ABC Transition to HEVC Encoding pushed back to August 14, 2019

[ancient]

Just happened to catch this, looks like the date has been changed:

I'll include the usual warning: Do NOT call any of the numbers shown, or email any of the addresses shown!

 

[VictoriaFTA]

Why don't y'all just black out the numbers/emails on these slates?

Don't even give visitors the option of doing something dumb

 

[Magic Static]

Why don't y'all just black out the numbers/emails on these slates?

Don't even give visitors the option of doing something dumb

Dumb people always find a way even when you tell them straight up.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I wonder how many calls they are getting from the public? Our local ABC station has shown this slide on the air a few times.

Almost like no one pays attention anymore at Master Control.

 

[glen4cindy]

What does this mean for OTA viewers?


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[comfortably_numb]

What does this mean for OTA viewers?


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Potentially better picture quality

 

[VictoriaFTA]

Potentially better picture quality

Doubt it. The 720p H.264 encoders @ 17 Mbps were doing just fine with maxing out the fidelity you can get from such a low resolution. The affiliates re-encoding the C-band feeds to MPEG-2 and dropping the bitrate have always been the limiting factor on ABC's PQ. As long as they keep doing that OTA affiliates will continue to look like garbage whether or not they're being fed with a H.264 or a HEVC feed to transcode from.

Hopefully this 720p HEVC is just an intermediary step to upgrading the feeds to 4K HEVC next year. There are ATSC 3.0 affiliates launching in 2020 so they're going to need a way to feed them. I can't see any other reason for them bothering to upgrade to HEVC and buy all this new equipment because they're still leasing the same amount of transponder space so it doesn't seem to be a bandwidth savings measure.

 

[glen4cindy]

Potentially better picture quality

I suppose my point is compatibility.

Any changes in equipment required?


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[comfortably_numb]

I suppose my point is compatibility.

Any changes in equipment required?


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As VictoriaFTA mentioned, they may be doing this to prepare for ATSC 3.0. As long as a station is still broadcasting a 1.0 signal, you won't need different equipment

 

[SkySurfer80]

So does this mean we wont be able to still view them or will we start seeing different type fta receivers?

 

[Titanium]

A cheap or free option is to stream the 4:2:2 channel from a compatible satellite receiver to a tablet, smartphone or PC on your home network. Any of these devices can either display the channel on its screen or connect to a monitor via HDMI or cast. My Samsung Smart TV is able to view my STB directly via the streaming app.

Alternatively, a PCIe card in a computer can also receive and display on screen or connect to your TV via HDMI.