[opendtv] Re: Thomson readies solutions for U.S. Digital TV broadcast transition
- From: John Willkie <johnwillkie@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 9 May 2006 19:18:15 +0000 (GMT+00:00)
It's quite sad, Bert, that your argumentive and ignorant positions have brought
this list to the point where you are the only person posting.
Ignorant sounds harsh, no? It's appropriate, especially when contemplating your
comments (quoted verbatim below) on this item.
Over a month ago, you made the same mistake I am going to address in this
message. Mark Aitken gently tried to disabuse your lack of knowledge as to
what an MPEG-2 decoder does and THAT IT HAS ABSOLUTEY NO ABILITY TO DECODE
VIDEO!
So, let's go back to basics. A Demod discerns an RF signal and outputs a data
stream that can be processed by an MPEG-2 demodulator. What a demodulator does
is to enable an audio or video decompressor to select ONE AND JUST ONE packet
id to decompress and to pass on for audio or video rendering.
Therefore, only a fool or the abjectly ignorant (or both) would talk about an
MPEG-2 demodulator doing H.262 or H.264 processing. Some folks might have put
both functions on a single die, but they charge extra for it.
ANYONE who has ever contemplated THE FIRST THING about REALLY processing MPEG-2
packets (or who has examined the licensing situation) LEARNS about this in just
the first few hours.
Still with the basics: MPEG-2 means ISO/IEC 13818. That is divided into three
sections: -1 for systems, -2 for video and -3 for audio. (-3 has ZERO
relevance in the ATSC world; it isn't even referenced in the standard ATSC
specification suite. Offhand, I can't recall the number right now for MPEG-2,
but it's much higher than 13818.
MPEG-1 is ISO/IEC 11172.
The one chip solution that you are looking for has tuner, MPEG-2 demod, AC-3
audio and MPEG-2/MPEG-4 video decompressor. It doesn't exist, but you think
you find it everywhere.
Here's a tip: comment on published specs, don't speculate on press releases.
If there isn't a published spec, it's just spin.
John Willkie
-------
Bert wrote:
Thomson is one of the two companies selected by the NAB, for low-coast and high
perfromance ATSC STBs.
For the ATSC market, they have developed an IC, the 4300A, that incorporates
both ATSC demod and MPEG-2 decoder. Interesting. I'm assuming that when they
say MPEG-2, they mean H.262 algorithm only, not H.264.
Next step is to also incorporate the tuner in a single chip, to further reduce
cost, footprint, and power requirement. Althought they are already calling this
4300A a "one-chip solution."
No mention of this at their own web site, though, that I could find. I was
looking for more specifics.
Notice that the low-cost STB they are building for the NAB/MSTV does not use
this 4300A chip. It will have an NTSC output, composite video, and audio. So
it's just going to be a stripped-down SDTV box. However, they are also planning
an HDTV STB, it seems, and a receiver with USB output for PCs. Even though this
STB does not use the 4300A, it is said to meet all the stringent NAB/MSTV
requirements. Not bad.
Bert
----------------------------------------------------------------------
You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways:
- Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at
FreeLists.org
- By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word
unsubscribe in the subject line.
Other related posts: