HDTV

[Schnurps]

Hi,

I was just thinking about the possibility of watching HDTV with VOMP/MediaMVP.
Is the Mpeg-Decoder in the MediaMVP fast enough for HDTV? Will it be or is it already possible to watch HDTV with VOMP? :-)

Schnurps

[Chris]

Before I say anything I had better say that I don't know anything about the backwards compatible possibilities for HDTV so this is only my complete guess... I think it would be that even if the decoder in the MVP could handle the extra dimensions, it wouldn't be fast enough to decode it and scale it down for standard TVs. The folks over at MVPMC think it won't be possible either. They discussed server side rescaling if you had a really powerful server, but I don't want to get into that really, as I don't have a fast server and UK-DVB-T isn't going to start transmitting HD anytime soon.

Probably the best way of doing this would be to wait for someone to build a HD version of something like the MVP and then port VOMP

[riban]

BBC start HDTV trials in the UK mid May 2006. They will be covering the World Cup (football (soccer)). Having just read a lot of MPEG documentation and looked at how the software demuxer used in vompclient works, I will be interested to see what the mvp makes of HDTV. The current software will not handle it but I may spend some time investigating this. First thing is to ensure VDR will record the stream okay.

[Chris]

I don't know much about HDTV yet, but my first guess is that the MVP will tell us where to relocate that idea, if you see what I mean

Besides which, would it even be possible to push that kind of data rate through the gutless network chip in the mvp..

This isn't to say it shouldn't be investigated for vomp... Hopefully vomp will survive the mvp onto other devices as tech moves on.

[riban]

More info on the trials:

DTT trials will be on a temporary mux broadcast at low power in London only. This will be receivable within the bounds of the North and South circular roads.

DSat and DCable will Cary HDTV coverage of World Cup and Wimbledon tournament.

Sky are also doing HDTV stuff in the UK so those with a DSat card could investigate. (Not me!)

These are the first public trials of HDTV in the UK. Developers in other countries may be able to look into this earlier.  Broadcasters in Australia were providing HDTV version of their services in July 2005 when I was there for instance.

I am looking forward to investigating the BBC DTT trials in London (if the service reaches me - I am just outside the bounds of the project).

[Chris]

Trials eh? Gee I hope it doesn't flop