MPEG-4 at Bell one of the key priorities for 2007

H

Hugh

New member
Was doing some research this afternoon and came across the following from a May 2007 story on Digital Home.



A key priority and we're still waiting three years later!
 
When I asked a VP at Bell about that comment last year, his reply was essentially that it wasn't happening anytime soon.

I always wondered what happened to those MPEG-4 plans?
 
The pressure will be on them soon, as competitors will start beefing up their HD content.

Bell will not be able to add new HD without cutting out a huge amount of SD or switching to MPEG 4.

It has to be soon...

Perhaps a new inquiry to Bell (regarding the status of MPEG 4) would help customers know if the short-term outlook for adding new HD channels is as bad as it seems.
 
I think Bell was expecting there to be a lot more channels available to add by this time, particularly HD. That, of course, hasn't happened and whether Bell had any role in that, I don't know. Somehow I don't believe there is always just enough bandwidth to role out the few new channels that come along, give or take a few. Coincidence, maybe.

-Mike
 
They swapped out the 6000's already why not swap the 6100's & 9200's now and be done with it? That way when they do go MPEG4 its more or less painless.
 
Bell also said IPTV was going to be widely launched in 2006. As a company they seem to be having a difficult time getting the big things done lately.
 
The 6000's were swapped out because of the 8PSK, not really because of MPEG4, although the replacement receivers do handle it.

Bell are or were until very recently still installing 6100 & 9200 models for new Customers, so logic dictates that MPEG4 is still a long way off.

In 2005, I attended a Bell ExpressVu Road Show, where they showed up DPP technology, stating it would be rolled out "within a matter of weeks", well the pilot scheme is now running at 2 major Installation Co's and it is about to go national next week. 5 years to get this minor act together, heaven only knows when we will see the benefits of MPEG4.
 
You think Bell had a role in delaying HD channel availability?

Let's see: LCN HD, MovieTime HD, CBCNewsworld HD, Speed HD, Spike HD ... still not available on Bell. Also, I checked out DishNetwork and they have an all HD package which has about 40 HD channels in it for 29$... most of which are available in SD in Canada.

I'd say they may not be the only reason for delaying the availability of these channels (CRTC licensing), but if they had the bandwidth I am certain we would have a heck of a lot more!
 
So we can count on one hand the few missing HD channels, big deal - Bell has the bandwidth to add those. I'm talking about all the SD channels that have no HD equivalent in Canada.

-Mike
 
Also after the switch to MPEG-4 id like to see more HD only channels, like the rest of the Voom HD channels. Right now we only have 4 of the Voom channels(Oasis HD, Treasure HD, Equator HD, Rush HD), but where missing ones like Horror HD, Monsters HD, Kung Fu HD, Gunslingers HD, Family room HD, Rave HD, Film Fest HD, Ultra HD, and so on. Hopefully MPEG-4 will make room for these. I was told by a dealer that eventually Bell will add new HD channels in MPEG-4 and leave the current HD channels MPEG-2 untill after all receivers are swapped, but I can't see Bell doing that.
 
I wish people could get it through their heads that 720p is HD. Many would argue it's better that 1080i (interlaced). The complaint about Bell is that they convert 1080i to 720p and even if Bell changes to MPEG4, they may not change that practice.

-Mike
 
To say BTV is not getting more HD is "technically" not so.
True they could get the ones presently available on other providers by either compressing more or dropping SD channels PPV?( why so many?)

But for others presently not yet launch that in part could be BTV fault 'kind of'. Since BTV is owned by BCE which in turn owns CTVglobemedia, at least those that CTVglobemedia has HD licences for could launch if BTV was to tell BCE that it might improve their sub base if more CTVGM HD channels where available. Also this would help CTVGM as perhaps other providers.

But in all honesty how many channels on BTV,SD or even other providers have "True" 24hour/365 a day HD channels?

take away the PPV HD Sports package(their not true 24 hour/365 a day HD channels)
take away the channels that up/down convert SD/HD content.

how many are you "truly" left with?

Treasure
Oasis
Rush :rolleyes:
Equator
HD Net
and perhaps a few more.

As for english & french I guess it depends in what market your in
Anglophone
Francophone
Bilingual
 
Please lets get back to the discussion at hand which is the implementation timing for MPEG-4 on Bell TV. We have other threads discussing the number of HD channels.
 
I suspect part of the delay in MPEG4 rollout is that Bell doesn't have any comparable MPEG4 HD STBs to offer in exchange for the 9200s (two TV outputs) and the 6100s (UHF remote capable). I presume Bell sold tons of these models (6100 was the HD STB Bell was offering when the vast majority of HD programming rolled out and was therefore the first HD STB most Bell subscribers got and 9200 was the first HD PVR), such that the problems of replacing them dwarf the problems of replacing the 6000 before the rollout of 8SPK. For example, 6000s were UHF capable, but the replacements (6131) were not, which meant Bell had to scrape up thousands of UHF conversion kits to keep customers from dropping their service altogether. I suspect there are hundreds of times more 6100s owned by subscribers than there were 6000s.

Bell appears to face a choice if it still wishes to convert to MPEG4 in the near term - come up with a lot of UHF converter kits (6100) and 9242s (9200) quickly or bite the bullet and offer inferior replacements to 6100 and 9200 owners and take the considerable hit in lost subscribers that will result. Recent posts that Bell is starting to supply 9242s again hopefully mean they've picked the former and MPEG4 rollout will soon be back on track.
 
I'm not sure why they never went MPEG4. My guess is fibre.

I think Bell is now trying to spend their capital dollars on increasing IPTV penetration and that satellite tv will whither. Bell TV doesn't make a truckload of money but fibre could.

Bell has lost a lot of business to the cable companies in the last few years. Copper plus satellite is not good enough. To compete they need to getting fibre to the home.

With FTTH, you can sell the customer three products: Landline, Really High Speed Internet and Television with VOD and all the bells and whistles plus maybe bundling wireless

Bell can't spend money on everything so my guess is they extend Bell TV by compressing the HD signals to 720p @ 14.6 Mb/s or lower and spend all their capital dollars on fibre.
 
Bell has accomplished what the want, for now, by using 720p, 8PSK and more aggressive compression. Upgrading to MPEG4 will be a significant capital cost. They might not want to invest that in a company that may never make money. By waiting, attrition will reduce the number of receivers that need to be replaced. They could rebrand Dish VIP722s as upgraded 9242's for 9200 replacements. In Bell's position, I would consider using MPEG4 for premium services only, like HD movie and/or sports packages. That would reduce the cost of transition while making a few extra channels available.

I would guess that Bell is placing it's long term future in technologies such as DSL2 and FTTH. They have the capacity to provide more services and generate much more revenue. Satellite TV is clearly limited by capacity, latency and its one way nature. I suspect that Bell will abandon satellite once DSL2 and FTTH are available to most Canadians. That will not happen for quite some time.
 
I think Bell needs a target date for MPEG-4. Like Dec 1 would be a target date and start swapping out MPEG-2 equipment asap. Ther need to make it a priority, I think they are only looking day to day and Not towards the future maybe they where at one point but they have definitely lost there way with there sat service. If I were Bell I would not even worry about IPTV at all.
 
Bell has no compelling reason to switch to MPEG4.

8PSK took them 6 years.

The only two reasons to switch to MPEG4 are improved picture quality and/or adding more channels. Bell has historically shown they care little about picture quality.

Increased channel capacity can be achieved with more compression and that costs them nothing.
 
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