future use of MPEG 4

[digideal]

Hi Folks. Down the road when there are a majority of Mpeg4 boxes out there, what will the programming look like? Will it be locals only? Will it be all HD? What is the channel capacity of the new bird D* launched? Would it be possible that D* would offer new HD Channels (Like NFLHD) only on the MPEG4 bandwith?

Reason I am asking: I am in Dallas. We have like 15 HD channels OTA. D* offers only 4. So, the short term with the current HD DVR is great for me because I will be able to have it all. But, when (and if) the eventual change to MPEG4 occurs, what will the world look like?

 

[mjones1973]

Directv is adding capacity for 150 national channels with the launch of 2 additional sats scheduled to go up next year.

Not all channels will be in HD because not all channels will be available in HD anytime soon, there's no requirement for any channels to switch to HD.

Not sure what the current capacity is with Spaceway 1 and Spaceway 2 that were recently launched but they are used only for local HD channels. Directv claims they will have capacity for 1500 local channels and the 150 national channels as mentioned above by the time all 4 new sats are up.

I don't see any reason, other then contract issues, why Directv shouldn't get caught up on the current HD offerings once they have the bandwidth for them. I'd expect the current HD channels will migrate over to MPEG4 at some point also.

Of course with Directv not usually releasing info about upcoming HD channels til they are about to happen, we'll all find out what the new world will look like at the same time.

 

[Jimbo]

Directv is adding capacity for 150 national channels with the launch of 2 additional sats scheduled to go up next year.

Not all channels will be in HD because not all channels will be available in HD anytime soon, there's no requirement for any channels to switch to HD.

Not sure what the current capacity is with Spaceway 1 and Spaceway 2 that were recently launched but they are used only for local HD channels. Directv claims they will have capacity for 1500 local channels and the 150 national channels as mentioned above by the time all 4 new sats are up.

I don't see any reason, other then contract issues, why Directv shouldn't get caught up on the current HD offerings once they have the bandwidth for them. I'd expect the current HD channels will migrate over to MPEG4 at some point also.

Of course with Directv not usually releasing info about upcoming HD channels til they are about to happen, we'll all find out what the new world will look like at the same time.

mjones1973
I agree with everything you've said .
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digideal, If you are wondering if your current HD DVR will be obsolete the answer is NO, keep using it as long as you want.

As for D* bringing out new channels, yes it is possible for them to bring them out on MPEG4 only, though they have not said they would be MPEG 4 only.

All channels will be digital, not nessasaraly HD.
Channels will enclude all channels not just locals

Jimbo

 

[ebonovic]

All channels will be digital, not nessasaraly HD.

Technically speaking:

All channels on DirecTV ARE digital, there is no analog transmissions on DirecTV.

 

[Jimbo]

Technically speaking:

All channels on DirecTV ARE digital, there is no analog transmissions on DirecTV.

Yes, I am aware of that, I was trying to point out that the channels would not nesassaraly be in HD.

That is another advantage of D* and or DISH over cable, most cable still have some analog channels.

Jimbo

 

[digideal]

I'm just curious how they are going to use the current Mpeg2 compression specturm. They have so much bandwith tied up with digital music and totally random channels, when more Mpeg4 comes out, I'm curious how they will offer it their subs. Time will tell.

And yes, coming from cable, I'm very glad about the all Digital channels. I'm guessing the current HD DVR has a value for only 2.5 - 3 years more. They aren't loosing that much on these dinky OTA antennas being installed.

 

[mjones1973]

MPEG2 will continued to be used for the current SD and HD channels for now, at some point I could see the HD channels migrating to MPEG4 and as pointed out, new HD channels being MPEG4 only.

 

[ebonovic]

Even with MPEG-2, the XM channels probably compress down.. to the size of 2 or so video channels in the data stream...

Just my opinion from what I know about the difference between compression ratios of Audio vs Video

 

[colofan]

Small nitpik but everything is analog it is digitally encoded and decoded...think transponder per satellite.

 

[Jimbo]

Even with MPEG-2, the XM channels probably compress down.. to the size of 2 or so video channels in the data stream...

Just my opinion from what I know about the difference between compression ratios of Audio vs Video

I was under the impression that audio took up much less space than video .....meaning the audio did not take up much space at all

Anyone know which way it is for sure ???

Jimbo

 

[mjones1973]

That would be correct, all the XM channels can probably fit in the space of 1 to 2 video channels as Earl pointed out.

 

[longrider]

I was under the impression that audio took up much less space than video .....meaning the audio did not take up much space at all

Anyone know which way it is for sure ???

Jimbo

I think he meant ALL the XM channels combined take up the equivalent of 2 video channels which is what I would estimate. Plus the video you do see (title, artist, etc) is created by your receiver from a text data stream.

 

[Jimbo]

I think he meant ALL the XM channels combined take up the equivalent of 2 video channels which is what I would estimate. Plus the video you do see (title, artist, etc) is created by your receiver from a text data stream.

I think we all posted about the same time, I was trying to say basically the same thing ebonovic had mentioned, just said it in a more dificult way, for some reason.