Any new hd channel additions coming soon?

[JEFFinINDY]

YES! I agree 100%!

The HD image quality on D* is significantly better than E*. This is much more important to me than having more (so called) HD channels.

I was surprised by this. Everyone said the difference is slight to non-existent, but to me it seems very apparent. I might possibly give E* the nod on locals, but for all other HD channels and especially 1080i channels, it's really no contest.

 

[RandallA]

As a former Dish customer also, I can state that the picture quality of DirecTV is significantly better than Dish. It's nice to see a provider taking quality seriously. Dish wasn't horrible or even close to U-Verse levels of awful, but there's noticeably less compression on DirecTV and those differences are clear on a 67" 1080p DLP.

Shhhh, don't tell the Dish Network people. I completely agree with this, as a former Dish Network customer that was the first thing I noticed. The HD quality is better than E*.

 

[raoul5788]

DIRECTV 12 was supposed to be an in-orbit spare.

There are only so many transponders that they can send from each slot so doubling up on the satellites doesn't necessarily double up on the bandwidth.

IIRC, it was supposed to be an on the ground spare, not in orbit.

 

[ADJLATINO]

maybe a couple channels in spanish.like espndeportes hd.fox deportes hd an history en español hd

 

[whitewolf8214]

Shhhh, don't tell the Dish Network people. I completely agree with this, as a former Dish Network customer that was the first thing I noticed. The HD quality is better than E*.

+2

 

[Jimbo]

Now you know. DIRECTV has three birds there now so they're pretty effectively using all the Ka bandwidth granted to them. They are granted a total of 1GHz (19.7-20.2GHz A band + 18.3-18.8GHz B band). It is important to correct your number of transponders as there are only 24 per band with the Ka frequencies.

Ka transponders are 32MHz wide while Ku transponders are only 24MHz wide. Both use a 500Mhz band so you can get 32 transponders into a Ku band but only 24 transponders on a Ka band. The usable bandwidth with the Ka setup is about 10% more efficient (probably because they don't need so many guard bands between transponders). On the other hand, if you look at how many channels they get per transponder, the yield isn't proportionally higher.

Thanks for the info !

Sent from my Samsung Epic using SatelliteGuys

 

[Jimbo]

IIRC, it was supposed to be an on the ground spare, not in orbit.

Doesn't do much good on the ground when you need it in the sky !

Sent from my Samsung Epic using SatelliteGuys

 

[raoul5788]

Doesn't do much good on the ground when you need it in the sky !

Sent from my Samsung Epic using SatelliteGuys

It was going to be built so that it would be ready to launch. It also doesn't do much good, except for time, to have it in orbit and not used. That's a waste of fuel and therefore longevity.

 

[ejb1980]

maybe a couple channels in spanish.like espndeportes hd.fox deportes hd an history en español hd

Agreed. i don't care what language a channel is in if the game I want to watch is on it, like when my local Fox affiliates play the Braves but Fox Deportes has the Yankees-Red Sox game in MLB season.) I wish I had LOS to the 119 so I could get all the channels I am paying for. (Although I think I recall Iceberg saying that Fox Deportes is leaving the Sports Pack, which is a shame. The Sports Pack should include Fox Deportes, ESPN Deportes, and all Spanish channels that regularly play sports, IMO.) But, like others have said, NO new HD at the sacrifice of the quality of current HD.

 

[ADJLATINO]

I agry..

 

[Jimbo]

It was going to be built so that it would be ready to launch. It also doesn't do much good, except for time, to have it in orbit and not used. That's a waste of fuel and therefore longevity.

Would you rather it be up in the sky and ready to use, or sitting on the ground when they need it.

You know how long it takes to get one up and able to be working and transmitting.

It's not like it happens in a day or two.

 

[harshness]

IIRC, it was supposed to be an on the ground spare, not in orbit.

You are correct in terms of the original Boeing announcement.

That all changed when DIRECTV 10 launched and they discovered it had several serious problems. You may have noticed that the DIRECTV 12 launch was waiting only on Boeing to finish the bird in December of 2009 and that the launch preparations took less than the typical 30 days.

 

[harshness]

maybe a couple channels in spanish.like espndeportes hd.fox deportes hd an history en español hd

Those channels would likely come from the 119W slot.

 

[harshness]

It was going to be built so that it would be ready to launch. It also doesn't do much good, except for time, to have it in orbit and not used. That's a waste of fuel and therefore longevity.

This versus having a major failure of one of the existing satellites and having to pay big money to get a quick launch? Guess how many subs they would risk by halving their CONUS HD bandwidth for several months. It isn't like there are a bunch of Ka lease birds aloft and available to move to 103W.

I would imagine that the cost of maintaining a spare at station keeping in terms of fuel is relatively low in comparison of with what it costs to make the much more frequent corrections required for an active Ka satellite.

 

[DetFan]

They put up the new Sat last year and I think shared with the other one .... 103ca and 103cb, ca wa the original one, where did all the bandwidth from 103cb go ?

Sent from my Samsung Epic using SatelliteGuys

The almighty PPV

 

[Jimbo]

They put up the new Sat last year and I think shared with the other one .... 103ca and 103cb, ca wa the original one, where did all the bandwidth from 103cb go ?

Sent from my Samsung Epic using SatelliteGuys

The almighty PPV

True, but PPV is flexible, they can move things around, drop a PPV and add a channel if needed ... kinda a safety blanket.

 

[DetFan]

True, but PPV is flexible, they can move things around, drop a PPV and add a channel if needed ... kinda a safety blanket.

Agreed, but they won't

 

[dishrich]

Agreed, but they won't

They already DO...they use some of those PPV's slots for things like NFL-ST, & other season ticket pkgs as needed...

 

[ejb1980]

Pardon me if this is a stupid question, but, speaking of PPV, why are there SO MANY movies listed between ch 125 and 199? The same things over and over and over again? What are they there for when all you have to do to buy a movie is select the picture of the movie where it says "watch instantly?" I hid all the PPV channels except 125 (adding 125 keeps the pictures in the guide so we can see the movies listed only once) from my favorites list.

I am newish to Directv and feel I have a decent comprehension of how things work but this has puzzled me since day 1, well, before day 1 because several people I know have Directv and wonder the same thing about all the pointless PPV. What a waste of bandwidth! HD 1080p, "regular HD," even SD - I bet there's 50 HD channels in there that could be put elsewhere. (I have a HR24-500 with On-demand and whole-home if that matters.)

 

[Mr Tony]

alot of the PPV channels (especially the HD ones) get shifted around during sports seasons. So right now its PPV but when there is alot of HD sports on channels that aren't 24/7 (like FSN Houston, Wisco, Utah, Indiana) those PPV channels get used for sports

If you had the guide set for "all" and scroll to those knockoff shopping channels and some of the PPV channels you'll see lots of "programming will return at ____". They're being used for sports