Monday June 29, 2009 - Shelby Cunningham
For some time, those smart engineers who tell us all about the technical intricacies of video compression technology told us that MPEG-2 had reached its efficiency peak some years ago. They said it was tapped out – no more improvements. But apparently technical breakthroughs for old technology happen, and broadcast encoder makers like Tandberg and Harmonic tell us that they have now managed to squeeze as much as a 20% gain in greater MPEG-2 efficiency, thus extending the life of this codec.
Even though MPEG-4 AVC usage is rapidly growing, it’s not doing it at the expense of MPEG-2 as STBs for digital cable, satellite, IPTV and terrestrial transmissions still decode MPEG-2. Even though a handful of services are only delivering programs in MPEG-4 AVC, the STBs and TVs are still capable of decoding both MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 AVC. Chip makers haven’t seen enough demand to efficiently make AVC-only chips, and media processors that decode MPEG-4 AVC still decode MPEG-2 at this point in time.
Including MPEG-2 in digital STBs and TVs seems to be a sure thing for a few more years thanks to the new greater efficiency, the need for backward compatibility and the current cost savings for chip suppliers to make hybrid chips. For now...
Source: DTC
