QAM and Mpeg-4

[dvd_maniac]

When the networks switch from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4(H.264) will the current QAM tuners become obsolete? I have the 2250 and HDHR. Will I have to upgrade from these cards?

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by dvd_maniac

When the networks switch from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4(H.264)

When are they doing that? Hadn't really heard of any plans for cable to go MPEG-4.

...will the current QAM tuners become obsolete? I have the 2250 and HDHR. Will I have to upgrade from these cards?

Shouldn't, to the cards it's just an mpeg-2 transport stream with many audio/video streams.

[dvd_maniac]

I've been patiently waiting for VideoReDo to start working on H.264 support since I purchased 2 HD-PVR's and saw THIS THREAD which touched on the changes by the Major Networks. This might only affect OTA users but I am nervous that my new investments might become obsolete quickly.
I'm hoping that QAM channels from Cable providers will not be affected...

[stanger89]

Sounds like the people in that thread are grabbing the raw, national feed off satellite. AFAIK, compression is done by the cable company before being sent out on the cable. They have to do that so they can mix local commercials and other things in. The cableco's would have to switch out every cable box, every cablecard device, everything to switch to MPEG-4, that's not a trivial task, it's something Dish and DTV have been working on for years, and they have an overall smaller user base.

[MattHelm]

The off the air and cable can NOT switch. They would have to get the FCC to approve it first. The dish networks can do this, as they decide (as long as they stay in their spectrum) how they want to transport the data.

As for Mpeg4, I'm 99% sure (thought I read it was already doing it, but maybe that was the R5000) the HDHomerun can handle it, as it just takes the data stream, and sends it to the machine.

I wouldn't think it wouldn't be hard to do that with the Hauppauge cards either. though with the drivers they been shipping lately ...


Guess I'm saying as long as they don't change the RF carrier, the data being moved doesn't matter. Of course non computers, like HDTV's would be screwed.