HD lite

[LonghornXP]

OK, since you're taking questions. Do your sources indicate that D* will or won't be doing HD-Lite on the MPEG4 channels? Since the bit counters haven't got the hardware yet to prove it one way or the other what's the current line on bit rates and resolutions?

They have no plans to offer any HD-Lite on any of the four new satellites because all of them have enough bandwidth to offer everything at full quality. Sometime in 2006 DirecTV will start upgrading all HDTV customers to the new boxes and dish and they hope to have this done close to or before the last of the four satellites gets up. Once this occurs they will move all current HDTV channels on SATS A, B and C onto the new satellites in full quality MPEG4. The freed up bandwidth will be spread out between all existing SDTV channels on SAT A. This is something they are going to get done but it will take some time. Its no excuse for them but it will be what it is and nothing can change this not even excuses. DirecTV knows that many customers will switch to Verizon, Dish or other cable companies who just get tired of waiting and that is something they have no choice with but to accept it.

 

[Satmeister]

They have no plans to offer any HD-Lite on any of the four new satellites because all of them have enough bandwidth to offer everything at full quality. Sometime in 2006 DirecTV will start upgrading all HDTV customers to the new boxes and dish and they hope to have this done close to or before the last of the four satellites gets up. Once this occurs they will move all current HDTV channels on SATS A, B and C onto the new satellites in full quality MPEG4. The freed up bandwidth will be spread out between all existing SDTV channels on SAT A. This is something they are going to get done but it will take some time. Its no excuse for them but it will be what it is and nothing can change this not even excuses. DirecTV knows that many customers will switch to Verizon, Dish or other cable companies who just get tired of waiting and that is something they have no choice with but to accept it.

Thank you for this information.

 

[EEJay]

...me and others not agreeing with you HD fanatics who want YOUR HD YOUR WAY at any cost to the others , DOES NOT MAKE US TROLLS, it makes you LIBERALS.

What's so liberal about wanting to receive something the way the producer or manufacturer intended it to be? Would it be liberal to get upset about getting a car with 100 horsepower that was advertised to have 150?

 

[LonghornXP]

What's so liberal about wanting to receive something the way the producer or manufacturer intended it to be? Would it be liberal to get upset about getting a car with 100 horsepower that was advertised to have 150?

Bingo you just hit the nail right smack on the head.

 

[dragon002]

eejay,

thanks for the nice reply, without talking down to us supposed trolls, really.

here are my thoughts on HD,

1. it was never mandated by the FCC
2. its format and bit-rate were never standardized by the FCC. basically any known format over and including 720 is HD, IT IS HIGHER THAN 480. just logic . 3 .did directv and dish , in your contract, give you a guarentee of formats or bit-rates....NO. niether did the old VOOM.
4.digital is in transition right now, the way i hear it by some on here, it is like take away all the church channels and the shopping nets to give US OUR HD NOW.
5. easiest way to counter that right now is , like mr spock said.....the needs of the many , outweigh the needs of the few. sd still pays the bills and produces the profits.
6. saying you were acting like liberals may have been harsh , but true, i want this and the rest of you have to give it to me and i want it at a price i want to pay, SEE liberal think!!!

 

[dragon002]

What's so liberal about wanting to receive something the way the producer or manufacturer intended it to be? Would it be liberal to get upset about getting a car with 100 horsepower that was advertised to have 150?

the manufacturer IS directv, your contract is with DIRECTV, the producer is out of the loop as far as you are concerned. if the contract between CBS and WARNER BROTHERS, DIRECTV and all the others.....(from the song "life is a rock and the radio rolled me") was being violated, mr cuban et al would have sued them by now.
the question is who is speaking the softest, and carrying the biggest stick , at this point it is directv....period.
they are saying nothing, and moving sats in space, they are blasting up the biggest and baddest commercial sats ever built. they are not doing this for bragging rights, they are doing it to be the best provider and to make the most money for its stockholders. if they arent the best provider, the divedends wont be there to pay to the shareholders, and they will take care of business.
BTW, long horn has connections, so do i, ask scott g.
a prediction....directv dish size by 2007 will be like the phase 3.
directv will still OWN the 101, plus the 99 and 103 with at least 12 sats in those slots by 2009
echojunk will have the 110,119 and 129 /65 west coast/east coast split with a larger dish.

 

[CPanther95]

HD has been defined by the ATSC, and has been accepted by the industry. The first MSO that finds themselves with plenty of capacity will move to full HD and market the hell out of the fact that they are the only company meeting industry standards for HD.

As it is now, most companies are bandwidth starved, or plan to be, and can't make that claim without backing themselves into a corner that may prevent them from being competitive (channel lineup is still a more powerful marketing point) down the road.

 

[LonghornXP]

The fact remains that once these satellites go up DirecTV will no longer be doing HD-Lite but until that time comes it will be exactly what it is today. No provider in the future will have an excuse for doing HD-Lite for these reasons below.

1. DirecTV will in the near future have plenty of bandwidth.
2. Verizon in the near and long term future will have their FIOS system rolled out with wicked good picture quality.
3. Cable companies will migrate towards both a digital simulcast system and later an IPTV based system which would allow them to have nearly unlimited bandwidth for HDTV channels. This will also be a near and long term project.

4. I have a few contacts that have been telling me a little about a newer technology called Stratellite. This service would be offered on a regional basis and I've got wind that none other than Google and Earthlink have been considering this avenue. For a brief breakdown of the stratellite system you can read below if you want.

A stratellite is simply a smaller satellite that doesn't need to be put in space. It will simply sit in the stratosphere. The advantages of this is that they don't need to deal in the same way with the FCC for the license to transmit over a certian orbital location like both Dish and DirecTV does. They can be put up for much cheaper costs and can be fixed and maintained for much cheaper costs. These can support high speed data very well and they don't have to transmit data to space and back either. They don't suffer from rain fade either which is a great plus.

I've just been told that an un-named company has been working on using these stratellites over a major city to offer internet and video services. They are looking at using a high speed wireless card that will be put into their high speed modems and their set-top boxes as well. Because they don't need a satellite dish but can work with a wireless card they can rent a set-top box with a wireless card built in and install service with very little cost beyond the set-top box itself. This system would offer TV channels using true IPTV technology which can also be used to handle full VOD ability. Its just like sending another IPTV signal out to the customer. Each stratellite can handle only a certian amount of total data so they would figure out how much data a given house would require for both internet, TV and VOD services. They take this number to figure out how many customers a single stratellite can service and as they gain more customers they can launch additional stratellites as needed. Now also keep in mind that one stratellite can handle quite a few customers so a major city might only need at max five of these stratellites and that is at max with a city like New York City for example.

Again they can do VOD because as you know that wireless card in that set-top box is indeed a two-way card isn't it. This will take time simply because this is new and companies are now just jumping aboard on it. Just think about how ticked Earthlink is for example that both Verizon (ie phone companies) and now the cable companies don't have to use them for high speed internet services. Could you imagine Google getting into this because I can and would it be great. If you think Verizon has the edge into the future I wouldn't be so sure on that right yet.

 

[Satmeister]

The fact remains that once these satellites go up DirecTV will no longer be doing HD-Lite but until that time comes it will be exactly what it is today. No provider in the future will have an excuse for doing HD-Lite for these reasons below.
1. DirecTV will in the near future have plenty of bandwidth.

Since Spaceway 2 is within 30 days or so of going live, according to other threads, isn't that the time that the bandwidth issue can be eliminated?

Between SP1 and SP2, that's alot of new bandwidth...

 

[CPanther95]

There's a link in this thread about Stratellites.

Not sure if they have perfected them yet, they had a number of technical hurdles to overcome.

 

[rad]

Since Spaceway 2 is within 30 days or so of going live, according to other threads, isn't that the time that the bandwidth issue can be eliminated?
Between SP1 and SP2, that's alot of new bandwidth...

But there's the tens of thousands of MPEG2/phase III dishes that would need to be swapped out for the H20/At-9 dish in order to get the channels on SP1 and SP2. Since D* now is having problems with rolling out the new hardware in just the new LIL markets I don't think that they want to take on a mass upgrade at this moment.

 

[dervari]

the manufacturer IS directv, your contract is with DIRECTV, the producer is out of the loop as far as you are concerned

I have to agree with this. All this "I WANT HD MY WAY" makes me think there are a lot of people out there wearing "Actually, it is all about me" t-shirts. D* is advertising and delivering HD content. While it might be downrezed from the original content, it is still HD. If you don't like it, jump ship and find another provider. All this HD vs (so-called) HD-LITE bickering is, IMHO, crap. It's still better than NTSC.

 

[CPanther95]

"Better than NTSC" isn't the measuring stick for what is, or is not, HDTV - otherwise existing DVD players could just be re-labeled HD-DVDs and we can avoid this whole DVD format war. Even D* used to make reference to the ATSC specifications on their website until they started reducing the resolution. Now they simply say 1080i or 720p which is meaningless without vertical resolution. Would you consider 1080i x 360 or 720p x 240 high definition? How about 720p x 1?

There's nothing wrong with the desire for the best picture quality possible. If I were to place a bet, I'd bet that although D* is the most slammed for HD-Lite (and the most guilty) - it will be D* that brings this issue to the forefront as soon as they have excess capacity. They built their company with PQ as a primary message, and they'll continue that marketing push as soon as they are capable (and as soon as cable neuters their "100% digital" message by converting their systems over.)

 

[dervari]

I'm sure DTV will increase PQ in the future. It just gets my goat with people talking about class action suits and FTC involvement on something like this. Come on, it's just TV.

 

[CPanther95]

They dictate what can be labeled "organic", what is "spring" water, or "free-range" chicken (a 150 yard dash from the coup to the slaughterhouse will suffice)...they certainly can determine what constitutes HD. Not force any company to change their policies, or what they deliver, just enforce the definition the term when used by companies to market their product.

Should an upconverting DVD player be allowed to call itself a "High Definition DVD Player"?

 

[vurbano]

I just got my HD sat setup as well the past week, and have been combing through this site for about 2 hours - from what I have read, the term HDLite is something that certain people here have used to describe HD channels that don't meet their personal HD standards somehow. I looked on the FCC site, the CEA site, and 3 other HDTV web sites, and have not seen any mention of it anyplace else.

Anyway, what I did find on the FCC and other sites is that HD is defined as either 720p or 1080i broadcasts with a 16X9 picture and surround sound. Based on that, it would appear that all of Direc TV's HD channels are HD channels - either 720p or 1080i with Dolby and 16X9 picture. I've read that they use some kind of "compression" of their signal, but it seems to have little or no effect, because my HD looks as great as the one in the Home Theater store. My friends visiting yesterday for XMAS all said WOW on all the HD channels we watched.

Pradike, Sean has busted you. Why not just come out and say why you take these ridiculous pro D* stances that are laughably wrong? If you would just come clean and state your financial motivation for it then I could just tend to ignore it knowing thats its income related and be less inclined to think your just the village idiot.

 

[vurbano]

The fact remains that once these satellites go up DirecTV will no longer be doing HD-Lite .......

Source please? Without one this is wild speculation that flys in the face of D*'s past track record.

 

[Satmeister]

Source please? Without one this is wild speculation that flys in the face of D*'s past track record.

I could just tend to ignore it knowing thats its income related and be less inclined to think your just the village idiot.

Having spent many hours on my first tour through here this past week, I keep coming across this person sayiing bad things about everyone. Is there some reason why this person says so many demeaning things about others? I've heard of people who think "glass is half empty", but this person seems to think there is no glass at all and expects everyone to prove why they are thirsty. It's a shame we have so many bitter people in the world today - it would be nice to make this person happy about something.

 

[LonghornXP]

Since Spaceway 2 is within 30 days or so of going live, according to other threads, isn't that the time that the bandwidth issue can be eliminated?
Between SP1 and SP2, that's alot of new bandwidth...

Nope it seems that the next two satellites going up will provide nearly all of the conus bandwidth. They were planning on using Spaceway 1 and 2 as two giant spotbeams but it seems that a few technicial problems have held this back long enough that they just scrapped that idea. So right now both Spaceway sats are true spotbeamed HD LIL satellites and just cannot handle national conus HD offerings. They have other things they can do to increase their national HD offerings but that won't occur until next year. When next year is an entire new question I can't answer yet.

 

[LonghornXP]

"Better than NTSC" isn't the measuring stick for what is, or is not, HDTV - otherwise existing DVD players could just be re-labeled HD-DVDs and we can avoid this whole DVD format war. Even D* used to make reference to the ATSC specifications on their website until they started reducing the resolution. Now they simply say 1080i or 720p which is meaningless without vertical resolution. Would you consider 1080i x 360 or 720p x 240 high definition? How about 720p x 1?
There's nothing wrong with the desire for the best picture quality possible. If I were to place a bet, I'd bet that although D* is the most slammed for HD-Lite (and the most guilty) - it will be D* that brings this issue to the forefront as soon as they have excess capacity. They built their company with PQ as a primary message, and they'll continue that marketing push as soon as they are capable (and as soon as cable neuters their "100% digital" message by converting their systems over.)

God do I love how right you are!