What happens to Zippered Tivos when MPEG-4 comes?

[Willy]

I must congratulate Gunny and Rbautch. The Zipper and enhancements are so fabulous. I have done the first one and the difference is incredible. I want to get 3 more for the other rooms but I only have one reservation: what happens to these Zippered Dtivos when DTV goes to MPEG-4? Does that mean these boxes will be useless? thanks...keep up the great work.

[JWThiers]

I must congratulate Gunny and Rbautch. The Zipper and enhancements are so fabulous. I have done the first one and the difference is incredible. I want to get 3 more for the other rooms but I only have one reservation: what happens to these Zippered Dtivos when DTV goes to MPEG-4? Does that mean these boxes will be useless? thanks...keep up the great work.
They won't be useless until D* shuts off the current MPEG-2 stream. Since you will need a new DVR to recieve MPEG-4 you just won't be able to record that.

[Willy]

They won't be useless until D* shuts off the current MPEG-2 stream. Since you will need a new DVR to recieve MPEG-4 you just won't be able to record that.

Have they announced or is there any speculation as to when they will turn off MPEG-2 stream? And what channels will use the MPEG-4 streams - is it just the Locals or will there be national channels as well? I am in Los Angeles, will they keep the MPEG-2 on here for a longer time? Thanks.

[JWThiers]

Have they announced or is there any speculation as to when they will turn off MPEG-2 stream? And what channels will use the MPEG-4 streams - is it just the Locals or will there be national channels as well? I am in Los Angeles, will they keep the MPEG-2 on here for a longer time? Thanks.
I don't think they have announced, but given that:

1. They have just started broadcasting mpeg4
2. It will be at least 2 years before they will have the bandwidth (satellites) to go national
3. The HUGE user base of mpeg2 users

It will be several years after they have the satellites up and running.

[rbautch]

There's more speculation in the high-def tivo thread, since the mpeg-4 conversion will affect them first.

[Dan Collins]

Officially, DirecTV has NO PLANS to convert ANY existing MPEG-2 SD programming to MPEG-4. The cost of converting their entire encoding system to MPEG-4 is extremely high, so unless they have a compelling business opportunity to make more money from SD customers if they have more bandwidth, they will likely simply allow the SD user community to shrink by attrition. Once a majority of customers have MPEG-4 equipment, they might force the issue for the stragglers. But this is a scenario that is at least 5 years out.

[dswallow]

...and remember the HR10-250 tunes OTA ATSC, too... and that will always be MPEG-2 and compatible with the receiver. So worst case is DirecTV converts all HD to MPEG-4 and your HR10-250 can only record SD from DirecTV and OTA ATSC; and that worst case scenario is at least a couple years out.