John Shutt wrote: > How you can jump to the conclusion that MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 are > essentially equal in bitrate requirements when use in HD is > beyond me, beyond logic, and not supported by any data. "Essentially equal," in the practical tests, is the key. Not identical, not in degraded modes, not squeezing them to the limit, perhaps, but essentially equal as implemented. You have all the information you need: 1. Freeview uses 16-QAM, 2/3 FEC, 8 MHz channels, or roughly 15 to 16 Mb/s per multiplex. (I'm not sure of the GI, assume 1/16.) 2. Freeview assigns 4 to 5 program streams per multiplex, or on average anywhere between 3 and 4 Mb/s per SD stream. http://www.dgtvi.it/stat/Europa/Gran_Bretagna/Page1.html 3. HDTV in H.264 takes up the same capacity as 3 to four SDTV programs, which means 9 to 16 Mb/s at the lower and upper limits of that estimate. 4. They tested to a max of 19.5 Mb/s, for HDTV. You know a lot. Okay, maybe not 12 to 20 Mb/s as I had estimated, which gave each SD stream 4 to 5 Mb/s avg, but still within the range of what HDTV using H.262 can do, from 24p to 60p, for good HDTV. Bert ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways: - Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.