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An obsolete movie format, but a large amount of stored media exists in this format so ultimately a win. I would like to say something to the effect of there be
by SllX 9y ago
An obsolete movie format, but a large amount of stored media exists in this format so ultimately a win.
I would like to say something to the effect of there being just a tiny bit less rent-seeking in the world today, but I'm sure by tomorrow the seeds will be planted for millions more rent-seeking opportunities in the future.
- taeric 9y agoMy understanding from a long time ago was that the formats were actually competitive if you consider computation requirements. Size of the data was larger, but not by so much that it was scary. There a good modern comparison of the formats?
- astrange 9y agoThis isn't far off especially if you count on-CPU decoding. MPEG2 is sensible for the time, but can't scale to larger pixel resolutions or lower bitrates well. The generation after MPEG2 (VP7, MPEG4 ASP, Theora) though, pretty much sucked universally and there was no good reason for it… second-system effect?
- taeric 9y agoThis makes me realize how behind I am. The generation you mention as being bad is what I think of as latest generation. :)
- anabis 9y agoMost digital TV broadcasts use MPEG-2, don't they?
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- FrankBooth 9y agoMPEG-2 TS as a container, something more modern for the video/audio codecs.
- muxator 9y agoDVB-T2 can use a variety of codecs. From 2022 some European countries (Germany, Italy, Czech Republic, Slovakia) will pass their broadcasting system to DVB-T2 with H.265. Since January 2017 new TVs must support HEVC decoding. Sadly, no AV1...
- digi_owl 9y agoDo wonder how many will be left hanging high and dry with that transition.
- kelnos 9y agoHopefully they'll do something similar to what the US did during the analog->digital switch: provide external tuner hardware to people who can or won't upgrade their televisions either free or subsidized.
- colechristensen 9y agoIn the US transition to digital transmission, nobody was left high and dry. Perhaps mildly confused or inconvenienced by the need to get and setup a government subsidized converter box. Doubtful this would go any different for the above.
- merb 9y agowe will see how good DVB-T2 will be... I don't think it will get critical mass and it will end up being used for LTE/next gen. I mean it's mostly a paid service, at least in germany and it will not have any benefits over next gen mobile network. at some point it's easier to merge terrestial over IP, especially if you can have IPv6 only networks, which makes some stuff simpler (multicast + mcast routing). Also LTE next can already do everything DVB-T2 is capable of, so I doubt that without any full free plans that DVB-T2 will gain traction. There is also a standard for mobile television called MBMS which will probably kill of any dvb-t stuff in the long term. Edit: since we talked about a codedc. most of these services currently use H.264 and I do not think that they will migrate to H.265. Guess as soon as mobile devices ship with hardware AV1, there will be Mobile TV with AV1.
- 9y ago
- magmastonealex 9y agoYes, ATSC in North America generally uses MPEG-2 video, in an MPEG-2 transport stream (often with AC-3 as the audio codec). There are provisions to use h.264 within that transport stream, but I'm not sure if any stations actually broadcast with that.
- mrpippy 9y agoSome cable systems (Comcast has been migrating I believe) do use H.264, but I don’t know of any OTA usage. There is “Mobile DTV” AKA ATSC-M/H which uses H264 and is designed for mobile reception, but stations are rare and commercial adoption is nonexistent.
- SllX 9y agoI posted a longer reply to someone else, but to clarify, when I say obsolete, I mean technically obsolete rather than commercially obsolete.
- stickydink 9y agoDVDs are still created and purchased all over the world, I don't think it's quite obsolete yet?
- digi_owl 9y agoAnd likely never will be. Newer codecs basically exist because video resolutions outpace storage space (for questionable benefits). MPEG2, much like MP3, are "good enough" for most common usage.
- zanny 9y agoA megabyte saved is still a megabyte saved. An mp3 sourced from a FLAC at 320kbps is ususally indistinguishable from 128kbps Opus to me, but I can often tell the difference between that and a 128kbps mp3. I encode all my music in 128kbps Opus on my storage constrained devices for that reason.
- Spooky23 9y agoThe value of that MP3 vs FLAC is like 90% less than it was 20 years ago.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- Houshalter 9y agoBandwidth and storage have been slowing down and stagnating for some time now. My internet isn't much faster than 10 years ago. The difference between video codecs makes a huge difference in the quality of video I get to see.
- ttsda 9y agoMy internet is way faster compared to 2008. Probably had something like 10Mbps back then, paying less for 1Gbps fiber-to-the-home now.
- telesilla 9y agoStill used in the audio world to this day, because it has a short coding delay. This patent expiry will be good news to many.