the networks groaned and whinged about having to get HD equip.. fat chance they'll splurge on MP4 equip any time soon..
when analog is turned off they should give each network 2 channels to make use of rather than 1 digi and 1 analog as it is now... funninly enuf here abc and I think nbn are simulcast on VHF and UHF analog so thats 3 channels they're taking up!
each analog channel equates to about a bit over 20Mbit/sec in digi mode.. with MPG2 its hard to squeeze all these channels in without getting horible yucky compression artifacts (aka the blocky picture OF DEATH!)
I would be much happier if they gave each HD channel its own 20Mbit stream to itself and put the SD stuff together (3 SD chans in a stream would be 7Mbit or so? as opposed to 4Mbit or less.. blergh!)... mmmmmm nice picture quality!!