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wiz561
join:2004-09-28

wiz561

Member

[HD] MPEG2 or MPEG4?

I'm thinking about moving to Comcast for cable and would be using a cablecard with a Silicone Dust HD HomeRun Prime box. My plans is to feed it to MythTV and have it get sent to a Kodi Frontend. One of my boxes is a FireTV that decodes mpeg4 just fine but has issues with mpeg2.

Does Comcast use mpeg2 for regular HD cable channels or mpeg4?

maartena
Elmo
Premium Member
join:2002-05-10
Orange, CA

maartena

Premium Member

[HD] Re: MPEG2 or MPEG4?

AFAIK all cable providers use MPEG2 for their digital channels, SD and HD. The bandwidth for a channel is roughly 12 to 14 Mbit/s.

It would be hard to change to MPEG4 on short notice as they have millions of cable boxes out there that are MPEG2 only.

MPEG2 is an old standard. Perhaps there is a firmware update for that FireTV?
wiz561
join:2004-09-28

wiz561

Member

Thanks for the response. Unfortunately, the amazon firetv will always be mpeg4 and never support mpeg2...unless amazon wants to change it, which I can't see them doing. Sideloading the Kodi app to the firetv "voids the warranty"....at least I'm pretty sure it does. Amazon wants you to buy their content from them, not do what I'm doing.

The nice thing is that the firetv is 100 bucks. A box that could decode these things probably runs about 200 bucks (new).

Thanks!
cheeseman
join:2014-06-19
Palo Alto, CA

cheeseman

Member

Neither of these things is correct.
said by wiz561:

Sideloading the Kodi app to the firetv "voids the warranty"....at least I'm pretty sure it does.

Sideloading is perfectly fine and tons of people buy the FireTV just for Kodi. Sideloading is a perfectly normal thing to do on any Android device.

Running the software a certain way has no effect on the warranty, because the warranty is on the hardware, and the software can be restored.

If you're extra paranoid, you could even remove a sideloaded application or factory reset it before sending it in for a replacement in the event it breaks.
said by wiz561:

A box that could decode these things probably runs about 200 bucks (new).

The Raspberry Pi supports hardware MPEG2 decoding (and can run Kodi). They cost $35 and then another $3.65 for the MPEG-2 license.
wiz561
join:2004-09-28

wiz561

Member

Thanks for the response. I actually came from a RPI. I broke the plastic sdcard receiver and needed something. The FTV was right down the street and works great...except for this mpeg2 thing.