DirecTV begins working on broadcasting Ultra HDTV signals

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DirecTV begins working on broadcasting Ultra HDTV signals
By Mike Flacy | Digital Trends – 20 hrs ago...
According to a report from Advanced Television, DirecTV is rolling out plans regarding upgrades that will eventually send out an Ultra HDTV signal. While a 1080p high definition signal offers 1080 horizontal lines of vertical resolution, DirecTV will be offering services for both “4000-line and 8000-line services” according to the company. In order to enable the transition, DirecTV will continue moving away from Ku-band satellites within the next four to five years and change over to Ka-band to take advantage of higher bandwidth. While Ka-band technology is far more likely to become garbled and unusable for consumers during a extremely rainy day due to increased cloud cover when compared to the Ku-band, DirecTV has already had success in broadcasting 1080p signals over Ka-band to customers in North America.

Philip Goswitz, DirecTV’s SVP/Space and Communications/R&D, stated “Ka-band doesn’t just mean broadband. To us it means broadcasting. The truth is that as our Ku-band transmissions end, then increasingly every dollar in revenue is attributable to Ka-band. We’ll be entirely Ka-band in about five years. Currently, of our total $27 billion in annual revenues, about $20 billion comes from Ka-band.”

Goswitz continued “4000-line is exciting to us because of its image quality, and the potential for glasses-free 3D.” The digital movie industry commonly refers to 4096-by-1714 resolution as the 4K format and several consumer electronics companies showed off 4K-capable televisions during CES 2012 with the most common resolution at 4096-by-2160. Japan plans to roll out support for true Ultra-HDTV by 2020, a resolution that’s approximately double 4K technology. Japan’s national public broadcasting organization NHK plans to broadcast portions of the London Olympics this summer in 7,680×4,320 resolution and the initial test of the technology showed off the ability to produce surround sound with 22.2 channels of audio.


Due to the massive upgrade in resolution with both 4K and 8K technologies, television manufacturers like Toshiba and Sony are able to create glasses-free 3D images at multiple viewing angles. For instance, Toshiba’s 55-inch glasses-free 3D TV offers 4K resolution, but the 3D mode is limited to 1,280×720 pixels commonly known at 720p. Designed to accommodate multiple viewers within nine different regions, the television utilizes extremely small lenses to split the video feed up into two views at different angles. The user can calibrate the views using face-tracking software built into the television. While Toshiba has already released the television within Japan and Europe, consumers within North America will likely balk after viewing the $10,000 price tag.

Television manufacturer TCL debuted the world’s largest 4K 3D LCD television this week at 110-inches and the company plans to donate two of the giant displays to Great Hall of the People, a ceremonial building within Tiananmen Square, for public display. Offering 4,096×2,160 pixels of resolution, the television does require active shutter glasses to view 3D.

However, it does utilize multi-touch technology to create a touch-screen on the front of the display and offers dynamic backlight technology as well. TCL is labeling the technology at “China Star” and likely plans to roll out the tech in smaller sets. TCL didn’t make any statement regarding the price of the 110-inch television or if it will be available for purchase in North America, Japan or Europe.
 
So, in 8 years we need to start buying new TV's again to support 4K res and new D* boxes as well ?

Interesting , they have the technology to SHOW it to you now, but won't have TV's till 2020 ?

If this new 4k technology worked with the existing 1080p sets, that would help greatly.
 
Philip Goswitz, DirecTV’s SVP/Space and Communications/R&D, stated “Ka-band doesn’t just mean broadband. To us it means broadcasting. The truth is that as our Ku-band transmissions end, then increasingly every dollar in revenue is attributable to Ka-band. We’ll be entirely Ka-band in about five years. Currently, of our total $27 billion in annual revenues, about $20 billion comes from Ka-band.”
So this means 101* and 119* will be completely gone in 5 years? All the 101* only 18" dishes will be moved to Phase 3's? All the spanish language channels will be moved off 119* to somewhere else... and what about this new FSS satellite they are launching to 85* in 3 years? Everything of G3C at 95* goes to KA band somewhere else? yeah right...

Somehow I just don't see that one happening.... Unless he meant "MPEG-4" and not "Ka-Band". That just seems like a stupid quote--I can see them dropping their duplicate MPEG 2 transmissions and moving everyone to MPEG 4--that's a smart move they should have started years ago--but not dropping their entire KU Band fleet--especially not within 5 years.

--Nat
 
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Is that why I keep seeing this message on DTV when I sign onto my account,although this message has been out longer than the announcement just made by DTV.

We will soon be changing how we broadcast local channels in your zip code. This may require a free upgrade to your DIRECTV equipment. To find out if you qualify for an upgrade, call 1-888-763-7772. Mention "Free 72 Local Swap" at the voice prompt.
 
Is that why I keep seeing this message on DTV when I sign onto my account,although this message has been out longer than the announcement just made by DTV.

No, that message refers to locals moving off of 72.5 in mpeg2 and going to 99/103 in mpeg4.
 
So this means 101* and 119* will be completely gone in 5 years? All the 101* only 18" dishes will be moved to Phase 3's? All the spanish language channels will be moved off 119* to somewhere else... and what about this new FSS satellite they are launching to 85* in 3 years? Everything of G3C at 95* goes to KA band somewhere else? yeah right...

Somehow I just don't see that one happening.... Unless he meant "MPEG-4" and not "Ka-Band". That just seems like a stupid quote--I can see them dropping their duplicate MPEG 2 transmissions and moving everyone to MPEG 4--that's a smart move they should have started years ago--but not dropping their entire KU Band fleet--especially not within 5 years.

--Nat

those Ku birds are likely nearing their end of service anyway and would have updated birds replacing them in the same slots. they have been moving people away from MPEG2 gear for a while already.
 
God I miss wildfeeds. I can't wait to move into my new house and get back into the C/Ku FTA hobby FULL TIME
If you could do that without going with the HUGE dish, I would go back and use it as an alternative.

You'd think they could go to a higher powered signal and a smaller dish ...

I think the 4dtv was just coming in when I left C Band, didn't want to shell out more money to get new equipment again.
 
Until every bleedin' channel that's available in HD is up and running on DirecTV, it should STFU about any new standard.

And that goes double for the marketing joke of the decade, 3D.
 
I can see the potential here, as Ultra HD sets start to come to the market people are going to want to have something to show off the content. Its just like the few 3D channels that Directv carrys today.

The issue here is that its going to take another 10 or 12 years before prices come down, compression gets better, and this becomes the standard.
 
If you could do that without going with the HUGE dish, I would go back and use it as an alternative.

You'd think they could go to a higher powered signal and a smaller dish ...

I think the 4dtv was just coming in when I left C Band, didn't want to shell out more money to get new equipment again.

That's when I got out of it too.
 
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