Real-Time Transcoding

With MPEG-4/H.264 now permeating all facets of 'large screen' broadcast TV distribution, as well as being the dominant choice for video delivery to PC and handheld devices, operators worldwide are now in the midst of establishing and implementing MPEG-2 to MPEG-4/H.264 transition strategies. At the same time, many operators require the reverse operation — MPEG-4/H.264 to MPEG-2 conversion, or need to create standard definition (SD) video streams from high definition (HD) streams in order to continue supporting their large customer bases and existing set-top boxes.

In the large screen distribution model, what started as a telco IPTV-only trend has now grown well beyond that to all other market segments with the need for a variety of real-time transcoding and re-coding modes, including, MPEG-2 to MPEG-4/H.264, MPEG-4/H.264 to MPEG-4/H.264, MPEG-4/H.264 to MPEG-2 and even MPEG-2 to MPEG-2.

RGB's Video Multiprocessing Gateway (VMG) supports these network evolution needs utilizing its flexible, real-time transcode and re-code support. It performs any operation between MPEG-4/H.264 and MPEG-2, at various screen resolutions, ranging from high definition 1920 x 1080 all the way down to picture-in-picture (PIP) and handheld device resolutions. Furthermore, VMG content repurposing is best-in-class for its high capacity, allowing for the repurposing of up to 144 high definition input streams into over 400 output streams, all within a single chassis. This capability allows complete channel lineup transcoding/re-coding, as well as multiple profile output support where one input is coded into different resolutions, bit rates or compression parameters to handle downstream network and consumer device needs. Superior video quality control is also a key benefit with the use of bit rate control, programmable Group of Pictures (GOP) structure (including hierarchical GOP for MPEG-4/H.264) configuration, advanced noise filtering, and picture resolution control.