Doing More With Less: MPEG-4 AVC encoders strugging to deliver High-Def

riffjim4069

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Excellent article on new MPEG-4 AVC encoders that will [hopefully] deliver quality and big bandwidth improvements. They are badly needed in the satellite industry IMO. The full article is an excellent read...

Full Article

Doing more with less” is a common refrain in business. But it's never been more of a necessity than it is now for telcos launching TV services and satellite operators wrestling with new HD programming, as both try to squeeze as many video streams as possible into as little bandwidth as necessary.

The IBC show in Amsterdam (Sept. 7-12) should bring some relief, as various manufacturers unveil new encoders using the MPEG-4 Advanced Video Compression (AVC/H.264) standard. MPEG-4 AVC encoders promise the same picture quality as MPEG-2 in less than half the bit rate. New models go even beyond that.

Tandberg Television is introducing its next generation of MPEG-4 AVC HD and SD encoders at IBC. Tandberg has deployed more than 1,000 high-def MPEG-4 AVC encoders, giving the company an estimated 95% share of the high-def AVC market, and some 4,000 MPEG-4 AVC encoders overall. Big customers include DirecTV, Swisscom and Premiere in Germany.

Big bandwidth improvements

Tandberg says its new encoders, the EN8030 for SD and the EN8090 for SD/HD operation, provide bandwidth improvements of up to 50% over its first-generation MPEG-4 AVC gear. While MPEG-2 encoders could compress high-def video down to the 16 to 18 megabit-per-second (Mb/s) range, early-generation AVC encoders could deliver the same quality in 10 Mb/s.

“Now we're looking at five to six megabits per second for high-motion sports at 1080i resolution, and maybe 4 megabits per second for 720p film material,” says Matthew Goldman, Tandberg's VP of technology, for compression systems.

Continue...
 
If the quality turns out to be the same, this is great news. I would love to see some side by side comparisons, especially with these new 6Mbit 1080i streams that are supposed to look like a 16-18Mbit mpeg2 stream.
 
Definaly great news if it turns out to do what its suppost to do... That would definatly put an end to the hdlite war.... Now how long will it be, before dish actually implemnts these little badboys....
 
If they are 50% better than the 1st generation hardware encoders, that should get them to work at about the same bit rate as the MPEG2 hardware encoders.

In the UK, Sky HD has been having nothing but problems with the 1st generation MPEG4 AVC encoders. With only three channels per 46 mb/s transponder, they are getting a large amount of macroblocking. Noticeable macroblocking has occurred quite often on slow moving movies such as The Machinist. Recently Sky removed National Geographic from one transponder to ease the problems leaving only Sky Sports HD and Sky Movies 9 HD on the transponder. The channels are STAT-MUXed and each is now averaging about 23 mb/s and the probelms have basically disappeared.
 
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