I have a MPEG-2 receiver, does my receiver support MPEG-4 channels?

Question

I have a MPEG-2 receiver, does my receiver support MPEG-4 channels?

Answer 1

If your receiver is only MPEG-2, then no, it won't support MPEG-4 channels. The MPEG-4 video codecs (there are actually two major video format supported in the MPEG-4 spec, MPEG-4 Simple Profile/Advanced Simple Profile, and MPEG-4 Advanced Video Coding, AVC, also known as MPEG-4 Part 10 and H.264). AVC is also the format used on AVCHD camcorders and iPod video.. and largely considered the successor to MPEG-2 throughout the industry.

Most MPEG-4 in use for commercially supplied video is AVC  video. On set-top boxes for cable and satellite, they're almost certainly still using MPEG-2 transport streams and other infrastructure. So your non-MPEG-4 STB knows about MPEG-4 streams, but can't display them.

In satellite, anyway, MPEG-4/AVC is largely only used today for High-Definition video. In the case of Dish Network, their first HD-STB was not MPEG-4 compatible, but I believe every one since then is, and they've recommended moving to MPEG-4 for anyone using HD.

If you know your receiver's model number, you could probably find out for certain if there's MPEG-4 support built-in.