AfterDawn: News

DISH goes all MPEG-4 AVC

The DISH Network has announced that they will become the first in the industry to offer all SD and HD transmissions in the MPEG-4 AVC standard.

Although competitor DIRECTV already offers all HD programming in the MPEG-4 AVC they only offer a portion of their SD programming in the standard.



At launch, only 21 markets in the US will have the full MPEG-4 AVC rollout with other markets receiving later.

"DISH Network once again leads the pack in providing customers with an unparalleled entertainment experience. Our complete MPEG-4 solution -- which will offer up to 150 HD channels by the end of the year -- uses the most advanced technology in the industry to deliver the best quality picture to any television set in the home, perfect for those who have or are considering upgrading to high definition," said Jessica Insalaco, Chief Marketing Officer for DISH Network. "We look forward to expanding this advanced service to more consumers throughout the U.S. in the coming months."

The first 21 markets to recieve the all-MPEG 4 AVC offer are: Cleveland; Richmond; Baltimore; Columbia; Tampa; Green Bay; Greensboro; Providence; Greenville; Knoxville; Raleigh; Chicago; Detroit; Charlotte; Dallas; Nashville; Minneapolis; Philadelphia; Washington, D.C.; New York, N.Y.; and Hartford.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 26 Aug 2008 15:59

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• 6 comments

• tatsh

  When copying this content, is there any major difference in converting this form of MPEG-4 to XviD/x264 in comparison to MPEG-2 sources?

  26.8.2008 16:47 #1

• DXR88

  Thats no-good, all MPEG-4. i have had bad experiences with MPEG-4 on a standard TV.

  26.8.2008 20:23 #2

• tatsh

  At the end of the day, is MPEG-2 just better than MPEG-4 (hence the reason why most companies are STILL using it as a standard even for HD content)?

  26.8.2008 20:42 #3

• DXR88

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPEG-4
  
  Google Is your Friend.

  26.8.2008 23:26 #4

• dRD

  Originally posted by tatsh: At the end of the day, is MPEG-2 just better than MPEG-4 (hence the reason why most companies are STILL using it as a standard even for HD content)?MPEG-4 is better -- it provides much better video and audio quality on the same bitrate as MPEG-2 does. The main reason behind MPEG-2's widespread use, AFAIK, is the fact that most of world's professional video shooting, editing and transmitting devices, software and embedded solutions are from "MPEG-2 era" and replacing them in one bang would cost billions and billions of dollars. Thus, the slow transition. Furthermore, in satellite, the "bandwidth" available is much cheaper and more easily available, so that the need for a better compression technology (MPEG-4) isn't as critical as in some other transmission types (antenna/"broadcast TV", to some extend cable and, of course, IPTV).
  
  Basically, to produce similar video quality, using 1080p, MPEG-2 needs at least twice the bitrate and bandwidth as the same quality video would require when using MPEG-4.

  27.8.2008 04:59 #5

• susieqbbb

  wow thats not new..
  
  My dish network box for the past 2 years have done mpeg and mpeg 4.
  
  Don't really know what the big deal is this only really helps there digital recorders

  28.8.2008 00:25 #6