DirecTV's 1st MPEG4 Satellite Launch Successful

tivoKlr writes "Looks like the 1st Spaceway satellite to provide "1500 channels of HD" has made it successfully into space. MPEG4 compression and local HD channels, something that the cable company can't offer in my area." Unfortunately the new satellite obsoletes the HD Tivo, and there's no word on when there will be a new one.

Comments

Full HDTV Finally

[blackmesh.com]

Finally something that can compete with Comcast's 15 HD channels. This might actually push local cable providers to finally offer HD service for all of the channels.

Of course the content will have to be in HD as well. But this always has been the chicken and the egg problem, without a network to broadcast HD content, why create it?

jason

For someone not hip on the lingo

[Enigma_Man]

Why does it obsolete the HD TiVo?

-Jesse

Quality of MPEG4 signals?

[jfmerryman]

Has anyone had a chance to personally see MPEG4-encoded HD? Is the quality acceptable compared to the original MPEG2 stream?

I have to imagine that by recompressing into MPEG4 from MPEG2 (the format the signals are provided in, at least currently), some quality would be lost. The question is, how much quality is DirectTV prepared to sacrifice in order to say that they have the entire country covered with HD locals?

Personally, I'm sticking with cable because I want the original MPEG2 stream passed through without any recompression, and I don't want to watch TV without DVR features.

Re:Quality of MPEG4 signals?

[TheSync]

It has not been proven to me (and my job includes me looking at this) that MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) encoders can do a better job today at the same bitrate as the highest quality MPEG-2 encoders (i.e. the ones that cost $50,000).

I expect that, like MPEG-2, we will see MPEG-4 encoders doing a better job over time, and I suspect that eventually the best MPEG-4 encoders will be doing a similar quality to the best MPEG-2 encoders at half the bitrate. But that is in the future, especially for HD!

the more HD, the merrier

[PureCreditor]

I would love the concept of hundreds or even thousands of HD content. But time warner can't even give me 15 without the "HDXtra" package that's another $9 a month.

With HD "supposedly" defined to be 16:9, I sincerely despise all those major networks - CBS ABC and NBC that broadcost most of their HD content in 4:3. Only Discover and PBS has true 16:9 HD around the clock.

Watching Olympics opening ceremony on HD is simply gorgeous. The only thing I need now is CNN HD.

Re:Satellites are linear not digital

[Casca]

I think a full HD MPEG2 stream takes up 18Mb/s, however many cable companies and definitely satellite companies compress it down from that.

What I do know, is that analog channels on cable, look like utter and complete crap on an HD monitor. That, and the Sci-Atlanta box that COX uses upconverts about as well as a OU plays in the Orange Bowl... Digital cable is such a misnomer, I can't believe they get away with selling it as digital.

footprint

[TheSHAD0W]

Judging by the area of coverage that satellite claims, it seems to me that even when the 2nd satellite is launched most of the US heartland won't be covered.

Since I live in the US heartland, I find this very disheartening...

Re:Uh can I have my analog back please.

[Anonymous Coward]

For years I've fallen asleep to tv using it's timer but the volume difference has made that impossible now.

Quick fix..Goto to a store like musician's friend and buy a two channel compressor/limiter. Sense its the basic ole TV I'm assuming your not using surround sound, anyway.... Plug the audio output of your TV/Cable box into the input of the compressor and then from those outputs to your amp or whatever. You can addressed increases in audio to level it all out. This is off topic. Take your moderator, strike me down with it.

Re:Who does the sky belong to?

[Ucklak]

Say a satellite is 10 feet wide, you could fit over 11,000,000 in a straight line from the earth to orbit and still probably wouldn't be able to see the line.

You can only fit under 8,000 1/64 inch pieces of lint in a straight line on a 10 foot bed sheet

Re:Satellites are linear not digital

[doofusclam]

Digital cable is such a misnomer, I can't believe they get away with selling it as digital.

I believe it's because it is, in fact, a digital system.

You're believing the marketers here by associating digital with 'quality'. Here in the UK we have digital radio (DAB) and due to using the old mp2 codec as rates as low as 64kbits/s it sounds crap. Digital in this case really means 'reliability', as in it'll sound the same each time you play it, not necessary better quality.

Also, a load of pubs here have 42" cheap plasma screens with 852x480 resolution. That's not quite enough for standard definition TV vertically and looks shit with a heavily compressed Sky Digital feed. The screen is not high res enough to post-process the picture nicely, so there's tonnes of dot crawl, colour bleeding and blockiness. It looks even worse when a new series starts, they must recompress it as the picture is terrible - usually this is sorted out by time they air repeats though.

Another thing by the way that hasn't been mentioned about mpeg4 vs mpeg2 - yes mpeg4 is a newer and generally better codec but it's also a lot more complex and hard to tune, especially when they're using real-time hardware to do this. Don't assume mpeg4 will be automatically better just because supports higher resolution video.

I wish

[Gruneun]

Surely they can just upgrade the software...


Not in a hardware-based solution like their current chipset... and don't think that my HD TiVo and I don't wish otherwise.

You can bet I'll be on the phone with a CSR to get some free, upgraded equipment and/or hefty credits. I'm not too worried, though. DirecTV been pretty fantastic about that sort of problem in the past and their publicist has already said they're going to attempt to make everyone happy about the changes.