[opendtv] Re: Food for thought
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 22 Feb 2007 21:29:31 -0500
At 2:57 PM -0500 2/22/07, Manfredi, Albert E wrote:
Craig Birkmaier wrote:
Every change in a deployed standard comes at a price. If
you have to pick a time when an upgrade is to be
implemented, you're better off making sure the upgrade
is an obvious improvement. In the case of the BBC,
introducing HDTV in a market with no HDTV and no
deployed MPEG-2 MP at HL boxes at all, it's no big
shakes to go to H.264. In countries where HDTV is
deployed and working just fine, I would wait until
something more efficient comes along.
You mean like the difference between multichannel services
with hundreds of channels versus a dying broadcast model
with 5-10 programs per market?
I already posted a logical time to upgrade the codec in DTT, without
having to ask for more frequency channels.
The best time is when an existing MPEG-2 HDTV channel can be reduced to
SDTV, and a simulcast HDTV channel simulcast in the same channel, with
no more bit rate than what the MPEG-2 HD stream occupied before. That
way, no one is disenfranchised during the transition, HDTV viewers are
encouraged to switch quickly, and no extra spectrum is needed during the
transition.
So, even though many seem to resist accepting this, it appears from the
BBC HDTV real-world testing that H.264 is not the codec that would
permit such a transition plan.
Hmmmmm...
The EBU found that they can do exactly what you are asking fo using
720P for the HD source. They demonstrated this at IBC and we talked
about this extensively on the list.
Nor would it change that considerably the multichannel aspects of DTT.
They don't say anything about image quality, but the Sky plan for their
subscription DTT service was to pack 4 SD streams where 3 SD streams are
now, using H.264 instead of H.262. Presumably, this could be done at
similar image quality.
Most likely better.
Regards
Craig
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