Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/06/19
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Adam Bridge <abridge@mac.com> said: > HDTV - the real 1080i - is still beyond the reach of mere mortals - the > data rates are immense. > > But...combined with clever MPEG2 encoding etc etc that can be handled. The ATSC HDTV broadcast specification mandates MPEG2 video compression. All HDTV broadcast is MPEG2 encoded. There is no other possibility. Non-broadcast recording and delivery can use other formats. However, for delivery to consumers, it seems likely that the ATSC broadcast formats will also be adopted. > I'll personally wait a bit for HD-TiVo - but I WILL buy one - TiVo is > just too great a technology not to use. But I know it won't be as good > as the HDTV signal that it is attempting to record - good but in the > first iteration it won't be as nice as the 1080i signal it is > attempting. The HD-TiVo (and other PVR devices) merely records the exact digital signal it receives. It does not apply any processing to it. It does not uncompress and re-compress the signal it receives. So, when you watch a recorded HDTV program, it will be exactly the same as the signal that was broadcast. D-VHS already works this way. The only fundamental difference between HD-TiVo and D-VHS is that one stores the bits to a hard drive, and the other uses tape. It would be more expensive to build an HD-TiVo that degrades the picture quality, than to build one that gives an exact duplicate! So: the first HD-TiVo (or HD-ReplayTV, or whatever) iteration will give a perfect copy of the 1080i signal it is attempting. Mike - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html