Network-based personal video recorder technology might be the only saving grace for telcos wanting to deliver HDTV as part of their IPTV service using copper-based networks, according to Thierry Fautier, director of Telco Solutions for Harmonic, which provides video and headend gear to many telcos globally.

As HDTVs proliferate, copper-based technologies such as ADSL 2+ and VDSL2 will not be able to deliver the bandwidth required to both watch and record shows in HD, Fautier said. With DOCSIS 3.0 deployments by cable companies promising to deliver up to 100Mb/s of bandwidth, the telcos could find themselves left in the dust, he said.

The problem is, of course, that network-based PVR capability isn’t considered legal in the United States, after a number of content providers successfully sued Cablevision over its network PVR decision. That March 2007 ruling is being appealed.

“In Europe and Asia, telcos have already realized the problem and they are moving forward with network-based PVR,” Fautier said. “When you reach the point of offering two streams or three streams of HD, that’s the end of IPTV.”

By placing the PVR capabilities in the network, programming can be delivered on-demand, and the end-user doesn’t have to individually record programs they want to time-shift. That would eliminate the need to be doing more HD streams than there are HD sets in the home.

AT&T has maintained that it can deliver two streams of HD today over a 25Mb pipe, and will use pair-bonding and ever-improving compression techniques to deliver more HD streams in the future. Fautier admits that is possible, but points out it is also costly.

“It’s a huge capex problem for telcos,” he said. “Pair-bonding is another additional cost.”

Harmonic is delivering network-based PVR capabilities to IPTV pioneer PCCW in Hong Kong and is willing to work with telcos here. Harmonic already provides its video platform to more than 15 of Microsoft’s IPTV client’s globally; to SES Americom for its IP-Prime service to independent telco IPTV providers; to companies such as Iowa Telecom that build headends to be use cooperatively by multiple independent telcos; and to larger independents who are building their own headends.

“We think that network-based PVR is the future; it’s the solution to a lot of things,” Fautier said. “We want to help the [network] operators, but we can’t go between them and Hollywood. This is a business decision.”

It will become increasingly important to telcos, Fautier added, as HD ownership increases. Already, he said, 33 percent of broadband subscribers have two HDTVs in their homes.