Motorola officially announced today the technology behind recent encoder deals with the launch of the DSR-6000 series of receiver-transcoders. Basically, the new technology can deliver content using either MPEG-4 AVC or MPEG-2 compression – an excellent solution given our varied video-delivery landscape.
Three points of interest:
- For content folks this means a new ability to create material in one format (MPEG-4 or MPEG-2, in HD or SD) and rely on receivers to transcode the video depending on what operators need. Suddenly MPEG-4 is a lot more attractive because content producers know that everyone will receive their video, even if not everyone will see it with MPEG-4 compression. (Satellite operators have deployed MPEG-4 set-tops; others have not.)
- Bandwidth, bandwidth, bandwidth. The new Motorola receivers promise bandwidth savings of up to 75%. That comes from a combination of MPEG-4 compression and delivery via DVB-S2 modulated signals. (DVB-S2 is an enhanced satellite broadcasting spec.)
- Cable won’t make the transition to MPEG-4 quickly, but the DSR-6400 series is creating a smoother migration path – one where cable won’t get shut out when networks like HBO launch 26 HD channels using MPEG-4.
UPDATE: Bob Larribeau saw a DSR-6000 demonstration and reports he saw no difference between regular MPEG-2 HD content and MPEG-2 HD content that had been transcoded from MPEG-4.
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