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MPEG4 PCMCIA cards for HDTV
I read with interest the difficulties associated with PC software decode of the BBC and ITV/4/5 MPEG4 DVB-T transmissions from Crystal Palace B, mainly due to the MBAFF format and CPU clock speeds. An alternative soon to be available from the PCMCIA vendors is a CI based hardware solution which plugs directly into IDTVs eg HD ready IDTVs. This will shortly be launched by vendors such as Neotion, see their web site, who have announced a deal with Viaaccess and a leading French pay-tv vendor. These will apparently also be available from other vendors to buy in the usual retail outlets, upgrading IDTVs to hardware decode of MPEG4.
Separately Crystal B on Channels 27 and 31 is using a tilt antenna system so that the coverage does not leak over the radio horizon, particularly to the north where it would interfere with the Sandy Heath analogue transmissions. The signals are clearly being transmitted several dB down on the 20kW ERP Freeview signals and are using the planned UK post-switchover DVB-T modes.
More soon.
Separately Crystal B on Channels 27 and 31 is using a tilt antenna system so that the coverage does not leak over the radio horizon, particularly to the north where it would interfere with the Sandy Heath analogue transmissions. The signals are clearly being transmitted several dB down on the 20kW ERP Freeview signals and are using the planned UK post-switchover DVB-T modes.
More soon.
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Comments
AIUI the Neotion CAM effectively uses the CAM infrastructure to transcode SD MPEG4 to SD MPEG2 (I guess at a high data rate) to allow an SD MPEG2 STB to receive SD MPEG4.
However what this doesn't do is allow an SD MPEG2 set top box to receive and display HD MPEG4...
It's designed to allow legacy equipment to receive MPEG4 transmissions, but it's not going to make a receiver that was originally built with a frame buffer of 720x576 pixels to magically find more pixels from somewhere.
Most HD sets have SD MPEG decoders; the 'HD Ready' side of things merely means that they can accept HD from elsewhere and send it to the screen.
When I looked at the Neotion stuff, it didn't suggest anywhere that it could scale video on the fly, as well as transcode, so it's almost certain that it won't be any use to those wanting to watch HD material on existing equipment.
Nigel.
I think it'll be a while before we see many bits of kit sporting the HDTV logo.
Nigel.