Encoder suppliers may be forging ahead to provide equipment that will enable VoDSL providers to capitalise on advances in video compression technology, However, most of the cost of deployment for an operator is not in headend equipment but in decoders, In the area of decoders, telcos may have an advantage over cable and satellite pay-TV providers, Because TV-over-DSL places most of the functionality of the network at the headend, it is easier to keep set-top box costs low from that start than has been the case in the DVB world. Set-top box providers are now waiting on the arrival of chipsets that will make the deployment of MPEG-4 AVC and VC-1-based services commercially viable propositions, The emerging decoder chipsets are likely in most cases of being capable of handling multiple codecs, Although mass market systems-on-a-chip remain out of reach for now, set-top vendors are positioning themselves in the expectation of demand for equipment growing even before solutions at a mass market price are available.
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