CableLabs names 15Mbps as “safe harbor bitrate” for MPEG2 HD VOD
Its good to see the cable industry set a standard for Mpeg2 HD. From my experience 15Mbps should be very good quality and not suffer from blurring or blocking during playback. It will be interesting to see what sort of standards they set in place if they adopt other more efficient CODECs.
From the article:
In addition to the video content, that safe harbor bit rate must also accommodate the audio component (stereo, Dolby 5.1, etc.).
CableLabs – citing a bevy of authors and contributors* — released the Metadata 2.0 Specifications — Content Encoding Profiles 2.0 Specification on Jan. 5, 2007.
Although expressing concerns and constraints in determining the "optimal" bit rate for a given situation (ie. a show with talking heads, versus a fast-moving sports event), "success has been widely achieved suing the 15 Mbps transport bit rate," the specs explain in regard to the rate for HD-VOD content.