AT&T pushes MPEG-4 to full HD potential

AT&T did not pursue the same fiber-to-the-home IPTV plans that some others carriers have relied on, but John Donovan, the telco's CTO, said at a conference last week that increasingly efficient MPEG-4 compression will help AT&T continue to grow its high-definition channel line-up.

Donovan said MPEG-4 video compression for the company's U-verse TV service will improve to around 5 Mbps next year from its present rate of about 6 Mbps to 8 Mbps. That efficiency gain also will help AT&T support more simultaneous streams with its new whole-home DVR service in use--three live streams and four recorded streams.

MPEG-4 equipment was slow to come to market, but the protocol now can give IPTV service providers some help against their cable TV competitors, who mostly use MPEG-2 compression.

For more:
- read this coverage at Multichannel News

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