Recent content by gene1138

Wasn't there talk about D* getting those in the Mountain and Pacific time zones over to new mpeg-4 HD LIL right away to free up some CONUS transponders? Is that still happening? I would think that would allow D* to put up a couple national HD channels?

Interesting to see they are still talking about the HDTV Media Center and the second generation Ka-Ku dish looks nice.

Yes other people have had their AT9 installed on the roof as well. I just think this installer doesn't want to go through any extra effort to bring the heavier AT9 up on the roof. I think he is just being lazy.

Starting to feel that old Rupert and his cronies don't know how to run a satellite company. At least not one in a real competative market.

Damn. I was really hoping to get a box with 4 tuners to help alleviate any of those recording conflicts. Just go with what they got now and make the wireless HMC the non Motorola hardware.

As far as I know, MPEG-4 is not dependent on the spaceway sats. They could run MPEG-4 on their existing Ku sats.

Looks like it's blown past its orbit. Lyngsat is saying it's at 80 degrees west and each time I refresh the tracker page the number keeps decreasing. It making an orbit around the planet or something? Think Lyngsat might be messed up or D* is putting it into a test orbit before moving it to 99.

I think D10 and D11 will be up before SW2 gets launched. :D

Also don't forget the current thinking is that these new sats will each do a spot beam that covers half the US to help provide national HD channels now. So wishing these sats go down in a ball of flames just puts your desire to have new national HD channels that much further into the future.

So do we think this is the final design or just a prototype for D* to test reception? I would think the LNBs would be housed in a single package like the existing phase 3 dish.

Any chance that the new 5 lnb dish will use a similar mount as the Gainmaster dish? The rumored dish size sounds the same as the Gainmaster. Be nice if the installer would be able to just place the new dish on the existing mount.

I think that could be a big mistake if they plan on charging 250 to 275 after I shelled out 900 bucks for an HD Tivo. If they thought the outcry from the Sunday Ticket Super Fan pricing was bad, wait till subscriders get a load of this.

Thanks, Longhorn. So it seems D* is adjusting to life without an on time launch of spaceway 2 or just going to plan B for just such an event. Think this makes sense. Get everyone new mpeg4 boxes and then flip the switch to the new scheme. Reduce bandwidth needs and get the image quality...

I know all this stuff is rumor but I saw it somewhere that Sunday Ticket was staying mpeg2. Is it now looking like it's going mpeg4? Or are you speaking to what Fall '06 will bring after all the upgrades?

D* has always said that they basically loose money on ST because they gain subs in the end. Well they are going to loose this one. ;) This is really got me steamed. Its a 56% increase over last year. This is really taking advantage of people that have nowhere else to go to view this...