Is SBS+ still for free on Direct??
No SBS+ ch 2084 has been encrypted for over a year, they now give you cctv9 for free instead, a DVB mux @ 95 has all the CCTV channels ITC besides so whats the point?
Anyway recently directv international services discontinued the indian news 24 channel which also was free, at the same time they made TV Globo ch 2134 @ 95 free preview (around the middle of Febuary) but it was also the same week as Carnival that I discovered it was in free preview, then directv encrypted again a week later and made the russian channels free for a week or 2, it was the first and last free international previews I ever saw from directv @ 95. The directv world direct previews seem completely unannounced, and kinda point less anyway since like dish @ 118 if you don't already have the special dish/LNBF for the international location setup you would not be able to see the preview and/or bother then to sign up. Plus you have to scan through all the channels daily because their is no announcement about the preview channels.
Anyway when TV Globo ch 2134 @ 95 via directv was in free preveiew I got to compare it to the compression quality available from dish and it was about equal to Globo ch 596 @ 61.5 via dish. So in other words it was horrible 1.5 mbps SD and macroblocks were flying all over the place! So I am stuck with Dish ch 814 @ 118 for Globo even though the video white balance levels seem to high. I sent an email to dish quality and I am sure they just laughed it off! But the directv international preview of Globo worked to Globo's advantage because after I got to check out the channel again since not subscribing since sept 09 I decided to sign up again, Only I signed back up for the channel through dish instead of directv since dish is running a whooping 2 mbps on Globo @ 118.
Pretty sad when they have to ruin a 6 mbps channel that the programmer is sending @ 55w and make it 1 to 2 mbps and then charge you $20 for macroblock SD. The other difference I noticed between Directv and Dish internationals is that directv does not insert their own promos like dish does during the commercial breaks. So that was about the only possitive I guess.
Since signing back up for an international through dish, I notice I am now able to go online and order other internationals, including checking off that I want KBS world for 0.00 a month, I was already seeing this channel on 652 and 9850 so I am not sure what the point is but I checked it off anyway in case they ever decide to grandfather the free preview.
