Team Summit General Assembly Notes

**RedSavina** · 05-05-2007 10:42 AM

Yeah, after more research and thought I am seeing this as less likely. Scott G seems to think the MPEG2 will stay at 110/119 and the new MPEG4 will be at 86.5/97.

Too early to know for sure - just lots of interesting speculation!

Whatever they do I hope it does not involve too much hassle for the subscribers. Repointing a gazillion dishes sounds like an expensive proposition - plus the vocal minority who will not have a clear LOS for different slots. I'm glad I don't have to solve those problems!

Anyway you look at it I am thrilled to see things moving to MPEG4.

Red

**AJF** · 05-05-2007 10:47 AM

Originally Posted by shanewalker

Thanks for the full rundown, Scott!

I'm surprised no one has asked after the DishComm. By your notes, it sounds like its been activated in the 622s, I'm assuming in the last software update (L4.03)?

QUOTE: "Leslie comes out and shows us how to use the new features on the 622. She also tells us that DishCOMM has been turned on in the 622's and will soon be turned on in the 211, this will allow all the boxes to talk to each other."

So, if that's true, can we, say, now hook into our networks via ethernet and share recordings, etc. between 622s? Anyone try to get these boxes to "talk" yet?

Ah, hell...I just answered my question by doing a little looking around. I was confusing DishComm (which seems at present to only entail sharing of a phone-line connection for account purposes) w/ all the fancy media sharing/remote viewing capabilities Dish was showing off at the conventions last year. It was all running on the new boxes (part of the ViP of the ViP 622/211s), so I dared to hope...

So what IS the answer ? I'd love to be able to connect my receivers together and share the recordings and hard drive space . I think it would be fantastic if the connected receivers operated like 1 big mega-receiver .

**roachxp** · 05-05-2007 12:04 PM

I thought the new slots will be 97 and 113 for Mpeg4 sats

**RedSavina** · 05-05-2007 01:26 PM

Not if they intend to use the Dish500 dish which currently "sees" a 9 degree difference (110 to 119). Other posters have mentioned a 10.5 degree spacing for the new sats and service. It seems reasonable that the same Dish500 could be used for a 10.5 degree spacing (86.5 to 97). I'm not so sure about a 16 degree spacing (97 to 113). That would probably require something like a Dish1000.

Another consideration is the claim of reception using an 18" dish. I believe the only dish that is truly 18" is the Dish300. The Dish500 is generally considered to be equivalent but is actually more like 20". The other dishes are larger. (Of course, with a non-circular dish you could claim vertical or horizontal measurements!)

I have not kept up with all the licenses and orbital slots that Echostar controls, but it would be interesting to see the full listing with potential pairings for a Dish500 solution. I still maintain that it is in Echostar's best interests to have a minimal impact on changes to the end customer. So far that suggests establishing the MPEG4 service at a new slot-pair since the number of MPEG4-capable existing customers is much smaller than the MPEG2-only customers. In the short term this makes it easier to re-point a smaller percentage of dishes (new customers are a wash). Unfortunately they will eventually have to deal with repointing MPEG2 customers when they upgrade. Someone (Dish or the customer?) will foot this bill.

Red

**RJohn** · 05-05-2007 04:27 PM

How about the local HD cities they promised last year.

They haven't completed that list, so what are the chances they will complete this one?

All Big talk and no action.....

How about completing last years list of promises, before making new ones.

**Poke** · 05-05-2007 04:38 PM

Well some of that would fall in getting all the contracts done in some of those local markets. Some local markets might be quicker than others on getting things done to get their HD channels setup for Dish than others. So really that depends on both parties getting things done to offer the HD feed of the local market. So it might not always be Dish or Direct fault on how fast things get done. It would be nice if all they had to do was to just turn things on when its available but does not always work that way. Either way I think Direct and Dish do what they can when they can other times its out of their control.

**MikeD-C05** · 05-05-2007 06:30 PM

Maybe they are going to wait to finish adding the extra hd locals till the new sats are up & running in early 2008. I still wonder what the heck Dish is going to do with all those slots they are using right now like 118, 121, 105, 61.5, 129,148, 110 and 119 once they finish moving everything to just two sats in mpeg 4? I can't imagine it would be cost effective to keep all those slots or sats once they move it all to mpeg 4 in the next 2-3 years.

Maybe a used satellite sale?

**mike123abc** · 05-05-2007 09:26 PM

Originally Posted by MikeD-C05

Maybe they are going to wait to finish adding the extra hd locals till the new sats are up & running in early 2008. I still wonder what the heck Dish is going to do with all those slots they are using right now like 118, 121, 105, 61.5, 129,148, 110 and 119 once they finish moving everything to just two sats in mpeg 4? I can't imagine it would be cost effective to keep all those slots or sats once they move it all to mpeg 4 in the next 2-3 years.

Maybe a used satellite sale?

It saves them a billion or 2 not to have to switch out all the old boxes and repoint all the satellite dishes... It will probably be something like if you want the new stuff you pay $X to upgrade your equipment (to the MPEG4 VIP series) and commit to so many months of CC autopay. Then Dish will pay for someone to come out and change out/repoint your dish to the new satellites where you can start enjoying the new programming.

Soon Dish will stop adding stuff to the old system. If you want the new stuff you will have to go to the new system. Eventually they will have most customers switched over for minimal costs. Once enough are converted they can reclaim the satellites for more capacity.

**Dune** · 05-05-2007 10:38 PM

Great news for us in Hawaii. I was almost ready to switch to cable even though the signal is terrible.

Ever since Dish switched Hawaii HD over to the spot beam I almost never get rain fade, and I also re-qualified for distant networks with All American.

The only thing I was missing was HD Networks, so I will soon be a happy customer.

Dune