Charlie Chat Recap and Discussion

[sclaws]

I'd put my $ on Charlie miscommunicating what will happen. It doesn't make sense to offer the new Voom channels MPEG4 only if nearly all of us can't view them, and won't for some time. We'll see in a few weeks I suppose

[BFG]

Some quotations from the chat transcribed by dfergie
Question: from Kay Hd programming, when are we going to get more HD programming? D* is already broadcasting Espn2... likes to watch Hockey

Answer from Charlie: We have a lot of Hockey today on HD-net... We have a lot of New HD coming and its coming soon. The main thing that we are doing and it's a little bit different is were switching to a new transmission technology standard called Mpeg 4... it allows us to be more efficient in how we utilize the satellite and to do HD more economically. We are beginning to ship the new HD receivers with the advent of new technology In January we will roll out new HD programming including Espn2 at the CES show the first week of January... special HD chat jan 9th... More Voom channels and local HD channels NY, Atlanta ,Boston, LA and Chicago in January and in each month we expect 5 new city's to roll out next year. `We promise that we are going to be a leader in the HD category... We are excited about it.

Question: from Allan... IS Voom going to be a dead dog? or are you going to continue to carry it?

Answer... We started with only 10 channels of Voom and this has been a sort of a place holder we have been waiting for the mpeg 4 technology... in January we will add at least 5 channels in mpeg 4 and a lot of programming we have been holding out for the first 10 channels will be coming out so you will see a lot less repetitive programming. We are condensing the original 21 V* channels down to 15... New and better stuff and Quality and Variety will improve. The 5 new channels will quite interesting and you will like what you see... Voom will be around for a long time.'

[dfergie]

This was some of the high points of the chat... there were other points but this was the meat and potatoes of the broadcast...

[GeorgeLV]

Maybe I should ignore everything Charlie just mentioned and wait for the HD Chat on January 9th? Ugh! I get the feeling E* is flying by the seat of their pants with this MPEG-4 stuff.

I have the feeling they didn't actually expect D* to get up their HD LiL so fast and all of the major changes are fallout from that. Why would they list the whole Voom 21 in the EPG if they planned on 15 channels all along? It seems to me that the sudden about face on MPEG-4 stems from the need to maximize every bit of bandwidth to be somewhat competitive in HD LiL until they can get some new birds up.

[BFG]

This was some of the high points of the chat... there were other points but this was the meat and potatoes of the broadcast...

and it was only 10 minutes of the show

[riffjim4069]

Or maybe that's the business plan. I wonder if they'll make it free like DirecTV does.

Yes, but at last months Tech Chat they said Dish Network's MPEG-4 rollout will be a slow and measure response. We're getting conflicting word from Charlie and the Techies.

[GeorgeLV]

I'd put my $ on Charlie miscommunicating what will happen. It doesn't make sense to offer the new Voom channels MPEG4 only if nearly all of us can't view them, and won't for some time. We'll see in a few weeks I suppose

I guess it didn't make any sense to offer the new HD channels when everybody had SD receiver and nearly no one could view them either?

[dfergie]

I spell checked it as I PM'd to BFG and was typing fast lol added more info...

[BrettTRay]

Isn't the 211/411 going to be released on the 15th of December.

[sclaws]

I guess it didn't make any sense to offer the new HD channels when everybody had SD receiver and nearly no one could view them either?

And Charlie is always 100% accurate with his Chat statements?