S2 transcoder for 4DTV

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Sucker born every minute ;)

Unfortunately,
I don't have any other choice. But, i will be watching the 8-1 Phoenix Suns tonight on TNT HD.:p And I don't think that TP (6 channels) is crammed as much as some of the others. So it should still look good.;)
 
3 = 2 (approximate H.264 compression gain over MPEG2) x 1.5 (8PSK vs. QPSK). Of course this depends on FEC, which depends on the link margin in terms of the satellite's ERP and the economic best choice for the dish size. Lots of variables. An interesting metric might be what is the commercial cost per Mb/s, including receivers, dishes, LNBs that HBO expects a cable company to expend compared to what Dish is willing to expend on a single customer.

I would probably prefer a 7.5 Mb/s H.264 feed over a 15 Mb/s MPEG2 if forced to make a choice. Both would be of comparable softness, but the artifacts will be generally less noticeable with H.264 because the algorithmic techniques have been considerably refined since the standards for MPEG2 were established. Don't get me wrong. MPEG2 can look incredible, especially at 30-40 Mb/s. But 15 Mb/s is often middling in quality.

Comparing transponders in this manner is a bit of apples-to-oranges. Last time I looked C-band transponders were generally 36 MHz in bandwidth and spaced every 40 MHz on the same polarization. Dish I believe uses 24 MHz transponders spaced every 29 MHz. Both approaches fill a 500 MHz slot. I don't even see what the two have to do with one another. Master feeds are master feeds and DBS is DBS. Providers have to decide what is reasonable in terms of link margins and the cost of ground facilities. HBO could get bragging rights by throwing up 32PSK with a 9/10 FEC on every transponder. But that would drive a lot of expensive upgrades.


Even using a more efficient codec it still throws away important information that makes up the picture. If you compress with Mpeg 2 or Mpeg 1000 it's missing what really makes it sparkle. That's the problem it don't stand out like it could. All consumer HD lately has lost what HD was all about. The pizza providers and cable, well there just butchering it beyond belief. Now OTA is following suit too. May as wall go back to SD bottles. ;)
 
Unfortunately,
I don't have any other choice. But, i will be watching the 8-1 Phoenix Suns tonight on TNT HD.:p And I don't think that TP (6 channels) is crammed as much as some of the others. So it should still look good.;)

Enjoy your DVD quality tonight ;)
 
I'd be happy w/ 19mb Mpeg2 and 9/10 mb Mpeg4. Why can't they just freak'n give it to us. We pay all their bills anyways. They owe us that much.:rant:
 
I'd be happy w/ 19mb Mpeg2 and 9/10 mb Mpeg4. Why can't they just freak'n give it to us. We pay all their bills anyways. They owe us that much.:rant:

Because it's perceived that 200 mostly useless HD channels are more important than 25 good ones. I cringe every time Dish announces new HD channels. Most people are cheering. I guess they don't know or care what they're missing. Maybe they're watching HD on a 19", 30-year-old CRT TV through the RF output on the tuner and drooling at the picture.
 
I'd be happy w/ 19mb Mpeg2 and 9/10 mb Mpeg4. Why can't they just freak'n give it to us. We pay all their bills anyways. They owe us that much.:rant:

They don't owe you anything and could care less about you and your wants and needs. As long as you and the sheeple out there keep giving them money every month they will be happy.

Money to Charlie from TvroPro 0 :D:D:D
 
Because it's perceived that 200 mostly useless HD channels are more important than 25 good ones. I cringe every time Dish announces new HD channels. Most people are cheering. I guess they don't know or care what they're missing. Maybe they're watching HD on a 19", 30-year-old CRT TV through the RF output on the tuner and drooling at the picture.

19" gassy bottles using RF ch 3. Hey but it's digital and High Def so it's the greatest. Hahahahahah................ :haha:haha:haha:yikes
 
Because it's perceived that 200 mostly useless HD channels are more important than 25 good ones. I cringe every time Dish announces new HD channels. Most people are cheering. I guess they don't know or care what they're missing. Maybe they're watching HD on a 19", 30-year-old CRT TV through the RF output on the tuner and drooling at the picture.

Agreed, If you read the DISHNETWORK section of the forum. Most people think the HD they are getting from charlie is good. A few even think it's fabulous:D
But, it is a big step up from charlie's SD.
 
Agreed, If you read the DISHNETWORK section of the forum. Most people think the HD they are getting from charlie is good. A few even think it's fabulous:D
But, it is a big step up from charlie's SD.


Thats the plan :shh, to brainwash the masses with such piss poor SD that there so called HD is eye candy when it's not even up to a good SD master.

I think Im going to write about this when I get the time and post it on my website. People need to be educated. BTW do you know about Super HD? thats the next generation HD coming out. It will look like a 8-9 mb/s HD signal when they get done butchering it that will really be the cats meow to these blind idiots. :eek:
 
Here's the response back from Mike Kohl.

While it would be a noble and worthy goal to save subscription C-band, we're probably going to have to hope Motorola's cable and satellite division is sold to a forward thinking company, before your pipe dream has a chance of being considered. Hints have appeared in the media that they would like to sell, and numbers around 4 billion have been quoted. Whether or not anyone is interested in doing the right thing, as well as part with that much money, remains to be seen.

Less than a year ago, high level discussions were held with Motorola with some executives in the c-band industry, who tried to come up with a combo receiver that does many of the things you are describing, kind of like what Canada's Star Choice/Shaw is doing with their HD units on Ku-band. Motorola was not interested unless an advance order for at least 20,000 receivers was made----and collectively there was not enough money or interest from those executives in ordering that many.
The numbers they were talking about were considerably less, and realistic, given the number of potential customers left in the market. If half of the remaining C-band subscription customers with 4DTV units were to pony up and buy a receiver of this type, that 20,000 unit number could be a reality. Back on planet Earth, there is no one company or collective group of companies willing or able to take the risk and make an order for that much inventory. The only way that such a thing could happen is for Motorola to reconsider their numbers, or for them to be purchased by a company more willing to consider our market. In the meantime, Skyvision will continue to buy and sell used 4DTV receivers as well as sell their refurbished DSR410 receivers at an attractive price. :Anyone sitting on the fence without a working DC2 unit should consider the DSR-410 at least as a stopgap measure to keep things going. Receiver alone is 129.95 plus shipping. :A C-band LNBF and a receiver are 169.95 plus shipping.
Skyvision can offer a 6 foot antenna, making the entire system under 400 dollars delivered to many locations. Or you could connect these components to your existing six foot or larger C-band antenna. :That is what it will really take to keep things going, until something changes at Motorola.

Best regards,

Mike
 
I guess the question is now. Why did the cband executives wait until less than a yr ago. When most of their subscribers done left, to finally approach Motorola with a plan? This should have been done in the development stages of S2 when they had alot more customers left. Maybe the IPTV thing really sidetracked things for the worse? Way to go MikeM. :D
But, only 20,000 receivers needed or maybe less if Motorola sells the STB division. Still gives me hope. Unfortunatly with cband providers raising prices at a beyond believable rate. I doubt their will even be 20,000 subs left this time next yr.:(
 
I guess the question is now. Why did the cband executives wait until less than a yr ago. When most of their subscribers done left, to finally approach Motorola with a plan? This should have been done in the development stages of S2 when they had alot more customers left. Maybe the IPTV thing really sidetracked things for the worse? Way to go MikeM. :D
But, only 20,000 receivers needed or maybe less if Motorola sells the STB division. Still gives me hope. Unfortunatly with cband providers raising prices at a beyond believable rate. I doubt their will even be 20,000 subs left this time next yr.:(

What we have to do now is what Mike Kohl is saying. Keep C band subscription going by ponying up for a subscription and receiver of some sort. Even if we have to go the way of pizza or whatever for nitch channels right now we must still keep the 4D or 410 active with something. This will keep numbers up or at least steady. Then the next step is for Motorola to sell to a more friendly company to us. Then the big players need to sit down with them and open the doors.

I think what Mike Kohl is talking about as big players is Skyvision and SRL. I don't think NPS was there.

Bottom line is keep the current stuff going and hope for a better tomorrow. I ordered another mini pack the other day, so now I have 3 small packages and 2 ala carts and spend about $20.00 a month for 31 channels. And there ones I watch unlike a pizza or cable packages.

Keep the faith we may beat this yet. As people spending tall $$$ on new HDTV's get disgusted with HD lite and look for something better spread the word, Satellite Guys should use there ad space to put up a banner in the Direct and dish network forums to inform the purists disgusted with poor HD to look at C band.

:)
 
+1 what mike said. One of my friends has D* HD service and i am not really overly impressed with the pic quality. It's ok but nothing spectacular.
 
I would be first in line if some path forward was found to provide subscription access to master feeds on the HD side. I'd even pony up a good pocket of change for the technology to do so.

But I've reached the end of the road for SD. I worked as a chief engineer in the broadcast industry for several years in the 1970s, and studio SD was exceptional even back then. At that time I purchased a standalone OTA tuner/broadcast-grade monitor and tweaked a highly directional antenna so I could enjoy nearly the same quality at home. I passed on video tapes and still have a LaserDisc collection with many movies otherwise unavailable today. By the early-1990s I was burned out. SD master feeds are great, but nothing much different than what I had 35 years ago.

Now that the final 4DTV HD channels are pulling the plug, I'm not willing to stick around for the funeral. I've heard good things about FIOS, but in this geographical area I have to put up with bottom feeders. It's not always predictable, but some of the pizza HD channels are run at rates 50-100% higher than the others. I've seen 7-8 Mbit/s HD H.264 rates (after null stripping) in the past week, which makes recent STARZ 4DTV HD MPEG2 10-15 Mbit/s rates (after null stripping) not very impressive.

I'm not a fan of HD-lite, but carefully chosen examples are to my eye still quite a bit better than SD master feeds and watching 4:3 cropped movies on a high-end screen. Admittedly I have no interest in sports or action movies, where HD lite is likely pathetic. Fortunately there is excellent HD available via FTA, which makes the effort all worthwhile. SD is now just ancient history for me, and 4DTV is heading down that path because soon that is all that will be left.
 
I've seen 7-8 Mbit/s HD H.264 rates (after null stripping) in the past week, which makes recent STARZ 4DTV HD MPEG2 10-15 Mbit/s rates (after null stripping) not very impressive.


To my eyes. The HBOHD master's were always better than the STARZHD master feeds. Also, i thought DiscoveryHD (now HDtheater) was alot better when it was located on C-4 instead of C-3. I agree that the HDlite found on DISH is better than the SD masters. But, the shear number of the ENCORE'S you get with 4DTV has persuaded me to keep my Starz sub on the 4DTV alive and only add HBO to my DISHHD sub. I cringe everytime i think about having to watch anything SD on DISH as i believe they only provide one ENCORE in HD at this time. But, if in the future SRL and NPS keep raising prices at their current rate due to them "wanting to bring in the same cash flow" as before. But, with much less subscribers. I'm probally gone.
 
The problem with ALL the pizza and cable providers is that everyday they are thinking of ways to cram more so called HD content for there subscribers. As time goes on they will get down to 3 mb per channel and thats just enough to support SD. I don't care what new wizbang codec they are using it will look like crap. I've seen Direct tv and Dishes HD and Im not impressed. I was at the goodie store the other day watching Blu ray on an LED Tv and wasn't all that much impressed. Lets face it all this HD stuff is hype in one way or another to sell tv's and piss poor quality content to the sucker.

Maybe Im looking for too much out of HD. It could be because Im conditioned to the best quality pictures for so many years on the bud. To me an old analog master was better than most of the HD there trying to sell today. What is the sense of making these displays with a ton of resolution (1080P) and feeding it 200 lines or less of compressed crap. May as well dig out an old 1950 Dumont B&W tv and watch that. That's where were headed.
 
Thats the plan :shh, to brainwash the masses with such piss poor SD that there so called HD is eye candy when it's not even up to a good SD master.

I think Im going to write about this when I get the time and post it on my website. People need to be educated. BTW do you know about Super HD? thats the next generation HD coming out. It will look like a 8-9 mb/s HD signal when they get done butchering it that will really be the cats meow to these blind idiots. :eek:

Super HD? Gosh, does that mean I'll have to buy a new TV and FTA receiver in a couple of years?
 
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