Suhit Gupta
10-26-2005, 03:00 PM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1874213,00.asp' target='_blank'>http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1874213,00.asp</a><br /><br /></div><i>"DirecTV Inc. has contracted LG Electronics Inc. to be the first supplier of HDTV set-top boxes for a new next-generation video compression technology, the company announced Wednesday. LG Electronics has commenced production and will begin shipping its set-top boxes, designed to transmit MPEG-4 HD (high definition) satellite broadcasts, recently initiated by DirecTV, according to a news release. "MPEG-4 is a new generation of video compression technology that allows satellite providers to significantly increase the number of channels they offer and to provide up to 150 channels of HDTV, in DirecTV's case," a spokesperson from LG Electronics told Ziff Davis Internet."</i><br /><br />DirecTV's new set-top boxes are built around Broadcom Corp.'s MPEG and LG Electronics' fifth-generation "VSB" chip sets. The digital television service provider plans to offer more than 1,500 local broadcast channels and 150 national channels in high definition by 2007. Cool stuff. I recently moved from New York to Seattle and am contemplating as to whether to go with DirecTV or Comcast cable. Given the above, DirecTV seems to have a very bright future. Hmm.