what is mpeg4? and what will it do? 921 owner too.

[bluegreg]

since I keep hearing about MPEG4 and Im a 921 owner I'm not ready to jump to the 942 what is MPEG4 and what will happen to 921 or 942's? when it is formatted that way? will it be like standard tv recieving high def channels?

thanks

[jergenf]

MPEG4 is a newer/better compression method that MPEG2 and is about twice as efficient. MPEG4 may be better at providing picture detail during high motion where MPEG2 sometimes shows some pixelation. It's also downward compatible so MPEG4 can decode MPEG2 and MPEG1. Satellite (and possibly cable) companies may choose to compress programing (mainly HD) in order to provide more channels for the same bandwidth. If they do that new receivers with MPEG4 chips would be needed.

Don't worry MPEG2 will still remain the standard for broadcast digital TV and DVD because if they changed now everyone in the world would have to buy new DVD players, DTV setup boxes and HDTV's (with digital tuners). However the next generation of DVD-HD and BluRay players could choose MPEG4 compression but that hasn't been decided yet.

[jergenf]

One more thing Dishnetwork has announced that they intend to encode future HD programming in MPEG4. The existing HD/SD channels will remain as they are for the foreseeable future. When this happens you'll need a new receiver in order to get the new programming. We'll have to wait and see what deals they offer us 921/942 owners who choose the additional programming. Actually that applies to all customers that are interested.