I don't know of any U.S. broadcaster using MPEG-4 (although I would love that!) since MPEG-2 is the defacto standard of the ATSC, 8-VSB system. Other countries (like in Europe) are starting to use MPEG-4/h.264 to achieve lower bitrates for their HD offering.
It is possible to send MPEG-4 packets through the U.S. 8-VSB system to 'special' receivers as a form of datacasting, but the standard digital TV in the U.S. would only pay attention to and decode the MPEG-2 packets described in the PSIP (metadata). The average digital TV would/will ignore MPEG-4 or IP data packets and throw them away.
In the future, if manufacturers build in the capability for MPEG-4 or h.264 decoding into the sets it is conceivable that broadcasters could upgrade their encoders and 'flip a switch' to be broadcasting in MPEG-4. However, it would make the present ATSC MPEG-2 receivers in people's homes go dark - sound familiar?
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I don't know of any U.S. broadcaster using MPEG-4 (although I would love that!) since MPEG-2 is the defacto standard of the ATSC, 8-VSB system. Other countries (like in Europe) are starting to use MPEG-4/h.264 to achieve lower bitrates for their HD offering.
It is possible to send MPEG-4 packets through the U.S. 8-VSB system to 'special' receivers as a form of datacasting, but the standard digital TV in the U.S. would only pay attention to and decode the MPEG-2 packets described in the PSIP (metadata). The average digital TV would/will ignore MPEG-4 or IP data packets and throw them away.
In the future, if manufacturers build in the capability for MPEG-4 or h.264 decoding into the sets it is conceivable that broadcasters could upgrade their encoders and 'flip a switch' to be broadcasting in MPEG-4. However, it would make the present ATSC MPEG-2 receivers in people's homes go dark - sound familiar?