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The Q
join:2008-06-26
Collegeville, PA

The Q to SpHeRe31459

Member

to SpHeRe31459

Re: Still no new HD Channels in Latest Bill

said by SpHeRe31459:

said by DocDrew:

At this point, since Comcast seems to have so many open QAMs in many areas, I'd think the missing channels are due to lack of demand and/or broadcaster pricing not bandwidth.

Doesn't seem like it, considering in the cases of the removed premiums that they did in the last year or so, what's missing in HD they carry in SD. Comcast likes to insist that anything you'd want from the premiums is OnDemand so to them it's okay that they killed the linear versions. It really seems like a way to force users into trying OnDemand. I mean OnDemand is so under utilized they're having a giant promotional "Watchathon" this week that opens up most of their VOD library because people aren't using it in the numbers Comcast would like.

400 million on demand views a month, seems like someone is using it...

»www.multichannel.com/cab ··· 2/142082
SpHeRe31459
Premium Member
join:2002-10-09
Sacramento, CA

SpHeRe31459

Premium Member

said by The Q:

said by SpHeRe31459:

said by DocDrew:

At this point, since Comcast seems to have so many open QAMs in many areas, I'd think the missing channels are due to lack of demand and/or broadcaster pricing not bandwidth.

Doesn't seem like it, considering in the cases of the removed premiums that they did in the last year or so, what's missing in HD they carry in SD. Comcast likes to insist that anything you'd want from the premiums is OnDemand so to them it's okay that they killed the linear versions. It really seems like a way to force users into trying OnDemand. I mean OnDemand is so under utilized they're having a giant promotional "Watchathon" this week that opens up most of their VOD library because people aren't using it in the numbers Comcast would like.

400 million on demand views a month, seems like someone is using it...

»www.multichannel.com/cab ··· 2/142082

And yet Comcast still isn't happy...
BiggA
Premium Member
join:2005-11-23
Central CT

BiggA to SpHeRe31459

Premium Member

to SpHeRe31459
I'm almost wondering if they don't want the difference between an 860mhz and a 650mhz system to be too big... or if they think they will need more bandwidth for XoD or HSI. Or they're just clueless?
SpHeRe31459
Premium Member
join:2002-10-09
Sacramento, CA

SpHeRe31459

Premium Member

said by BiggA:

I'm almost wondering if they don't want the difference between an 860mhz and a 650mhz system to be too big...

That's actually a pretty plausible explanation, they want everything to seem uniform no matter the system.

On that note... whatever happened to unifying the channel line ups across markets? They were going to move the HD channels into the 1000's and make them match their SD channel number for the last three digits.

Mike Wolf
join:2009-05-24
Tuckerton, NJ

Mike Wolf to dishrich

Member

to dishrich

Re: [HD] FIOS Moving to MPEG-4 HD

said by dishrich:

Huh??? did you actually read that link, that YOU posted?
ALL HBO/MAX HD feeds ARE in MPEG4 already, & have been since this 2008 posting!
But they ALSO have kept (duplicate) E/W primary feeds of HBO & MAX (4 channels total) in MPEG2 HD as well.
And of course they still have all of the SD feeds of these channels in MPEG2; there's no point in changing those to MPEG4 at this point...

No, I only posted it in case someone was interested.

telcodad
MVM
join:2011-09-16
Lincroft, NJ

telcodad to BiggA

MVM

to BiggA

Re: Still no new HD Channels in Latest Bill

said by DocDrew:

At this point, since Comcast seems to have so many open QAMs in many areas, I'd think the missing channels are due to lack of demand and/or broadcaster pricing not bandwidth.

said by BiggA:

I'm almost wondering if they don't want the difference between an 860mhz and a 650mhz system to be too big... or if they think they will need more bandwidth for XoD or HSI. Or they're just clueless?

Maybe this article on the Light Reading Cable site today provides an explanation. It says that the MSOs will need to reserve at least 24MHz of bandwidth for DOCSIS 3.1 HSI's initial rollout phase.

Making Room for Docsis 3.1
By Jeff Baumgartner, Light Reading Cable - March 27, 2013
»www.lightreading.com/blo ··· 40151838
BiggA
Premium Member
join:2005-11-23
Central CT
·Frontier FiberOp..
Asus RT-AC68

BiggA to SpHeRe31459

Premium Member

to SpHeRe31459
They have moved them all in CT to the 1000's. They have similar lineups, but on my 650mhz system, we have 70 HD's, whereas my parents, on an 860mhz system have 110 HD's. I don't think they want to make the delta any bigger until they upgrade everyone to 860mhz, which seems to be taking them FOREVER.
BiggA

BiggA to telcodad

Premium Member

to telcodad
They are already running 48mhz at least. My modem is locked onto 8 channels.

cypherstream
MVM
join:2004-12-02
Reading, PA

cypherstream

MVM

D3.1 uses OFDM so 24 MHz in addition to what they have now for D3.0/2.

But that seems a ways off. They must be holding back for other reasons.
BiggA
Premium Member
join:2005-11-23
Central CT
·Frontier FiberOp..
Asus RT-AC68

BiggA

Premium Member

They could get some modems out there while running D3 and then cut some of those channels over. I think that a great way to keep people moving on cable modem technology is to put like a 50GB/mo cap on modems that aren't up to date, and then allow unlimited for those that are.

telcodad
MVM
join:2011-09-16
Lincroft, NJ

telcodad to BiggA

MVM

to BiggA

Re: [HD] FIOS Moving to MPEG-4 HD

said by BiggA:

Better quality. More capacity. They could add more linear channels, they could offer faster internet speeds, sports packages, etc. They could even free up space for some HEVC 4K channels.

While, as this article says, STBs with HEVC/H.265 capability are still a few years away, some vendors are already beginning to demo some equipment now that supports it:

NAB: Video Vendors Rally Around HEVC
Big Deployments Still Years Away, But Suppliers Stick Stakes in Ground

By Jeff Baumgartner, Multichannel News - April 8, 2013
»www.multichannel.com/cab ··· c/142594

It probably wouldn't be a bad idea for STB vendors to start using HEVC-capable chips, like the Broadcom BCM7445 one (»www.broadcom.com/product ··· /BCM7445) mentioned in the article, as soon as they are available to "future-proof" their products.
BiggA
Premium Member
join:2005-11-23
Central CT

BiggA

Premium Member

True. That would be a huge shift though, as most boxes out there now (not all, but most) are MPEG-4 compatible, but nothing out there now is HEVC-compatible, so a HEVC switch, while huge for bandwidth reclamation, would be very, very expensive.
SpHeRe31459
Premium Member
join:2002-10-09
Sacramento, CA

SpHeRe31459

Premium Member

HEVC isn't even used in anything yet. It's just a proposed new compression scheme, it was only just finalized in January. Let's worry about actually getting cable companies to use H.264 (MPEG4/AVC) first shall we?

telcodad
MVM
join:2011-09-16
Lincroft, NJ

telcodad to BiggA

MVM

to BiggA
Yes, moving to H.265/HEVC compression soon would not be feasible, and the use of HEVC Video QAMs is at least several years away.

But just like how many of the current boxes started incorporating H.264/MPEG-4 capability years ago, the sooner they start building-in the latest, state-of-the-art technology, the sooner it can be utilized later on, as older boxes are replaced [though Comcast is known for hanging on to them as long as they still power-on and don't smoke/spark ].

Mike Wolf
join:2009-05-24
Tuckerton, NJ

Mike Wolf to BiggA

Member

to BiggA
said by BiggA:

True. That would be a huge shift though, as most boxes out there now (not all, but most) are MPEG-4 compatible, but nothing out there now is HEVC-compatible, so a HEVC switch, while huge for bandwidth reclamation, would be very, very expensive.

Comcast, being the nations largest service company, can afford it.
Mike Wolf

Mike Wolf to telcodad

Member

to telcodad
said by telcodad:

[though Comcast is known for hanging on to them as long as they still power-on and don't smoke/spark ].

And sometimes even then they are still marked as "operational" and put back into service.... lol

andyross
MVM
join:2003-05-04
Aurora, IL

andyross to Mike Wolf

MVM

to Mike Wolf
said by Mike Wolf:

said by BiggA:

True. That would be a huge shift though, as most boxes out there now (not all, but most) are MPEG-4 compatible, but nothing out there now is HEVC-compatible, so a HEVC switch, while huge for bandwidth reclamation, would be very, very expensive.

Comcast, being the nations largest service company, can afford it.

This is a company that is no longer supplying batteries to new eMTA installations just to save a few bucks!! If you want a battery, you will have to pay for it yourself!
GTFan
join:2004-12-03
Austell, GA

GTFan to Mike Wolf

Member

to Mike Wolf
said by Mike Wolf:

said by BiggA:

True. That would be a huge shift though, as most boxes out there now (not all, but most) are MPEG-4 compatible, but nothing out there now is HEVC-compatible, so a HEVC switch, while huge for bandwidth reclamation, would be very, very expensive.

Comcast, being the nations largest service company, can afford it.

LOL thanks, needed a good laugh this morning.
BiggA
Premium Member
join:2005-11-23
Central CT
·Frontier FiberOp..
Asus RT-AC68

BiggA to Mike Wolf

Premium Member

to Mike Wolf
That's a big thing to do all at once. Getting everyone on MPEG-4 now would be a better move, since most customers already have MPEG-4 boxes, so the remaining ones to switch out wouldn't be that painful, and it would get them a lot more HD capacity, and they could improve their notoriously bad HD quality.
SpHeRe31459
Premium Member
join:2002-10-09
Sacramento, CA

2 edits

SpHeRe31459

Premium Member

Exactly. MPEG4/AVC is more than good enough for the forseeable future. Think how long MPEG2 has been "good enough".
MPEG4 equipment is reasonably mature and easily sourced from many equipment vendors (for all points in the distribution chain from CPE, to headnend, to content distribution, etc).

HEVC has no shipping products, it has no decoding chips available yet, let alone a version that could be integrated into a SoC for set-box use. The standard was literally just ratified only 3 months ago. There is no HEVC equipment to deploy yet. First generation decoding chips aren't expected until mid-to-late 2013. Tech demos of the broadcast/cable TV solutions are going to shown later this month at the NAB show.
BiggA
Premium Member
join:2005-11-23
Central CT
·Frontier FiberOp..
Asus RT-AC68

BiggA

Premium Member

Yeah, exactly, we'll see HEVC within a year for a couple of 4K channels, but that doesn't require much equipment, if 0.3% of subscribers actually have a box for 4k, vs. 90% of customers using HD. They should do MPEG-4 AVC now for HD, leave SD as MPEG-2, and use HEVC for 4k.