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Motorola launches MPEG-4 DVR boxes for HD cable

By Jacqueline Emigh, BetaNews

January 3, 2008, 5:15 PM

Vendors are seeding the market with HD consumers devices of various sorts. But if you get an MPEG-4 set-top box, for example, when will there be enough HD cable content around for you to manage?

Despite the many technical challenges still facing widespread adoption of high-definition video, more and more consumer device makers are now hopping aboard the HD bandwagon, including Motorola, a vendor that today introduced its first MPEG-4 set-top DVR (digital video recorder) boxes for cable TV.

Slated for display at next week's CES show, Motorola's DCX series of DVRs are designed to serve as hubs on home networks for consumers who want to manage HD content received over cable.

The boxes will support high-def video through use of the still emerging MPEG (Motion Pictures Expert Group)-4 industry protocol for advanced video compression.

Specific capabilities will include recording; time shifting of TV shows; surround sound audio; storage of consumer-created multimedia content; and content sharing among other compatible devices over home networks. Motorola will be competing directly with TiVo in this space, and TiVo already has secured a deal with Comcast to use its software in certain markets.

Meanwhile, vendors have been busily flooding the market for HD video with other types of HD devices, too, including flat panel displays, TV sets, and DVD players, for instance.

Yet as some analysts see it, HD cable programming can't really come to full fruition until operators are able to figure out how much HD content will really fit within cable's bandwidth.

Meanwhile, cable operators will also need to determine how to efficiently transcode older MPEG-2 content such as movies and reruns so that it can take advantage of MPEG-4's more sophisticated compression technologies.

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By Maestr0

posted Jan 4, 2008 - 9:47 AM

I talked to a friend in the cable business and he told me that bandwidth has nothing to do with the HD channels. In fact, the old analog channels take up WAY more bandwidth than the digital channels could ever hope to.
So the problem is not finding out how to fit more digital feed in to the bandwidth but how to get rid of the turn of the century analog feeds.

Score: 0

By megazone

posted Jan 4, 2008 - 3:59 AM

I don't think it is accurate to say that these boxes *compete* with TiVo. The Comcast TiVo software currently runs on Motorola DVRs. That's what OCAP is about, and these units support OCAP. It is likely that they will support the TiVo software just as today's DCT3400/6400 series does.

And drumcat, this box will not record MPEG-2 as MPEG-4. The point is cable MSOs are looking to start using MPEG-4 *instead of* MPEG-2 to save bandwidth. You'll see it on value added services, like VOD/PPV, first. Since switching standard channels to MPEG-4 would require replacing all STBs, and will break most existing CableCARD tuners - which are only MPEG-2. But it will happen over time, just as it is for satellite.

Score: 0

By drumcat

posted Jan 3, 2008 - 5:58 PM

Ummm... I think you guys are missing the point. Cable may broadcast using the antiquated but reliable mpeg-2 standard codec, but this box would record said content into mpeg-4. The major benefit is being able to store more hours per gigabyte.

So the question of "when will there be enough content"... yes, cable is behind. But DirecTV is offering 100 HD channels. That's worth "managing", don't you think?

Score: 0

By Mainer

edited Jan 3, 2008 - 10:26 PM

Drumcat,

Digital DVR's record the raw untranscoded data stream from the source. That is why you have a new mpeg-4 box from DirecTV to record the data from the new mpeg-4 birds.

Score: 0

By drumcat

posted Jan 4, 2008 - 12:49 PM

Thanks Mainer. That makes more sense.

And yes; cable would do very well to get rid of a LOT of those analog channels.

Score: 0

By Mainer

posted Jan 3, 2008 - 10:37 PM

It will be interesting to see the communications between TiVo's attorneys, and Motorola after the Federal Court of Appeals issues it's ruling upholding a lower courts decision on Echostar's infringement of the TiVo "Time Warp" patents, and it's lifting of the stay that is keeping the functionality of the Dish DVR's (temporarily) alive. I think we'll see Motorola standing in line (behind Echostar, Time Warner, SA)in Alviso, CA for a license (and it won't be at the DMV).

Score: 0

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