India Broadband Forum

hemant.nikalje

Dear User's of BIG TV,

In India Broadforum itself i have heard a lot of negative things about BIG TV's performance. By seeing horrifying experience of customers of BIG TV i am really in doubt should i go for BIG TV really or no? or should i choose to buy AIrtel's DIGITAL TV as i dont want to buy TATA SKY because they are using MPEG2 technology. In coming days TATA SKY's technology will be outdated because from FEB 2009 even INDIA is going to join the band wagon of DIGITAL signal reception. So from FEB 2009 every TV which ever is viewing only DD channels by using Antena will not be able to see as from FEB 2009 all transmission will be made DIGITAL compulsarly by INDIAN GOVERNMENT as is made by US government which means SET UP IS going to be compulsary from now on and if u dont want to use to SET UP box. Anyways i dont want to get into that details here, i wanted to know how is the performance of BIG TV as compared to Airtel's DIgital TV.And second is how is the customer care service and how is the service provided by BIG TV. As per review given of BIG TV by some customers in Indiabroadbandforum, is this BIG TV customer care and service imparted by them 2 the customers so bad or what?

just4kix

In my opinion, you are worrying too much between MPEG2 and MPEG4. Correct me, if I am wrong, but just because MPEG4 has the numeral '4', you are assuming that it is better that MPEG2 (because of numeral '2').

This is incorrect assumption. MPEG4 is better only in terms of compression methods. It does not improve quality. So do not procrastinate on MPEG4 and think that it is better. I will suggest that you go for the DTH package that you find cheaper and better in the long run, also provides good CS and has good quality.

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hemant.nikalje

Boss I am Electronics and Telecomm. engg with special subj on Audio and Video Engg. We eat, sleep, bath in these latest technology releasing. We were very well know pros and cons of every system that is related to our field because we have studied every latest technology before it comes in market to common user. MPEG4 is the best technology; people do have a great misconception in the mind regarding this. I would like to explain it from common man’s perspective what it is about? Its not mere compression technique as it is published in news paper or what others say. I would like to explain in simple terms so that even lay man can understand without getting into technical details of MPEG4 if u wish me to go into technical details then I can tell u that too in next reply.
Common problem that TATA SKY OR DISH TV encountered while using DTH service to HDTV or even any LCD or PLASMA or say even 32"inch normal TV.
1) There was great loss of pixelation in it.
2) Loss of reception while rain.

Reason for this:

1) Severe pixelation was occurring because that setup box was prepared some 3-4 yrs back when MPEG2 technology was latest and that technology was best suited only for normal 21"inch or at the most 29”inch TV and not for LCD as it was bound to have severe loss of signal quality because MPEG 2 technology is now outdated technology which from now on no user will ever prefer to use (Foriegn people have discarded this technology much before only from market). Due to (a) Severe loss in pixelation (or picture quality) when connected to any LCD TV. Basically, MPEG 2 technology was not advance to provide great picture quality.

Now coming to MPEG4, because of advent of MPEG4 technology now user has greater choice of channel viewing as number of channel that can accommodate a single bandwidth increases in a great manner. So, one can get more than double channels that one can receive using MPEG2 technology without having serious loss of picture signal. The greatest drawbacks of MPEG2 technology is if the service provider tries to increase his capacity of channels in a given allocated bandwidth then signal quality reduces drastically. So, in future MPEG2 technology has no scope at all.

Why MPEG4 technology solved pixelation problem?
Its the same reason why normal 21inch" ppl sifting to 1920*1080p i.e FULL HD TV. The MPEG4 technology allowed stronger compression format means more number of channels can be accommodated in a particular bandwidth and greater u can say 10 to 100 times stronger signal and picture quality.

In short, for lay man, ONE EXAMPLE WILL SUM UP EVERYTHING,
FIRST EVERY ONE USED CD BECAUSE CD WAS LATEST FORMAT THAN ITS COUNTERPART VCD AND AT THAT TIME PEOPLE USE TO THING CD HAS AMAZING PICTURE QUALITY THAN VCD'S BUT THEN EXPERTS CAME UP WITH DVD AND THERE WAS GREAT REVOLUTION IN MARKET AS IT PROVIDED GREATER COMPRESSION FORMAT( FIRST ONE MOVIE WAS FITTING IN 2 CD’S AND THEN CAME DVD WITH 4 TO 5 MOVIES IN A SINGLE DIC WITH GREATER PICTURE AND AUDIO QUALITY THAN CD) AND 100% MORE BETTER PICTURE QUALITY THAN CD. SO THERE MAIN AIM OF GETTING MORE COMPRESSION DONE AND ACHEIVING 100 TIMES MORE BETTER PICTURE WAS ACHIEVED, SAME THING IS NOW WITH MPEG4 FORMAT. NOW U DECIDE, WHAT U WANT? DO U STILL WANT TO STICK TO MPEG2?

ShAdOwCoN

@J4k
You are wrong MPEG4 is better than MPEG2[speaking in the commercial sense] ...and yes MPEG2 is outdated abroad
@Hemant
Now i am not an audio engg ...... but i have studied digital communication and know something about MPEG [but not an expert nor layman].....

J4k is correct by stating that Quality is not improved in MPEG4 isnt it?
It only reduces the SNR [signal to Noise/interference ratio] during transmission i.e transmission is more efficient .....
Its compression is also more efficient ......

But if there was no transmission involved ......MPEG4 would have an advantage of only compression over MPEG2 rite?

CD and DVD is a very good example

just4kix

Comparison between VCD (MPEG1) and DVD (MPEG2) is totally irrelevant in context of comparison of MPEG2 to MPEG4.

And those who say that MPEG2 is outdated should check their statements again. There are two main systems in the HD-TV area are ATSC and DVB. Both are using MPEG2 as the standard.

MPEG4 has only one advantage - better compression. The MPEG-2 standard is capable of coding standard-definition television at bit rates from about 3-15 Mbit/s and high-definition television at 15-30 Mbit/s. However the MPEG4-10 (H.264) is capable of providing good video quality at substantially lower bit rates than previous standards (e.g. half or less the bit rate of MPEG-2, H.263, or MPEG-4 Part 2), without increasing the complexity of design, typically half of the rate required for MPEG-2.

MPEG4 will eventually replace MPEG2 because of the advantage of the high compression and efficiency but don't let anyone tell you that MPEG4 will deliver better picture quality.

hemant.nikalje

Dear Friend(Shadowcon).

I read ur reply n quickly after reading ur reply i came to know that u r not a having advance level knowledge. It was quite evident the way u gave answer. See, DC(i.e ur Digital communication) is quite basic n preliminary subject. If u have really thorughly understood what the subject was all bout then u will understand that the whole subject revolves around two most important parameters of communication i.e (1) Transmitted Power (2) Channel Bandwidth. And in entire DC our basic objective was to use these two resources in most effeciently. Thats the reason we were trying to switch to MPEG4 because it was providing better compression rate. Thats what was learned and taught in DC. But its only one of many uses of MPEG4. Band width conservation was main issue in DC n so only one use of MPEG4 i.e compression was highlighted because only that use was relevant in DC. They didnt touched any other use in DC because it was just not needded.

But when u go for advance studies then u will urself get the answer for it dont worry about it ..... Keep on studying ahead n u will always keep on learning new things.

Its just like in school students are taught tables. They dont teach its application straight away to students of thier age because concepts are always build BRICK BY BRICK.

JohnnyG

@hemant
Great explanation of mpeg buddy

If you want good picture quality, low cost and more channels then go for BigTv

But if you want Good STB then go for somethin else..

coz STB of Bigtv really SUCKS...:single ****: its tooooo slow..

neo001

@ Hemant,

What You are talking about is theoritical not practical, practically/ theoritically also if you see MPEG 4 is better compression technique then MPEG 2 now the ques. is how does it effect audio and video quality. Better compression leads to put more channels per transponders as compared to MPEG 2 and that will help only broadcasters to put on more number of channels.

So if you are engg then definitely you would agree with this point.

kundanbhakuni

Ok guys...

I think we are in a bit of tangle here...

Well let me sum it down...

• MPEG4 is more efficient tool than MPEG2 (we all agree) - Closed
  
• MPEG4 can give qulity advantage to the customer. Thats also correct.
  

EXPLANATION:

Initially, MPEG-4 was aimed primarily at low bit-rate video communications; however, its scope was later expanded to be much more of a multimedia coding standard. MPEG-4 is efficient across a variety of bit-rates ranging from a few kilobits per second to tens of megabits per second. MPEG-4 provides the following functionalities:

• Improved coding efficiency
• Ability to encode mixed media data (video, audio, speech)
• Error resilience to enable robust transmission
• Ability to interact with the audio-visual scene generated at the receiver

(Ref: Wikepedia)

In layman language it could be said that currently an Indian subscriber will not enjoy any quality service since the transmission from the transponders (in India) currently are not embedded with HDTV (High Definition) transmission, therefore MPEG2 is more than well equipped in terms of providing picture and sound quality to Indian customers. However, SKY in UK has launched SKY+HDTV (please check google since I am not allowed to post URL's) for which both 2 end requirments are to be in place HD signals and HD compatble STB (Set Top Box). Therefore, in the UK or advanced western civilizations can enjoy the better quality picture and sound at higher cost ofcourse. But in India it will take a while. So, keep the following things in your mind before you get swayed about buying MPEG related DTH product in India:

• It will not affect your audio/video quality (in India) for a long time
• STB's with MPEG2 are cheaper so ISP might provide you better deal
• And only go for TATA SKY or Airtel DTH if buying in India ofcourse
• SUN good option but they are nowhere near SKY or Airtel when it comes to customer service and proficiency

If I have missed out on something or got some info wrong please feel free to correct me.


With best regards,

Kundan
Bharti Learning Systems









In India MPEG4 and MPEG2 doesn't really matter to customer as they curently only make commercial sense. Thats right and the reason for it is as following:

Reason: Currently India uses only