ARRIS Unveils 4:1 HD Compression
ARRIS has announced that its EGT VIPr2200 encoder can now compress four HD channels into one QAM channel, increasing bandwidth efficiency without sacrificing video quality. Unlike ASIC-based products, VIPr is a fully programmable platform allowing performance improvements like 4:1 HD through simple software upgrades without the need for hardware changes.
Cable operators have been able to fit 2 HD services into one 256 QAM without "processing" those services. More recently, rate shapers and other alternatives were able to increase that efficiency by 50 percent to accommodate 3 HD channels. The VIPr2200’s Intelligent Recode feature (full decode/re-encode within the original encoding parameters), sophisticated pre-processing and filtering, and integrated closed-loop statistical multiplexing, allows very high quality rate reduction. This allows operators to multiplex up to 4 HD services that can fit into a 256 QAM channel without observable video quality degradation.