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HDTV Over IP
gravelpup writes " NASA Watch has this article about a NASA demo of streaming an HDTV feed over a 20Mbps network from D.C. to California. Suddenly, watching NASA TV at home over a dinky DSL connection doesn't seem so cool anymore." For some reason this just makes streaming high quality video over the net seem even further away to me.
When people say "HDTV," they can mean either the full-bandwidth uncompressed signal (on the order of 1.3 Gbps) or the broadcast-standard signal (MPEG-2 compressed to the order of 19.7 Mbit, or about 50-to-1, more or less).
Obviously this test didn't use uncompressed HDTV. Must have used MPEG-2.
When it comes to standard definition TV, the stuff you get over digital cable or DBS is typically between 4 and 6 Mbit. I think most people would consider 2 Mbit to be unacceptably noisy... but then again, I can ignore an awful lot of softness and artifacting from my TiVo, so maybe even 2 Mbit would be acceptable under the right circumstances.
Uncompressed standard-def TV, on the other hand, is carried over a 270 Mbit signal.
MPEG-2 compression seems to be totally acceptable up to 50-to-1, and marginally so up to about 100-to-1. DVCpro 25 (25 Mbit, or about 10-to-1) is widely considered to be crappy by broadcast standards, but looks a damn sight better than my TiVo on my home TV.
My rambling point (coffee, please) is that "HDTV" is a soft, fuzzy concept. Squeeze it down to 5 or 6 Mbit and it'll still be HDTV, with a thousand lines of resolution on-screen. But it might be so fuzzy or artifact-y that nobody would watch it.
Everytime there is an HDTV story posted I read people WHINE about how bad HDTV is. Just stop it. The reason HD (or DTV for that matter) have not taken off is the MPAA (or rather who they rerosent.) HD content is sparse. Why? Studio's don't want to produce it. And it's not a matter of technology. It's not a matter of costing huge ammounts of money for the studio to make an HD copy. In fact many prime time programs are filmed, then converted to video during editing. Usually drama's, sci-fi, made for TV movies, etc.
Studio's hate HDTV. Why? Because it ruins a very important Video market. They now count on the fact that VCR's make low quality, grainy copies of on-air content. This means they can make tons of bank on [insert fav show here] box sets. Once you deal with a digital format they are sunk. People can now make a high quality recording for personal use. Hence no reason to buy an over priced box set from the local retailer.
While people can contend the studios and networks are free to do as they please, I would counter that the networks are allowed to use OUR airwaves for next to nothing. With out over the air content no one would buy a box set show. Like it or not, Timeshifting is legal and is considered a RIGHT we have gained in exchange for allowing networks to use the airwaves.
HD prices could have dropped like DVD prices by now if the studios didn't stand in the way. The mear fact that hardware vendors keep having to go to the design stage to add new copy protect and transports to please the studios is just crazy.
HD is $$$ and in it's intfancy because of the DMCA and studio money. It's doesn't matter if you're a Dem. or Rep., because neither party took a stand and did any thing to protect the consumer.