SatelliteGuys.US DishNetwork Uplink Activity Discussion - Week Ending 08/04/2007

[John Kotches]

Can anyone recommend a good site (outside of wiki) to understand why MPG4 is better now than MPG2? I always heard MPG4 was worse than 2 but it sounds like they've improved it.

There are multiple sections to MPEG-4; and of direct interest for us are the sections referring to:

H.264/AVC/MPEG-4 High Profile

All of these are specifically geared towards high definition encoding.

Cheers,

 

[Poke]

This site has some good info on it.

MPEG Industry Forum

 

[kstuart]

MPEG4 has always been better and more advanced than MPEG2. My guess is that the reputation of MPEG4 as "worse" came from Internet Download sites that took MPEG2 movies (DVDs) and encoded them as MPEG4 files of 700mb. Since those were encoded twice, heavily compressed, and encoded on PCs with free software, they were usually significantly worse than the original DVDs. This could be where some people's bad impressoin of MPEG4 came from.

PS Interesting that Setanta:

- is now available! :up
- is in free preview on channel 284.
- is mirrored on 61.5

PPS More Discovery HD channels are coming on August 15th, not September 1st. Only History is on Sept. 1st.

 

[kb7oeb]

Back when I had cable, there was a period where there was noticable pixelation on HBO. I called the cable co. and was told that there was a "satellite reception problem". It was at that point that I figured I may as well switch to a satellite provider to cut out the middle man....

Dish and Directv are still middle men, you need a BUD to go direct.

 

[digiblur]

MPEG4 has always been better and more advanced than MPEG2. My guess is that the reputation of MPEG4 as "worse" came from Internet Download sites that took MPEG2 movies (DVDs) and encoded them as MPEG4 files of 700mb. Since those were encoded twice, heavily compressed, and encoded on PCs with free software, they were usually significantly worse than the original DVDs. This could be where some people's bad impressoin of MPEG4 came from.

PS Interesting that Setanta:

- is now available! :up
- is in free preview on channel 284.
- is mirrored on 61.5

PPS More Discovery HD channels are coming on August 15th, not September 1st. Only History is on Sept. 1st.

On the contrary Divx and Xvid make some great re-encodes of DVD's if you know what you are doing.

I believe Scott stated it would in free preview in another thread. Interesting that they are getting away from mirroring internationals but yet they put it on 61.5. 110W conus issues in areas that need the channel?

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Yes Setenta will be in free preview until September 5th.

Just got home and missed all the fun today.

 

[bhenge]

Hey, glad to see WRAL and WRAZ HDs available. Guess the contracts were finally agreed upon after what seemed to be at least a year or more. Got tired of seeing 'uplinked but not available' in all the lists. Thanks E*.

 

[w1ckedindian]

on my 622 5747 shows up as starz on demand never had that b4
any clue when it will be available and is there more on demand coming like hbo on demand etc...?

 

[digiblur]

on my 622 5747 shows up as starz on demand never had that b4
any clue when it will be available and is there more on demand coming like hbo on demand etc...?

http://www.satelliteguys.us/frontpage-news/101115-starz-demand.html

 

[dfergie]

On the contrary Divx and Xvid make some great re-encodes of DVD's if you know what you are doing.

I totally agree There is some Divx and Xvid HD 0ut there that will surprse you on the PQ...

 

[cebbigh]

129 tp19 at top strength comes in at 90 for me. tp 27 at max comes in at 81. Got my fingers crossed.

 

[gadgtfreek]

1440x1920

So does 1440 allow them put 6 mpeg4 on a TP? If they went to 1920 would it only be 5?

Just trying to see the logic behind 1440 vs 1920 (other than the Dish is trying to screw me camp).

Me having a 1280x720p tv I sit 10+ feet away from I dont really know that id see a diff, but Im kinda curious.

 

[mike123abc]

1440x1920

So does 1440 allow them put 6 mpeg4 on a TP? If they went to 1920 would it only be 5?

Just trying to see the logic behind 1440 vs 1920 (other than the Dish is trying to screw me camp).

Me having a 1280x720p tv I sit 10+ feet away from I dont really know that id see a diff, but Im kinda curious.

It is more of the encoder not being there yet. Cutting the resolution down to 1440 makes the encoding work that much less. Real time HD MPEG-4 is pretty specialized and the encoding hardware is still being developed.

 

[gadgtfreek]

It is more of the encoder not being there yet. Cutting the resolution down to 1440 makes the encoding work that much less. Real time HD MPEG-4 is pretty specialized and the encoding hardware is still being developed.

Ah, ok. Is it a possibility we'd not be as happy with 1920 right now as 1440 is at this point in the game?

 

[Poke]

MPEG4 Hardware been out for awhile now so that is not a issue if any at all. It just waiting on Networks to switch out their old hardware for MPEG4 some are already do this.

 

[digiblur]

MPEG4 Hardware been out for awhile now so that is not a issue if any at all. It just waiting on Networks to switch out their old hardware for MPEG4 some are already do this.

How it gets to the uplink center doesn't matter. MPEG4, MPEG2, whatever...

 

[Poke]

Yeah but the Network must update their Hardware as well. Some Networks have better hardware than others which is why some Network PQ is better than others. So my point is that Networks must do their part as well to overall improve the PQ its not all on the TV Service Provider. A Example of a Network doing this would be like HBO.

HBO Move to MPEG-4 Opens Door to Big Changes
HBO Move to MPEG-4 Opens Door to Big Changes in Cable > Screenplays Magazine > Flash Points

 

[pdxsam]

HBO converting to Mpeg-4 delivery is smart. They can control how their product looks. Providers can just do a passthrough of the signal since it's already encoded.

 

[mdonnelly]

HBO converting to Mpeg-4 delivery is smart. They can control how their product looks. Providers can just do a passthrough of the signal since it's already encoded.

Unless the HBO encoder is less efficient than the Dish encoder. Not that I expect it to be, 'cuz HBO should be state of the art.

 

[abricko]

The fact that HBO is specifying required bitrates, they must be using good equipment. It'd be nice for E* and the likes to be able to passthrough and not have to re-encode and make it look even softer and possibly mess with the framrates!