Annoyance and acceptability of video service responsiveness

This paper presents an evaluation of four general functionalities of IP-based TV or video services as a function of their responsiveness. The study explores the effect of different response times in terms of annoyance and acceptability judgments. Test participants were asked to interact with a web-technology based mock-up of an IPTV service interface, this way realistically mimicking real-life service interaction. Both the applied mock-up and the study of delay as degradation type make this research applicable to cloud-based video services. The addressed service functionalities are zapping, direct program access via remote control, browsing the electronic program guide and video rental. The paper presents the relation between annoyance and acceptability, respective acceptability thresholds for delays in different tasks, and discusses the results in the light of two types of user groups.