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If everything else stays the same then reducing the bitrate usually reduces the picture quality.
However in this case as with SKY a year or so ago an investment in the latest mpeg4 encoder has allowed HD broadcasters to realise the promise of the H.264 codec.
This codec was advertised with a 40% saving in bandwidth over mpeg2 and that was back in 2005/06 hence the choice to use the more expensive solution by SKY etc.
Three years later the H.264 hardware and software are finally capable of delivering on the performance the customers were promised although tweaking and fine tuning will probably be high on the agenda for the next few weeks to maximise performance from footy (very demanding) downwards.
In essence broadcast HD using H.264 was always meant to be around the 10-12mbps region and SKY+HD was set up the way as seen in the predictive usage level of around 5gig an hour.
Mike
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