[mythtv-users] hdhr3-us h.264

[Gary Buhrmaster]

On Tue, Jan 8, 2013 at 11:05 PM, Karl Dietz
<dekarl at spaetfruehstuecken.org> wrote:
> On 09.01.2013 07:13, Evuraan wrote:
>>>
>>> The standard HDHR spits out whatever it is given. Mine spit out h.264
>>> because that's what is broadcast around here.
>>
>>
>> curious about what makes broadcasters chose h.264 instead of mpeg2?
>> shinier, newer gear?
>
>
> The absence of an established user base with investments in old
> equipment. e.g. if you are setting up a new DVB-T network today in an
> area where there is no MPEG-2 over the air you'd always go with H.264
> due to better use of the available bandwidth.

That is what I call an "opportunity" position, where ome is positioning
itself to avoid the "necessity" position.  The "necessity" positions
would include cable operators with limited bandwidth (perhaps their
cable plant is not 1GHz clean and/or they have not yet reclaimed
their analogue channels) but still wish to provide the most possible
content while bypassing SDV, or they wish to offer especially high
bandwidth content (the "3D" channels really require H.264).  As
most recently manufactured HD STBs support both MPEG-2 and
H.264, from the MSO perspective, the cost of insuring the client
base is H.264 capable is very low.  I believe that I read that a few MSO
franchises were starting to use H.264 on their premium HD channels
because they could know that all the subscribers had H.264 capable
STBs (or offered to exchange them).