Up until recently, Microsoft was expecting to see their Windows Media HD technology being put into orbit by various major satellite TV operators. Now the major operators have started backing off to use the industry standard video codec's MPEG4 and AVC instead. For example Voom previously announced that they are supporting Microsoft for its upcoming HDTV service, however now they switched to the industry standard MPEG-4 AVC video codec for its HDTV service starting mid 2005.
As the satellite TV operators aim to provide as much content as possible with limited expensive satellite bandwidth, they started looking for an advanced video codec that offer the best efficiency. While Microsoft is able to offer good quality to size ratio, satellite operators seem to prefer to avoid proprietary codec's and most have decided on MPEG 4. Not only does DirecTV plan on moving its HDTV broadcasts to MPEG 4, but ultimately plans to replace its consumer's existing HDTV set-top boxes to handle the new format, although it is not clear if they will fully cover the replacement cost of the new receivers.
So far Sirius Satellite Radio still plans on using Microsoft for its upcoming in-car satellite TV service. Some companies including cable operators and video on demand Internet providers are still deciding on whether to choose Microsoft, where as others such as the upcoming DVD format HD-DVD and Digital TV services plan on supporting Microsoft. As Microsoft's DRM video technology is supported on many multimedia players, some content providers may start thinking twice of moving away.
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In recent weeks, announcements have come from major satellite television companies including DirecTV that they will be using a rival technology, developed through traditional standards organizations, instead of Microsoft's competing video format, for their upcoming high-definition services. Even Voom, the satellite HDTV company Microsoft earlier touted as a supporter, recently said it would use the rival MPEG-4 AVC video format, or "codec," beginning early in 2005. The satellite companies' moves, triggered by an increasing need for greater bandwidth, by no means count Microsoft out in other potentially larger markets such as cable television and online video. But the decisions by DirecTV and others show that the familiarity of the MPEG standard could be a difficult hurdle to clear. "They really needed to start looking at some advanced video formats, because they needed that efficiency," Yankee Group analyst Adi Kashar said. "But some of the telephone companies seem to be making the opposite choice." Read the full article here. |
At the moment, the AVC codec seems to be the most efficient video codec available. With each new generation of optical media, it is possible to fit more content per disc. For example the majority of video codec's including MPEG2 are capable of storing a typical movie in HDTV on a Blu-Ray Disc.
However as the bandwidth of satellite cannot be increased without launching more satellites into the already heavily crowded Sky, changing over to HDTV means either sacrificing channel capacity and/or picture quality. For example one transponder can handle between 6 and 16 standard definition MPEG2 channels, but only 1 to 2 HDTV MPEG2 channels. The advantage with AVC is that it can offer HDTV quality in about the same or less bandwidth of regular definition MPEG2. This means that when the satellite operators upgrade their channels to HDTV, they do not need to sacrifice on the number of channels.
Feel free to discuss about HDTV, Satellite TV and upcoming DVD formats on our Satellite, HD-TV, Blu-ray and HD-DVD Forum. For info on picking satellite HDTV in Europe (such as using the Skystar2 card provided by some Satellite Broadband ISPs, e.g. NetSystem ), see this thread (updated 12 Jan '05).
Source: C|net News - Digital Media
I really hope they will kick m$ out of this business part!
Happy Birthday to you 
