Blair Levin was “way off base, yet again” in his...
Blair Levin was “way off base, yet again” in his suggestions for broadcasters, a group representing low-power TV stations said Wednesday. Levin, coordinator for the FCC’s National Broadband Plan, told investors late Tuesday that TV stations needed a route to…
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migrate to the MPEG-4 standard, an issue they seem to be ignoring and a decision which, if made, would lead to much more efficient use of spectrum (CD March 9 p13). “MPEG-4’s benefits are already recognized by the broadcasting industry, which already used it as the video encoding protocol for mobile/hand-held ATSC,” said the low-power TV group, Spectrum Evolution. “It is also part of the more advanced CMMB digital TV technology,” the group said of MPEG-4. But the standard “does nothing to increase the available `bits per second’ and so does not significantly advance the efficiency cause that Levin is advocating,” it said. “All it does is compress the video stream to use fewer bits to send a given image.” NAB, too, responded to Levin’s comments. “There have been discussions about the move to MPEG-4, but it would require replacing every TV set sold over the last few years,” a spokesman for the group said. “That would be a daunting challenge for both broadcasters and our viewers so soon after the” 2009 full-power broadcast DTV transition, he said.