Daniel on the MPEG4 subject. Well the comparison is not going to be fair because it also uses 8PSK and more specifically the DVB-S2 standard and ATSC uses 8-VSB. Well ,anyways, to the point . This weekend I locked to the Uruguayan Mux or multiplex on Hispasat 1D @30W and it broadcasts 6 SD channels from Uruguay obviously plus 3 or 4 radio stations I think. Uruguay uses the European PAL system therefore has more vertical resolution that the old NTSC as we know. The amazing thing is that they are squeeeeezing those 6 SD channels on only 7.2 Mhz of bandwith !!! on that TransPonder # 80 which BTW is also shared with at least 4 SD channels more but those are using regular QPSK and maybe even that TP could also be up to 72 Mhz wide (on that bird there are TP from 24 to 72 Mhz bandwith).
7200 Msps is the SR on that Uruguayan mux therefore only 7.2 Mhz are dedicated for the Mux and the picture quality is very good , obviously SD grade, but you do not see any macroblocking or any compresion effects that you normaly see on other TV Channels that are using similar SR but with regular QPSK and MPEG2 combination. In other words for the cost of only 7.2 Mhz of Satellite bandwith which is always expensive they are effectively broadcasting 6 SD channels. The catch the SAT receiver has to be DVB-S2 and MPEG4 capable and those are more expensive than regular DVB-S receivers but undoubtly a lot of an improvement. Anyways I do not see ATSC implementing MPEG4 in the near future either.
