HDTV Forum

CBC HD broadcast ...

Star Wars Episode I - The Phantom Menace - May 21
Star Wars Episoee II - The Attack of the Clones - May 22

Episode I
PQ ... grainy
DD5.1 ... outstanding
OAR ... no ... 16:9

Episode II
PQ ... excellent ... very smooth, clean HD images
DD5.1 ... outstanding
OAR ... no ... 16:9
I compared the CBC HD broadcast to the FOX (Boston) broadcast ... the PQ was equal.

One big downside to these broadcast ... they suffered from atrocious pixelation during most of the fight scenes. A better compression technology needs to be developed.

I think it's called MPEG-4.

Not necessarily. MPEG4 is great because is significantly reduces bandwidth, but it still suffers from some of the same compression issues as MPEG2. Compression is compression...

I have personally tested MPEG2 versus MPEG4 on an IPTV proof of concept, and have seen many of the same blocking issues in both schemes.


From a CES web forum

MPEG4 AVC (comparatively) does HD in 7Mbits as opposed to 12+Mbits with MPEG2

AVC does not eliminate Macroblocking

MPEG2 and 4 are equal in terms of quality. MPEG4 cuts the bitstream requirement in half. Unfortunately the provider can perform further compression if they wish and that will induce artifacts with any codec.

Kinda like how TIVO and others claim hours upon hours of record time using the most artifact ridden mode available rather than the quality mode...