Bev Testing MPEG4

07-30-2010, 11:03 AM

I agree with another poster: it's an insurance issue, not Telesat nor Bell ExpressVu. What DOES impact Bell is the inability to use those 8 faulty (out of 32) transponders and spend three years moving semi-retired space junk / used satellites into position to share an orbit for pack-up. That has meant Bell lost a lead it might have had had Nimiq 2 actually worked out of the gate.

But Bell did find an alternative and the point is HD grew much faster than their business plan and hence the current dilemma: tight satellite space and not a single customer with an MPEG-4 receiver.

07-30-2010, 11:12 AM

I am not certain, but it's my understanding that -- except for TMN/MC -- as national TV providers -- both Star Choice and Bell ExpressVu are obligated to deliver "locals and French services" equally and nationally. I don't think they are allowed to provide Dawson Creek in Western Canada and Riviere-du-loup in Eastern Canada as a "trade off". But I could be wrong.

07-30-2010, 11:39 AM

Any idea if the boxes will support external hard drives Scott?

07-30-2010, 11:44 AM

From another site on the matter:

This seems a little low to me, but I suppose it's possible if they didn't know what they were doing.

It's MY understanding that 8PSK yields a 50% gain while MPEG4 yield a 100% gain and both would yield 300%.

Any other guru's or those in the biz care to comment?

In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice...but in practice...

07-30-2010, 12:00 PM

Not exactly. MPEG2 channels can be flagged as MPEG4. Dish Network is already doing this. They don't have many (if any) true MPEG4 channels but flag some MPEG2 channels as MPEG4 to make people upgrade receivers to get those channels. I think they charge $200 for the upgrade. They also won't activate any MPEG2 only receivers, essentially turning them into doorstops (or EV refurbs.) I wonder if EV will start doing the same once MPEG4 receivers are available. They can then refurb the old 9200s with new MPEG4 motherboards and rent them out.

**hurricane** · 07-30-2010, 12:10 PM

Bev can come up with the capacity if they need to. Maybe they can ditch one of the 31-32 PPV that they have wasting space (my personal opinion after being with BEV for 4 years and never once ordering a PPV movie). Or how about the Red Carpet Vu channels.

It all comes down to a basic business decision. If scaling back PPV capacity in exchange for new MPEG4 HD channels is expected to further the business compared to doing nothing, I would fully expect they do something along those lines. But then again, it wouldn't be the first time that a major corp did something completely stupid.

Regardless of how stupid some may think Bev is, they have plans for growing the service based on the expected available capacity. I wouldn't expect thtem to tip their hand to the public (and their competitors) as to what the future plans are.

A lot of people here would like some reassurances as to what they're doing in the future to service their customers. But as has been mentioned before, the people on this forum are a very small fraction of their subscriber base. Most of their subs are completely unaware of the different technologies, nor do they care. Therefore, Bev is likely only to let their plans be known once things will start affecting a significant number of subs.

07-30-2010, 12:16 PM

I think exactly the opposite. If 8PSK is going to be available early next year to a Commercial unit, it stands to reason they must be transmitting 8PSK.!!!!

Otherwise why even mention it.?

There will be 3 different models of Commercial Receiver, all capable of 8PSK Decryption.

DEV666, I was commenting on the fact that it appears 8PSK was going to be transmitted by Express Vu early next year and asking if it was compatible with MPEG2 so I see no reason for the "In Context" reference.

07-30-2010, 12:17 PM

It is not like there are so many other choices with lot's of HD programing.

07-30-2010, 12:33 PM

This is correct. Although with it being unencrypted, someone with a FTA card can look at with with TSREADER and see that its a h.264 (Mpeg 4 signal) and since its not encoded they can also see the color bars that they are sending. For what its worth if its a psuedo MPEG2 channel with its headers changed so that only mpeg4 receivers can see it, TSREADER can still tell you if its MPEG2 or h.264 MPEG4Not really, they just pop a MPEG4 encoder in the rack and they are good to go. In fact the MPEG4 encoders look like MPEG2 encoders. I am told besides this step there is nothing more sat casters need to do to broadcast in MPEG4. (Its not like it needs a special transponder, uplink equipment or anything else) when its sent out to the satellite its just data bouncing off of it, it hads no idea what its bouncing] Not really, other places can slowly convert over when MPEG4 public broadcasts begin. Here in the states we went through this already with Dish Network and are now going through it with DirecTV. He if you want the new MPEG4 channels you can upgrade, if you dont want them then keep using the hardware you already have. No really they can keep all the MPEG2 channels in MPEG2 and launch new channels in MPEG4 they have the room for it. Then in the future they can start moving a few channels over to MPEG4. Here is the states Dish Network is doing that on August 15th as they will be converting the VOOM HD channels from MPEG2 to MPEG4. Rome was not built in a day my friend.

You need to start somewhere.At the moment they are only testing, and when its time to turn on MPEG4 the mpeg2 is not just going to stop working overnight. Again look at what Dish Network and DirecTV are doing here in the states. This is the roadmap that ExpressVu will be following.Not really "Show stoppers" at all.

07-30-2010, 12:49 PM

I don't have FTA box or dish hooked up any more , since the channels I used to watch are not free anymore.The FTA box that I still have in my garage is about 8 years old and I can not use it to steal tv even if I wanted.You know as well as every body else that most of FTA receivers are used to pirate BEV or DN , and the real FTA almost does not exist.

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