Comcast Confirms MPEG-4 Shift → what will this do for quality?

1st post mentions DirecTV, which I haven't seen for a long time, but I do wonder what this will do for the quality. Current MPEG2 quality can be quite good, so as long as that's maintained after the shift, that's a good thing.

Bigger question - what will this do for HD Homerun Prime users.
I'm considering one (though we have Cox here), and it concerns me that it'll be obsolete in no time if Cox makes this shift as well. That, and the "uncertainty" of cable card.

EDIT - it looks like the HD Homerun Prime supports h.264 tuning? Can someone verify?

Really, really don't want to rent a box from any provider. We have Dish for TV right now, and I can tell you that their MPEG4 for "HD" is borderline SD. I've seen some upscaled SD look better, in fact.

It shouldn't affect HD Homerun Prime users at all, unless the clients that they're actually watching with can't handle an h.264 stream.

HDHR just decrypts the signal and sends it along wholesale, it doesn't care what codecs are used in the signal.

The HD HomeRun is not doing any video decoding, so it doesn't really care what the encoding method is. Worst case you need some firmware/software updates.

I use HDHR Prime and Verizon has a number of channels on AVC (MP4), so it's not an issue. The only thing I do see some devices have trouble (Ceton) deinterlacing MP4 content.

And that is the reason why they are slow to move to MP4, because lots of embedded tech has issues w/ the additional computation power needed. H.265 is even more, and I read that encoders have a way to go to become fully commercial. They can't roll that out to millions yet..

Hmm, I wonder then, if Windows Media Center would still support this. Being that it can decode h.264, I would hope so.

Just don't want to have an "obsolete" setup within a year if I go this route. The fact that WMC is the *only* way to do a "DIY" set top is rather sad.

Don't want to buy a tivo, only to have to subscribe to guide info. That's no better a deal in my mind than simply renting a cable box.

What I would much rather see, is REAL competition in this sector.

There's no good reason you shouldn't be able to buy "cable ready" (remember that!?) devices. Something akin to "any" phone on T-Mo or AT&T with a compatible SIM card that is actually tied to the account. Hell, even on the CDMA side, you can buy a compatible phone and the carrier will activate it. You can buy a modem, and a cable ISP will activate it. A TV, or a TV tuner box, or a DVR box should be no different at all.

Conditional access should also work for satellite boxes as well. Buy a box, stick a card in it, call them up, and go.

WMC already supports writing h.264 in WTV containers, so yes.