mPhase Announces New Generation of its IPTV Software With Support for MPEG-4 Set Top Boxes

September 12, 2006 - mPhase Technologies has announced a new generation of its TV+(TM) System IPTV software that supports the latest video encoding standards as well as a host of features designed to help service providers reduce the cost and complexity of integrating video with their broadband network infrastructure.

It is claimed that one of the features available from mPhase is the ability to apply up to 4 encodings to a single channel and thereby support a mix of MPEG-4 and MPEG-2 video streams, depending on STB capability. This multiple encoding capability is also believed to be an efficient way for providers to support a mix of network types - Ethernet, DSL and fiber.
"Dividing content by asset groups this way saves on expenses by streaming content once for any type of broadband access and not forcing the service provider to upgrade all STBs at once to MPEG4 support," noted Ron Durando, mPhase's chief executive .

According to mPhase, a new addition to the TV+ System is a Dynamic Menu System that allows service providers to define menu profiles and map viewer selections to Portal and Browser-based services. The Portal's on-screen application can be customized in standard HTML and JavaScript authoring tools, while the full-featured TV Internet Browser incorporates site navigation, security, cookie support, caching and other Web features. mPhase claims to offer optional Flash integration for gaming services, and has also developed a Portal SDK for applications developers.

"mPhase continues to lead the development of features and functions for a carrier-grade IPTV service offer," stated Durando. "This is the 6th generation product release for the TV+ System, incorporating the kind of real-world capabilities sought by service providers on an open middleware platform that provides them with flexibility and time-to market advantages in a highly competitive business."