CompuServe Messages

Mario, JPEG and MPEG are two different standards. MPEG (Motion Picture Expert Group) is a high-compression, full-motion video/audio standard, that can function on low-cost playback platforms. JPEG (Joint Picture Expert Group) is high-compression standard for high-resolution 24-bit and 32-bit still pictures. Since JPEG has been around longer, several hardware manufacturers have developed chips that have the ability to compress JPEG images in real-time (30 frames per second/60 fields per second) for recording of motion picture. The most popular peripheral of this type used on the Amiga platform is the DPS Personal Animation Recorder (PAR), suggested retail price $1,995 US. This card has the ability to playback full-motion video with up to D-2 quality. Unfortunately, there is no JPEG standard for audio. That is why the industry has embraced the MPEG standard. BTW, the PAR should be available in Europe, PAL format of course, very soon. Check your domestic computer magazines for more information. Currently, the MPEG standard has a very low resolution playback capability. Depending on the subjective observer, it is considered more or less the quality of standard VHS. Unfortunately, a real-time, high-quality MPEG encoder with audio and video capability costs approximately $10,000 US. Still, the cost is still low enough to be affordable to the high-end desktop video market. The advantage of MPEG is that one-second of audio/video playback takes, more or less, 300KB. This transfer rate can easily be accomplished by the current double-speed CD-ROM drives. MPEG decoder cards can be purchase for as little as $1,000 US, and the price is dropping as more and more manufacturers get into the market. For commerical, industrial, training and local cable broadcasting, the MPEG standard is acceptable. However, for high-end broadcast systems, most agree that it is not good enough. Hence the as of yet accepted MPEG-II standard. This new standard is suppose to provide broadcast-quality audio and video. However, the encoding/decoding and storage costs are prohibitive for desktop video, literally costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. Currently, there are several modified and enhance versions of the MPEG standard which is considered broacast quality. General Instrument has a variation called DigiCipher-II. A company here in the U.S. called PRIMESTAR, is the first to provide an all digital broadcast service using the DigiCipher-II technology. As a matter of fact, PRIMESTAR also use Amigas and our InfoChannel product for use with their broadcast programming services. It's a small world. I hope you find this "article" interesting and helpful. Regards, John Chang Technical Support Manager Scala, Inc.