# What is MPEG4?



## cg0789 (Mar 9, 2004)

I know it is a stupid question, I hear it being used in the fourms, but I am interested to know more about it. (Note: I am just a customer from Dish, so try not to use many "technical" terms).


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## Darkman (Apr 16, 2002)

i believe it's a new format (maybe compression, etc)

more tighter so to speak.. 

Like presently we are using Mpeg-2 .. Mpeg-2 receivers...

So if / when Mpeg-4 comes out.. new receivers will more likely be needed... Mpeg-4 ones...

Mpeg-4 will allow DISH to put something like twice as many channels on a transponder than current Mpeg-2 ...

P.S. I could be not 100 % accurate or correct even on my explanation above


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## JohnH (Apr 22, 2002)

The actual term for what will be used is thought to be H264 which is an extension of Mpeg4. 

It apparently provides more efficient use of the bits, resulting in less bandwidth being required for a given Picture Quality.


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## Bill R (Dec 20, 2002)

JohnH said:


> The actual term for what will be used is thought to be H264 which is an extension of Mpeg4.


Both DirecTV and DISH Network will be moving to MPEG-4 Layer 10, H.264 (also called MPEG-4 AVC) compression for their HD channels. MPEG-4 AVC will deliver more quality for the same amount of bits so both vendors will be able to deliver more HD channels from their satellites.

For the near term (3 to 6 years?) the SD channels channels will continue to use MPEG-2 compression.

The September, 2005, issue of Home Theater magazine has a very good article on MPEG-4 and the many uses (satellite, DVDs, digital cable, video over DSL) that it may be used for in the future.


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## navychop (Jul 13, 2005)

I believe both satellite providers have announced the change over is to take about 3 years.


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## PAULSTORM (Nov 1, 2005)

I've read where they will be adding more HD channels as in the locals with MPEG4. Will they also be adding more HD channels from the cable channels like a USA, Lifetime, TBS, etc?


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## CCarncross (Jul 19, 2005)

The 3 channels you mentioned dont have HD versions yet....until USA actually HAS an HD version, noone can carry it!!!

Here is a list of what is available nationally..

http://www.hdtvprimer.com/ISSUES/what_prog_avail.html

The only thing missing from that list seems to be the VOOM HD stations available from E*...


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## paulcdavis (Jan 22, 2004)

The current video encoding system MPEG2 (also used in DVDs) is a frame based compression scheme that (in simple terms) encodes the changes from frame to frame, instead of encoding each frame of video.

MPEG4 is an object based encoding and compression scheme that breaks up the video stream into objects and encodes them separately. This results in greater compression since you can use your bandwidth more efficiently by using more bits for moving objects (i.e. people), and less bits on fixed backgrounds.

http://www.chiariglione.org/mpeg/

has more detailed info on MPEG encoding.


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