Getting consumers the content they want
by Jeremiah Golston, Distinguished Member of Technical
Staff and Chief Technical Officer for the Digital Video
Products Business
The digital video revolution that is transforming home
entertainment and information systems brings with it
complex issues about the sharing of information.
High-Definition Television (HDTV) transmission is at
the upper end of the home video chain, supported by
high-resolution displays, surround sound and new recording
technology. As video content suppliers migrate to advanced
codecs such as MPEG-4 and H.264 to free up bandwidth
for HD, the need for legacy MPEG-2 support remains.
In addition, many other types of systems are being produced
that can share video at home and away. All this different
video equipment needs to be able to share content, especially
HD content from broadcasts and recordings. Transcoding
is crucial to address this challenge and enable electronics
manufacturers to drive the continued evolution of the
video-entertainment market.
The importance of transcoding – the ability to
take existing video content and change the format, bit
rate and/or resolution to view it on another video device
– is only beginning to be understood in set-top
boxes, digital media adapters, portable video recorders,
video cell phones and other consumer equipment. To share
video content, all of these systems are likely to need
some level of transcoding capability.
Because consumers demand that their content be easily
transportable and available on any device on hand, service
providers and electronic device manufacturers must face
the truth: Content really is king. The ability to seamlessly
move content in real-time is made possible only by transcoding.
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