Level 3 Communications Issues Statement ConcerningComcast'sActions

Tue Nov 30 14:29:06 UTC 2010

On Nov 30, 2010, at 7:40 AM, Brandon Butterworth wrote:

>> And before we get too much into HD vs Codecs vs 720P vs 1080p vs
>> "true HD" marketing BS, I capture out of my camera's HDMI port at
>> 3Gbit/s and I am not running 4:4:4 color.  So what is HD and what it
>> the allowable compression for it still to be considered as such.
> 

The US ATSC standard specifies aspect ratios and resolution, but does not mention compression (nor
does the FCC). 

http://www.hdtvprimer.com/ISSUES/what_is_ATSC.html

Since a 19 Mhz on-air channel is allocated to HDTV, but need not be fully used, the broadcasters can compress
more and use the remaining bandwidth for data or other "multicast" channels (which may or may not have anything to
do with IP multicast). 

> Whatever marketing feel like, there is no absolute High Definition,
> it's really Higher Definition where the reference is undefined.
> 
> When access speeds get to 1Gbit/s they'll no doubt be unhappy
> that we may stream something like this -
> 
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11436939
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/researchanddevelopment/2010/10/super-hi-vision-trials
> 

Just wait till people start doing true holography, where 1 Gbps is likely to seem like a rather low bandwidth. 

Regards
Marshall

> If you make it they will fill it.
> 
> brandon
> 
> 