ABC.com's HD will be less than 2 Mbps
We knew that free HD from ABC.com was too good to be true, and now ABC's VP of technology spills the beans. In order to deliver streaming HD over the Internet, ABC will be using On2 Technologies' video codec to deliver 720p video at 24 fps, but at a bitrate of between 850 Kbps and 2 Mbps. This really isn't much higher than their current streaming service -- that some already believe is HD -- and about half of what we would consider acceptable if encoded with H.264. Sure we knew that the the video wasn't going to be up to our standards, but at this rate we wonder how many people wouldn't just pay $2 an episode to avoid all the dancing grass and un-skipable commercials, if given the chance.
Filed under: Internet
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jacco @ Jun 1st 2007 3:21AM
Many people don't even notice a difference between 2Mbps and 10 Mbps.
If you really want a true HD experience then "just" buy an HD disc which will get you 1080p @ a bitrate of +- 12Mps combined with a true HD 1080 screen and a nice surround set you'll be in bliss.
SicMX @ Jun 1st 2007 4:32AM
I beg to differ. If this is ripped at say 1500kbps it will have ALOT of macroblocking, even worse that movies bought from iTunes.
iTunes tv-series are usually encoded around 640x480 @ 1500kbps (H.264)
These will apparently be encoded around 960x720 @ MAX 2000kbps
I'm guessing they will look sharper than ones of iTunes (due to increased resolution) but have more artifacts and be more blocky.
When i rip my DVDs to be viewed on AppleTV i rip 720x576 (anamorphic) @ 3000bps (H.264) and I for one can't tell it apart from the original DVD
earthling @ Jun 1st 2007 8:03AM
The ON2 codec is single threaded and has serious problems with decoding HD resolution video in certain scenes without stuttering. My guess is that they will use every trick in the book including anamorphic encoding, sub resolution sampling, and temporal smoothing to get the results.. and guess what, it will still artifact BADLY on action content.
nike @ Jun 1st 2007 10:44AM
I gotta say, I hooked up my laptop to a 42" plasma a couple weeks ago to watch the season finale of Greys. It looked pretty darn good and that was JUST SD feeds. Full screen, it was pretty darn good. When I switched over to HD from a TIVO, certainly I could SEE the differance, but if they upped the rez at least 100% from what it is now, it would be even MORE Pretty darn good.
chickeneye @ Jun 1st 2007 2:35PM
ABC released a couple screenshots of the HD. I don't really care what the bitrate is if it's subjectively HD - and this looks pretty good. If I let my projector go out of focus a bit, even the purest HD-DVD goes a little soft. Ultimately it's splitting hairs I think.
http://ll.media.abc.com/streaming/hd/abccomhd1280x720_kate.png
http://ll.media.abc.com/streaming/hd/abccomhd1280x720_locke.png
GhostDoggy @ Jun 3rd 2007 7:56AM
Truth in advertising. Sorry, I cannot support this. ABC has gone the way of DirecTV in their interpretations of high definition. Good thing I will not waste my time on their HDlite website.
uagent @ Jun 4th 2007 10:35AM
It's got an XPI plugin that doesn't working in Linux? Boo. Well, back to nbc's stream then. While not in HD, *working* is much preferable to ND (No-Definition).
K @ Aug 25th 2007 4:07AM
thought I'd catch the last few eps of The Nine, but it should be called The nnnnnninnnnneeee thanks to all the stuttering. ABC says to try when there are less users, but come on, dump the ON2 codec