[mythtv-users] Frontend for Apple TV 4

Gary Buhrmaster gary.buhrmaster at gmail.com
Tue Nov 10 16:27:20 UTC 2015


On Tue, Nov 10, 2015 at 2:54 PM, Tom Bongiorno <tbjr at bongohut.com> wrote:
....
> You are correct, you are getting cynical. Again, none of the low power
> streaming devices natively support MPEG2 for good reason.

Actually, with the unusual exceptions, all the SoC chips that have on-board
hardware H.264 decoding have hardware MPEG2 decoding on the chip.
Even the Apple chips (although I have heard no one confirm the A9 still has
the hardware decode for MPEG2, all previous gens were reported to do so).
The RPi has hardware MPEG2 decode (which requires a license to enable).
The Nexus Player always had the hardware capability, but ASUS/Google
did not license or support it until Marshmallow (The Nexus 7 2013 had MPEG2
decoding enabled with Lollipop as I recall).  If one gets down to the SoC VPU
level, MPEG2 capability is commonly in there.

It is software and licensing that determines if the systems support the
hardware capabilities.  It is true many low power streaming devices do
not support MPEG2.  But it is not about capability, but ROI.  Few people
will not purchase a Roku because it does not support MPEG2 (even though
the hardware can do so), so why invest in support of it?  It is not what
most streaming devices are purchased for (which is Nefflix, and Amazon
video, and Apple itunes, and Google play, and HBO now, which all
use H.264).

To be (slightly) fair, it is also true that MPEG2 bandwidth requirements
means that few people on (true) mobile devices would have been able
to be satisfied with the experience.  H.264 fits better.

This has lead to an entire cottage industry of transcoding solutions
for people with MPEG2 content (which includes those with a lot of
recorded TV, or ripped DVDs), but while everyone on this list may
wish for MPEG2 support, the total is still small, and companies look at
ROI.  Commit (with a purchase order) to purchase a few hundred
million Rokus if they add MPEG2 support by the new year, and you
might find Roku will add it (well, they could not ship that many, but
they would talk).


More information about the mythtv-users mailing list