Maybe Cable will be using MPEG4 to receive programming from providers but I don't understand how they will be sending MPEG4 to consumers when.
All those old Motorola DCT series STBs do have MPEG4 decoders in hardware and the CPUs aren't powerful enough to do it in software. I am not sure on the DCH and SA/Cisco stuff...but are cable companies really ready to mass upgrade even just the HD subscribers?
All Digital Cable Ready TVs sold both currently and in the past don't have MPEG4 decoders either.
Maybe for Pay Per View and things that require a two-way STB anyway...but I can't see mainstream linear HD channels going to MPEG4 anytime soon.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jim Mallory @ Dec 20th 2007 2:09PM
Maybe Cable will be using MPEG4 to receive programming from providers but I don't understand how they will be sending MPEG4 to consumers when.
All those old Motorola DCT series STBs do have MPEG4 decoders in hardware and the CPUs aren't powerful enough to do it in software. I am not sure on the DCH and SA/Cisco stuff...but are cable companies really ready to mass upgrade even just the HD subscribers?
All Digital Cable Ready TVs sold both currently and in the past don't have MPEG4 decoders either.
Maybe for Pay Per View and things that require a two-way STB anyway...but I can't see mainstream linear HD channels going to MPEG4 anytime soon.
TrentD @ Dec 20th 2007 2:29PM
They'll have to replace the boxes. This happens every few years anyway.