[opendtv] Re: Food for thought

Ron Economos wrote:

> The BBC trials were done with a 1st generation
> H.264 encoder. We are still very much on the
> steep part of the slope for encoding quality
> improvements in H.264. Second generation encoders
> are shipping, and the encoding quality on those
> devices is rapidly evolving from when they
> were first introduced.
>
> Even though the BBC trials were just last year,
> they are already out of date with regard to H.264
> encoding technology.

Indeed, and this is a sensible point, IMO. For sure, encoders will
improve, as MPEG-2 encoders have. But I still think that practical
deployed systems will have to operate at less than their theoretical
ideal, simply because of the sync-up time problem.

A somewhat unrelated example is HD Radio. If you tune to a primary
channel, which comes also in analog, the tuning experience is fine. The
analog comes in right away, the digital seamlessly replaces the analog
in a few seconds.

Try tuning immediately to a subchannel, which has no analog equivalent.
I just don't think that kind of delay can be acceptable, in an
all-digital radio. The wait must be more than 5 seconds. I don't think
DTV tuning would be considered acceptable with that sort of delay
either, yet that is the primary mechanism which provides the codec
efficiencies (when quality is kept constant).

Bert
 
 
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