MPEG4 Upgrade Discussion

[Kentstater72]

Say it ain't so... somebody

If this (Rumor) is true, forget the $200 voom rebate and I will stick with my evil cable company for the next year. I am not going to purchase expensive equipment (HD-DVR) and then when it is obsolete not be able to replace it for a year.

 

[LonghornXP]

Well all I can say is that Beavis doesn't know anyone anywhere close to high up because if he did he wouldn't be saying this. Also just because you work for D* doesn't mean D* is going to tell you anything at least not until they release it. Right now very few D* employees have access to rollout and product release plans and with that said that means that we have a <5% chance that Beavis has been given true correct information. Heck even the few that have the info have just timeframes and not even several major delays could drop to the Beavis timeline.

 

[LonghornXP]

Also just so you know the MPEG4 HD DVR will have an annoucement with a release date within the next 1-2 months. Also the HMC is almost done and will for sure have its rollout between years end and the first quarter of 2006. Nothing will change that but a very doozy major delay and those will be pretty rare but I'll never count them out.

 

[markd]

This is the reason I'm taking the wait and see route. We just don't know what's going to happen. It seems like employees of D* are getting conflicting information. I'm giving D* until the end of Aug to make an announcement before I move on. Or a couple of weeks after Spaceway 2 launches unless it's going to be delayed until next year. I hope LonghornXP is right and Beavis was given wrong information. But we'll have to wait and see.

 

[sltmag]

Has there been any more info on Spaceway? That would still seem to be the major delay for now.

 

[tds4182]

Add Houston to the list to make it 12.



QUOTE=silversurfer]Welcome to SatelliteGuys!


1. New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, San Francisco, Dallas, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Detroit and in this case Tampa.

2. D* = DirecTV most acronyms can be found in the SatelliteGuys Glossary located at the top of the page.[/QUOTE]

 

[mmlugar]

Sounds to me like it might be best to cancel DirecTV for now, go with evil cable, and see how this plays out. It'll probably put me in the best position to get free stuff when MPEG-4 rolls out (whether that be new HD rcvr's or HD-DVR, etc) and I won't be stuck with recently purchased new MPEG-2 compatible equipment (HR10-250). I'm in the process of moving (in LA) and debating whether I should stay with D* or not as I begin the HD upgrade process. Since LA will likely be first in line for the MPEG-4 rollout, I should have a good sense shortly. I just have to make sure I don't get roped into a 1-year contract with Cable.

 

[DirecTV*Tier2Tech]

all hd rec will be replaced for free to comply with the mpeg 4, they will do this when its available in your area.

 

[slacker9876]

all hd rec will be replaced for free to comply with the mpeg 4, they will do this when its available in your area.

Well I am in the CONUS area, when will this be ready?

LOL

Welcome back buddy, long time no see!

 

[Ed Campbell]

The thing about leaving and, then, coming back several months or a year later -- you ain't gonna be able to press for customer loyalty/retention benefits.

I'm thinking of experimenting with Comcast HD [for PQ, etc.]; but, I'll keep D* rolling simultaneously. Though, the edge is that as an existing broadband customer, I'll be able to acquire the Comcast HD package for ab't $6/month net change -- includes 4 channels N/A at D*. That's w/o doing their recorder or digital package.

I've been w/D* since month 3, when NFLST did a $99 intro! I figure that's going to continue to be worth something.

 

[Barney]

Longhorn or any of you gurus. This is a post on another forum. Is this guy speaking the truth...or give me something to post in responce. Help me out gang......

******************************************************

MPEG-4 (H.324) won't be ready for prime time for another year to 18 months. The silicon needed to encode live HD programming at acceptable qualities is just now being developed and won't be used in a product for another 6 months and then it will have to be tested, tuned and tweaked before it can be deployed by a HD programming provider.

Video which was encoded in non-realtime, like movies for HBO, are another story. The content is already enncoded before it is broadcast, so they can offer MPEG-4 on those. It is the sporting events and local channels which are not going to be available for at least a year.
*******************************************************

Help me out...........

Barney

 

[charper1]

So what was being used for the live NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, MLS and Olympic games?

 

[Barney]

So what was being used for the live NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, MLS and Olympic games?

Huh?.........help me out here charper1
By the way, this guy is a Tech for Dell & is working with one of the phone Companys on the "fiber optics" systems as well. His dad is an engineer as is he. He has worked for major speaker manufactures & has/had patients on speaker design (crossovers etc). He also has connections with engineers that are developing LCD's.......which are becoming very good now (refresh rate etc).

Barney

 

[LonghornXP]

MPEG4 live broadcast technology is indeed ready for primetime and anyone saying otherwise is spilling hogwash plain and simple. I was one of the lucky few that got to see a more indepth look at the live ESPN HD feed in MPEG4 that D* showed. I didn't see this in person but I got to see a full video feed from one of my contacts that also showed the bitrates and such.

The feed I saw had no breakups and was clear and clean and had a resolution of 1366x720p at a bitrate around 15-16 but the bitrate was VBR so in faster motion scenes it jumped to 18 while in steady shots it showed it around 5. I did notice that zoom shots even steady ones got around 13 while a fast motion zoomed shot got 19. I was actually very suprised at what I saw on the VBR side with the technology noticing when something is being zoomed in or not and adjusting. I can say I was very impressed and the picture quality looked better than my OTA ABC HD game feeds without my local station doing any multicasting.

All I can say is when MPEG4 comes around you will be pretty amazed.

 

[cr0mag]

Longhorn or any of you gurus. This is a post on another forum. Is this guy speaking the truth...or give me something to post in responce. Help me out gang......

******************************************************

MPEG-4 (H.324) won't be ready for prime time for another year to 18 months. The silicon needed to encode live HD programming at acceptable qualities is just now being developed and won't be used in a product for another 6 months and then it will have to be tested, tuned and tweaked before it can be deployed by a HD programming provider.

Video which was encoded in non-realtime, like movies for HBO, are another story. The content is already enncoded before it is broadcast, so they can offer MPEG-4 on those. It is the sporting events and local channels which are not going to be available for at least a year.
*******************************************************

Help me out...........

Barney

Wait a sec... I know that it takes serious power to encode on the fly... but even the movies, and shows that are pre-recorded are not in mpg4 to begin with, are they? They are sent to D* by their respective networks.

By that analogy, D* has to take whatever signal they are recieving from each network and encode everything 'on the fly' before they re-transmit the signal to us. Now, I know that D* viewers wouldn't wait beyond real time to see their shows/news/sports, etc. Could you imagine finding out the final outcome of a movie from a friend 30 minutes before you saw the ending???

If D* has released a statement saying that this year they will transmit in mpg4, I would tend to believe them... No matter how much I or anyone else complains about some of their practices, they do stick to their word in those press releases as far as I can tell.

 

[charper1]

I was lacking in the details provided my example thought, but my point was that MPEG4 is ONLY a compression scheme, a software algorithm if you will, and is very well developed although not currently used now in our DBS products that we are discussing. The current software scheme works very well to do live HD sports "on the fly" (my example) the main thing MPEG4 is going to allow, is to do more, send more data, in less space, and more efficiently.

The person's comment however is meant to make us believe that there is not enough chip wafer material available to manufacture all the components needed to build the STB's and the like and like Longhorn said that is 1000% pure crap-ola!

 

[Barney]

For ya'lls info........... I just dropped D* all together.........tired of waiting...

I will keep coming here Longhorn.......I will be using my OTA.......Austin is #54 on the list..........don't see nothing happening............around July 15th my local FOX-HD goes full power........that is the only channel....I pledged & did it.


Barney

 

[Barney]

I was lacking in the details provided my example thought, but my point was that MPEG4 is ONLY a compression scheme, a software algorithm if you will, and is very well developed although not currently used now in our DBS products that we are discussing. The current software scheme works very well to do live HD sports "on the fly" (my example) the main thing MPEG4 is going to allow, is to do more, send more data, in less space, and more efficiently.

The person's comment however is meant to make us believe that there is not enough chip wafer material available to manufacture all the components needed to build the STB's and the like and like Longhorn said that is 1000% pure crap-ola!

How do you back up a statement ..........1000% pure crap-ola! to an engineer?

Barney

 

[charper1]

By telling him someone in the tech sector knows that there is no shortage of wafer materials to impact manufacturing efforts.

 

[sateck01]

The two new birds are exclusively for HD Locals.
The DirecTV 8 bird is a replacement for an existing satellite.
They are not licensed to add additional channels to DirecTV 8.

To answer directly, we don't know, but I would doubt it.

hogarth,

no they are not for hd locals only

dtv 8 is a replacement, correct, but the existing bird has at least 3 years of "as built " life left

once all the HD is on the spaceway twins , it will free up all the transponder space that is being used at 110 and 119 slots.they could , or should use the 119 as the international slot and still have space at 110 un -used.. my read , forget the 95 it will be history very soon as will the 72.5. the new 5 lnb dish WILL provide it all.. to 95% of the population.