Has Directv lost that HD leader feeling!

Status
Please reply by conversation.

goaliebob99

SatelliteGuys Master
Original poster
Supporting Founder
Aug 5, 2004
14,486
520
-.-. .... .. -.-. .- --. ---
Looking at what Uverse, Comcast, Dish, and Verizon is doing, It seems like Directv has lost that HD leader feeling. While Directv does have one hell of a marking deparment, It seems like they are loosing the edge when it comes to High Definition Television. Dish this week is launching FX, Speed, as well as a couple of others in HD. That rounds out their Hd package to be somewhat competitive as they are missing out on local sports (RSN's) in HD. That is a huge thing in my book. Both FIOS and UVerse have just about every HD channel out there, including RSN's and penitrate just about every major metro area out there. I know Uverse is almost compete its rollout in the major parts and is moving on to the more rural parts and suburbs, Where as Verizon is doing the same in its terroritorys. Uvers's only issue is PQ and stream limits where as they are working to correct that issue. It seems like the only place that you cant choose from three providers is out west in Qwest territory's where there is no Att or Verizon.

This happens to be where both D* and E* are located and Im beginning to think that they are not feeling the pressure as they are not seeing it in their own back yards, where as someone out east would have seen this. Im begining to wonder if this is explaing why they are not adding HD like how other provders are because of this, where as everywhere else in the country, market conditions are diffrent due to competition. The bottom line, is that Directv needs to add more national HD channels, and beef up its movie lineups such as its HBO and Cinimax. I would like to see all 22 channels that HBO and Cinimax offers in HD. While I understand that they do have technical limitations and are awating for birds to launch, why not begin to transition away from SD completly and make an SD version of a DTV converter that converts alll the HD signals into SD. The duplicates that are on the 101 location could get phased out over time by packages, and be replaced with HD MPEG4 expansion. If they went with a 99/103/101 solution and did 110/119 for spanish and internationals then they would be better off. It would just mean swapping out millions of legacy boxes. If they charged the coustomer 10 bucks per box (one time fee) to swap out, they could recover some of the manufacturing costs there. Call it an upgrade fee or something.
 
The HD Leader thing was always a fleeting Idea. At some point each will have all that is available. With Dish and DirecTV we are getting much closer to both being equal. To me the first one that stops this silly $10 charge for HD will be the real leader. HD is where it's all at now, and it really ought to just be the standard.
 
I agree but what they have to do is draw a line in the sand which i do not believe D* or E* are willing to do.

E* kind of started it with eastern arch but I think they will slack off on converting the Western arch due to the box switch out.

And D* i think is eventualy get rid og the d serise of recievers (actualy i am kinda surprised thay have not stopped that one already). The R22 is a step in the right direction but why not just drop the price of the HR2X so the $100 and not have the R22 i did not understand that move.

They could even have the HR21 the $100 box and the HR23 with the bigger drive the $150 box.
 
Verizon isn't any better. They got to 105 and sat there. It's like all the players are siting at the table together ranking in the dough. Nobody really wants to out due the other.
 
I really don't find FIOS or UVerse to cover lots of territory yet. Most places you have the choice of cable or satellite and that's it.
 
I really don't find FIOS or UVerse to cover lots of territory yet. Most places you have the choice of cable or satellite and that's it.

That's right here and I am in Verizon Territory. FIOS is a very slow roll out, as only 2 suburban communities have it available in the buffalo/niagara falls ny area. Furthermore, in the rural town I live in; Verizon DSL isn't available to me either. So, basically your choices are Dish, Directv or TWC. TWC has to their credit been adding hd quite regularly too. Plus that have a very tempting triple play offer too.
 
When you lead, eventually others will follow you if they want to remain relevant in the battle for customers. It's only natural that other providers would begin to catch up...even if it took over a year.
 
After Dish adds these "rumored" channels they are supposed to add this week, Dish will be the True National HD leader.

FiOS is the HD leader for some locations, but since MOST of the country cannot get access to FiOS, they are not a National leader IMO.
 
I am a current Dish customer, but have an installation date for DirecTV to be installed on Monday. I think each person should look for the company who is the HD leader for the channels they watch, rather than total numbers of HD channels offered.

DirecTV has all my locals in HD, whereas there is no guarantee Dish Network will ever get them. DirecTV has the Minnesota Twins games in HD full time, whereas sometimes they are in HD and sometimes they are not on Dish Network. DirecTV has the MLB network and Dish does not. These are important to me. The other channels I watch a lot are offered by both companies.

I am giving up more movie channels by moving, but to me they are not important. But I can see where for some people they certainly would be.
 
IMO E* has already past D* in national HD counts. Only the RSNs keep D* ahead of E* if you want to count every single channel. I just don't give the RSNs the same value others do. But this isn't the thread to discuss the value of RSNs. That's been done ad nausem and nobody will change their mind.

Anyway it has become very clear that Malone has for whatever reason decided to slow down D*'s HD flow. D* could probably add close to a dozen HD channels today if they wanted too since they have the bandwidth. So the launch of D12 doesn't excite me that much since D* doesn't use the bandwidth they have now. D12 will probably be just more unused bandwidth.

As far as the other providers, FiOS is the only other option that appeals to me but it isn't available in my area.

U-Verse isn't appealing due to their HD PQ issues and stream limitations (I use 9 streams with D* now). If those get addressed I would consider U-Verse if it ever comes to my area.

E* doesn't work for me either for a couple of reasons. One is I don't like the way they implement their MRV (sharing of hard drive and tuners between two TVs). Also the 4 tuner lease limit. I don't want to have to pay full price instead of the lease price for the extra receivers that would give me the 9 tuners I have now.

My local TWC has fewer HD channels than D* does. They only have 8 HD premiums (vs 15 for D*). They are also missing the Viacom channels, NBA, NHL and NFL networks. But they do have ESPNU-HD, AMC HD, Outdoor Life HD, Lifetime Movie Network and Travel Channel. The only channel they have that I really want is ESPNU HD. Plus they are on thin ice with me since my area is one of the areas that they almost rolled out download caps (I have Road Runner from TWC).

So unless FiOS comes to my area, which doesn't appear to be on the horizon, D* is really my only choice. Plus my wife and kids are quite happy with D* and don't share my HD angst and wouldn't want to go through the learning curve with new STBs and channels numbers. Plus my girls have lots of stuff saved on their DVRs that they don't want to lose.
 
Last edited:
My local TWC has fewer HD channels than D* does. They only have 8 HD premiums (vs 15 for D*). They are also missing the Viacom channels, NBA, NHL and NFL networks. But they do have ESPNU-HD, AMC HD, Outdoor Life HD, Lifetime Movie Network and Travel Channel. The only channel they have that I really want is ESPNU HD. Plus they are on thin ice with me since my area is one of the areas that they almost rolled out download caps (I have Road Runner from TWC).

So unless FiOS comes to my area, which doesn't appear to be on the horizon, D* is really my only choice. Plus my wife and kids are quite happy with D* and don't share my HD angst and wouldn't want to go through the learning curve with new STBs and channels numbers. Plus my girls have lots of saved stuff on their DVRs that they don't want to lose.[/QUOTE]

I am in your same area and understand all you said about TWC and Fios. I would look at fios but not TWC. I too want ESPNu HD but I think we will get that his fall. I like D* because of their picture quality and for the NFL/MLB channels. Dish can have those new channels, but they also do not have ESPNU HD so I do not care. Plus I had Dish and their pic quality sucks in comparison to D*!
 
My local TWC has fewer HD channels than D* does. They only have 8 HD premiums (vs 15 for D*). They are also missing the Viacom channels, NBA, NHL and NFL networks. But they do have ESPNU-HD, AMC HD, Outdoor Life HD, Lifetime Movie Network and Travel Channel. The only channel they have that I really want is ESPNU HD. Plus they are on thin ice with me since my area is one of the areas that they almost rolled out download caps (I have Road Runner from TWC).

So unless FiOS comes to my area, which doesn't appear to be on the horizon, D* is really my only choice. Plus my wife and kids are quite happy with D* and don't share my HD angst and wouldn't want to go through the learning curve with new STBs and channels numbers. Plus my girls have lots of saved stuff on their DVRs that they don't want to lose.


It seems TWC varies extremely from location to location. Our local TWC now has 63 hd channels...and I hear NY City has over 100.
 
Channel availability seems to vary widely across the country, for instance, U verse is available in just about every city where I live. Comcast offers a healthy amount of HD channels (the last count was at 64 hd channels) In my area the most HD channels, is uverse, directv, dish, and then comcast. But the fact is that the compitition is there, More in other areas than others.
 
After 14 months with Directv right out of the blue .. I got a call from Dish last night asking if they could tell me about new offers that they had available ...

Seems like someone or something at Dish has woken up and decided to start marketing their product again ...
 
Status
Please reply by conversation.
***

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Total: 1, Members: 0, Guests: 1)

Who Read This Thread (Total Members: 1)