Thread: Don't Believe NPS about C band support ending.

Originally Posted by TMair

Isn't it possible that they could be picked up by HITS?
Terry

That would be great! Surely something can be done. I didn't sleep last night worrying about what is happening with 4dtv.

Hey SRL or Skyvision.... If you're listening....

A lot of us want Fox News if possible.... Me included!

It's the only reason I subbed to G3 with NPS, and when NPS sub runs out, I am going to need it.

Still looking for Cartoon Network

Originally Posted by dobiegillis

That would be great! Surely something can be done. I didn't sleep last night worrying about what is happening with 4dtv.

I hear that, I had a hard time sleeping two nights ago for the same reason, but I think every thing will turn out, it will be interesting to see what a real provider can do, one that has a working relationship with Motorola, and Comcast.
Terry

Originally Posted by lonewolf454

Hey SRL or Skyvision.... If you're listening....

A lot of us want Fox News if possible.... Me included!

It's the only reason I subbed to G3 with NPS, and when NPS sub runs out, I am going to need it.

Me too Lonewolf. This is the only reason i went with G3. If enough of us make noise maybe we will get SRL or Skyvision's attention.

Originally Posted by dobiegillis

Me too Lonewolf. This is the only reason i went with G3. If enough of us make noise maybe we will get SRL or Skyvision's attention.

It's okay to make suggestions to SRL and Skyvision. Just don't go on the attack like so many did with NPS when things weren't the way they wanted it. I suggested channels to SRL years ago and they actually got them through HITS, Then it took NPS another year to get the same channel from HITS. SRL always has had more of HITS's channels than NPS.

The best thing that could be done is if they could work a deal to get the current or new Starchoice STB for us to work with all of HITS uplinks. HITS has allot more channels up there then we can get with our 4DTV's in megapipe (29270 combo) mode. I think if that was done everyone would be happy with the choices.

I think one of the things that took NPS down was there G3 reuplinks. It cost NPS a fair amount per month to run it. They contracted the work out to Crawford which were pretty poor dealing with the technical aspects of the DC-2 and things. NPS stretched the rubber band to the max trying to add more channels (thus the poor picture quality) When NPS lit up there second transponder on G3 and there were only 7 channels vs 12 in the mux it looked quite a bit better. NPS also did no pre processing of the signal before encoding. MPEG 2 and all digital can benefit by softening and removing any garbage in the signal before encoding. It allows the encoding process to go easier, thus reducing load and bandwidth needed. That is why HITS and Shaw (Starchoice) look so much better than NPS did using the same SR and FEC. I was watching Starchoice this evening and was commenting to a friend how nice *C looks. They also limit the channels in the mux to about 8. I think thats about all you want to push a MPEG 2 signal at 19510 especially without pre processing. 29270 and 7/8 can handle allot more just look at HBO on G1.

We will have to wait and see what transpires. We should be thankful SRL and Skyvision are around, otherwise with NPS closing there doors it would be the end of least the 4DTV as we know it. It would be for pure hobby use only hunting out DC-2 if we could keep some kind of channel mapping in the units.

This article in today's Sky Report
MediaBiz

deserves some response from NPS competitors. Seems like the writer only bothered to contact one of the subscription providers. No very good journalism and a few letters to the editor might shed some light on the real facts.

2/5/2010
C-Band at the End?

Looks like the consumer C-Band business will be dead and gone by the end of this year. After hearing from several retailers about rumors that Motorola would cease its authorization stream, we started making inquires. No response from Motorola but Mike Monfort of National Programming Service (NPS) confirms that the demise is likely.

"We had a conference call in late December when Motorola talked about discontinuing the authorization stream on April 15th," Monfort says. After some protests and concerted lobbying, the giant manufacturer boosted prices by 20%, agreed to continue service until the end of the year and said they will then decide the future.

Motorola will almost certainly discontinue the service, Monfort says, so his National Programming Service (NPS) has ceased selling annual subscriptions. That's bad news for many retailers and C-Band's current 22,606 subscribers. "The people who are left love their C-Band," Monfort says. But Motorola apparently finds the business inconvenient ... and so an era is coming to an end.•

Originally Posted by SatelliteAV

This article in today's Sky Report
MediaBiz

deserves some response from NPS competitors. Seems like the writer only bothered to contact one of the subscription providers. No very good journalism and a few letters to the editor might shed some light on the real facts.

2/5/2010
C-Band at the End?

Looks like the consumer C-Band business will be dead and gone by the end of this year. After hearing from several retailers about rumors that Motorola would cease its authorization stream, we started making inquires. No response from Motorola but Mike Monfort of National Programming Service (NPS) confirms that the demise is likely.

"We had a conference call in late December when Motorola talked about discontinuing the authorization stream on April 15th," Monfort says. After some protests and concerted lobbying, the giant manufacturer boosted prices by 20%, agreed to continue service until the end of the year and said they will then decide the future.

Motorola will almost certainly discontinue the service, Monfort says, so his National Programming Service (NPS) has ceased selling annual subscriptions. That's bad news for many retailers and C-Band's current 22,606 subscribers. "The people who are left love their C-Band," Monfort says. But Motorola apparently finds the business inconvenient ... and so an era is coming to an end.•

It seem's that this report is one sided with all it's information coming from NPS. This is the same story we have heard since week's beginning. It is based on Mike Mountfords claims only. What I heard from SRL and Mike Kohl at Skyvision is totally different. They have been in contact with Motorola and Mountfords sky is falling claim is false. I believe it is all because of a a money issue and bad relationship between Motorola and NPS. How come NPS is the only one that raised prices in February. If there was a 20% increase for all from Motorola wouldn't SRL and Skyvision's prices have gone up too? They didn't...

I suggest we all listen to Access America tonight and get Mike Kohl's (Skyvision/SRL) side of the story. I heard it already from the horses mouth so to speak and posted what I was told. NPS seems to be playing some kind of head games with us.

Just got off the phone with NPS - they refused to sell me any programming for my BigDish - full stop.

Tried to strong-arm me into Dish Network - which I refused.

Now I have no G3 - dammit!