[opendtv] Re: Analysis: Should Apple Buy Hollywood?

  • From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2012 15:47:19 -0600

Craig Birkmaier wrote:

>> Even after SD was added, wisely enough, ATSC still mandated HD stream
>> reception. So that, unless some sort of decimating feature was
>> developed, MPEG-2 MP@HL would be mandatory regardless. Even if the
>> image eventually went to an SD screen.
>
> SO?

Here is what you had written, Craig:

> The two [HDTV and ATSC] were developed hand in hand - BOTH leverage
> MPEG-2 MP@ML for Standard Definition video. Both the ATSC and DVD
> standards call out MPEG-2 MP@ML.

And I'm saying, no, they do not, because both ATSC requires MPEG-2 MP@HL in 
*all* receivers. The only way to "leverage" MPEG-2 MP@ML, in ATSC receivers, 
would have been some sort of MPEG stream decimation feature, to scale the 
transmitted MPEG-2 stream down to SD quality BEFORE the MPEG decoder. As far as 
I know, this was never developed, because it was never remotely cost 
competitive to do so.

Or are you saying that ATSC SD streams go through a different decoder from the 
HD streams??

> It has only been in the past 2-3 years that the majority of broadcasts
> and cable networks have been available in HDTV. MOST local U.S.
> broadcast stations still do not originate local content in HD.

Perhaps it's a case of being disingenuous.

The majority of prime time broadcasts from the major networks has been HD ever 
since 1998. And that's a very large fraction of what people actually watch on 
TV. You make it sound like HD content is a rarity, when it's patently obvious 
that it isn't so. Certainly not on OTA networks.

And it did not take many years before much of the daytime programming also went 
to HD. I need to search the Topica archives to show you how you've been 
repeating this same stuff forever, like we were still back in 1998.

Much of the local content from local broadcasters may be SD, but that, if 
anything, is the rarity.

The general rule in US OTA TV is, every multiplex gets one HD stream, and 
sometimes the multiplex consists only of that one HD stream. Yes, I know, there 
are a few exceptions, like our MHz Networks dual multiplex of 10 SD streams.

Bert

 
 
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