable for home bandwidth.

The onlive future could get very exciting when next gen is out.

[Andrew Pyle]

I totally agree with the OP. Much less people would be able to get good performance with it, but they should at LEAST give us the option. I doubt that it has to do with being cost effective though. Correct me if I'm wrong, but according to interviews with Steve Perlman and other OnLive head honchos, they *are* ready to launch 1080p anytime they want, since they can run it smoothly in their labs. The only thing stopping them is the fact that a highly limited section of their userbase is capable of streaming a game in 1080p. Remember, it takes far more bandwidth to stream a game than a high quality video