Euro1080 switches to MPEG-4

[BGonaSTICK]

Euro1080 is to adopt the MPEG-4 compression standard across all of its broadcast channels.

The exception will be the Astra feed of HD1 at 23.5 degrees East, which will maintain a signal in MPEG-2 while Euro1080 promotes discounted MPEG-4 boxes to its subscribers. The HD1, HD2, HD5 and EXQI culture channels will otherwise be available only in MPEG-4.

The move is a U-turn from the company's previously stated policy of maintaining an MPEG-2 signal through until 2008.

In August 2005 Euro1080 became the first channel in the world to broadcast using the MPEG-4 standard. However, the broadcaster acknowledges that the quality of those early broadcasts was not up to the mark. It now says that the quality of MPEG-2 is actually better than that of MPEG-2 HD.