Can Someone Summarize Dish's Plans?

OoTLink said:
I'm looking forward to an 8LNB dish that comes with a book of cusswords you can use when you can't get the thing to peak after 2 hours of trying ;)

And of course, Appendix B.. for when the 50lb topheavy thing falls off your roof because the wind weakened the bolts :shocked :D

Realistically, I want a Dish 1000.. it looks like a mini superdish, except it's not a superdish, and it'd look cute next to a real superdish XD

I think their plans are to confuse us with lotsa numbers. Take that DP21, hook it up to an E*DPPLNB peaked at 129 with a DP44 in between, but if you don't have DP, you'll want an SW64, which to get you'll have to take the #6 downtown, catch the 58, transfer to the 26, and then it's express all the way out. :yes

You need a Birddog.
 
justalurker,

Thanks for the replies. Do you think it's possible that at some point in the next couple of years all locals and SD will be at 110, 119, and 129, receivable by a single dish (Dish1000?)...w/ all HD (national and local) on the wings, receivable by a second dish? What would be the biggest impediiment to getting to that layout? Thanks.
 
TennVolFan said:
justalurker,

Thanks for the replies. Do you think it's possible that at some point in the next couple of years all locals and SD will be at 110, 119, and 129, receivable by a single dish (Dish1000?)...w/ all HD (national and local) on the wings, receivable by a second dish? What would be the biggest impediiment to getting to that layout? Thanks.
I believe it will take longer than a couple of years. The big stumbling block is conversion to MPEG4. E* needs the space to leave old HD in MPEG2 for a while as people convert to MPEG4 - once all the HD people are on the new receivers E* has to swap out everyone elses boxes. That will free up the space needed to move more locals to the main sats ... except -
HD locals are coming - it would make more sense to transmit the digital signals when the flip to MPEG4 is made than continue to send the NTSC SD signals. Under MPEG4 and 8PSK each transponder or spot will only be able to hold six channels in HD. Currently (under MPEG2 and QPSK) each transponder holds 12 channels in SD. So eventually the HD conversion will take away more than the MPEG4/8PSK conversion is giving.
I expect E10 will free up a lot of space so they can start the conversion ... but I also expect that E* will continue to use ALL of their satellite options far in to the future.
It would be nice if they started HD MPEG4 locals on the wing dish or SuperDish the market was already assigned - even if those market's SD locals move to E10 at the end of this year. It would give E* the best chance that a dish is in place and HD is a nice carrot to get people to swap out their boxes.

JL
 
Stargazer said:
Reciever swaps will not take as long as it would if it were a dish upgrade.
I agree.

But even if E* could snap its fingers and have every box in every home upgraded to MPEG4 by sunrise I do not expect E* to have the layout suggested by TennVolFan. I expect the three varieties of wide dishes (SD105, SD121 and D1000) will remain market specific for locals with the national channels and major locals on the D500 slots (119-110). I'm not sure where 61.5 fits in to the equation in the all MPEG4 system, but I expect it to play a major role in conversion. I still hope and expect that 148-157 will be complete national channel mirrors with locals for Alaska and Hawaii - E1 and E2 won't last forever.

Once we get to MPEG4 I believe the line will blur between SD and HD. Since people won't need a special box I expect HD to be rolled out as channels convert. Locals will move to HD as the stations turn off their NTSC signals. (Although E* has already asked permission to downrez OTA HD - how far will depend on the space available.)

In any case - the future is coming. 2006 will be the year of HD and MPEG4.

JL
 
Dish Network is still going to have to come up with new dishes with more lnbf's and more satellites in addition to MPEG-4 to get a lot of HD channels launched. MPEG-4 is not going to be the whole solution but help stretch the additional bandwidth recieved.
 
Stargazer said:
Dish Network is still going to have to come up with new dishes with more lnbf's and more satellites in addition to MPEG-4 to get a lot of HD channels launched. MPEG-4 is not going to be the whole solution but help stretch the additional bandwidth recieved.

MPEG4 is more of a "band-aid" to the "lack of bandwidth needed for HDTV" it really wont solve things, or less the need for additional satellite slots.
 
The 129 spot will contradict the money making plans. The heavily populated areas around NYC will be in an elevation around 17, not a good number.
70-110 is a much better position, southern CAL and NYC area no less than 26 elevation.

S8
 
Hey i got a Super dish and an extra LNBF (dP DUAL) sooo as soon as activity comes from the 129 aka a bird gets there im up for a mad scientest thread... wife buggin me now see you all later..
 
I know everyone else thinks E*10 will solve the one-dish dilemma, but is it possible the two-dish markets will be among the first for MPEG4 swapouts? MPEG4 SD might give Charlie enough room on the existing spotbeams to meet the deadline, especially if something goes wrong with the E*10 launch.
 
RBBrittain: Yes, I have been saying this for a while... Since Dish Network now has 9 unused transponders on 61.5, and, they are using 4 of them for VOOM (total of 13 transponders), it makes sense for one of their first MPEG4 experiments to probably try out the new 411 MPEG4 receivers, and try putting up the remain 11 VOOM channels - Likely in MPEG4 (just speculation), since Rainbow DBS still owns that satellite, until FCC approval, they could stil do this because they would technically still be broadcasting VOOM, so it wouldn't violate any FCC rules... I would look for this testing during the summer. I wonder how we can become beta testers? DN plans on releasing MPEG4 early in 2006, they would need to have tested it before hand, plus it will need a lot of equipment changeout... I'm willing to bet the remaining 11 VOOM channels are among the first to be tested using MPEG4, on the currently unused transponders of the old rainbow-1 sat. Just makes too much sense. Mitch
 
I assume the MPEG-4 (411) receivers can also do MPEG-2.
(Can they down convert HD to SD -- it would help.)
1. Get the receivers replaced including DVR models.
2. Convert uplinks to send MPEG-4.
3. Send MPEG-4 to all receivers for some channels HD and SD.
4. Convert SD to HD for satellite channels, depending on their schedules.
5. Convert SD to HD for local channels, depending on local schedules.
Put as much as possible on 110 and 119. Put (HD) locals on 105/121/129.
The inportant point is to get HD-converting MPEG-4 receivers out first.
-Ken
 
MPEG-4 will also be able to do MPEG-2 and downconvert HD to SD (as the current HD recievers do). I would support them upconverting SD to HD if it would improve picture quality without causing problems and if they provide the unupconverted HD feed once it becomes available.
 

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