NHK Japan no longer available?

[weaselfest]

Howdy. If you worked for a Big Ten university and were distributing NHK Japan via Dish throughout campus (yes, you have a contract) and have just recevied a notice from NHK that their standard def feed is going dark in a few months and you will need to point to a new satellite and purchase a new HD sateliite receiver to continue to receive their broadcast would you: A: not worry, because Dish will still pass through their broadcast in SD? B: Start working on purchasing the IRD and QAM encoder needed to pass through HD?
Basically, has anyone heard if NHK Japan will no longer be available with a SD receiver?

 

[Bobby]

If NHK is going dark on the SD side, it's going dark. All providers should change to the HD feed. Nobody is going to down rez to keep an SD feed.

 

[GaryPen]

If NHK is going dark on the SD side, it's going dark. All providers should change to the HD feed. Nobody is going to down rez to keep an SD feed.

I would imagine Dish will keep an SD version of TV Japan for its many customers without HD receivers.

OTOH, if they do choose to only carry an HD TV Japan channel, the original poster could contact Dish, and have them send the appropriate receiver upgrade, free of charge, as the original receiver(s) would be rendered obsolete by this carriage change.

 

[GaryPen]

Howdy. If you worked for a Big Ten university and were distributing NHK Japan via Dish throughout campus (yes, you have a contract) and have just recevied a notice from NHK that their standard def feed is going dark in a few months and you will need to point to a new satellite and purchase a new HD sateliite receiver to continue to receive their broadcast would you: A: not worry, because Dish will still pass through their broadcast in SD? B: Start working on purchasing the IRD and QAM encoder needed to pass through HD?
Basically, has anyone heard if NHK Japan will no longer be available with a SD receiver?

I haven't heard this, myself. But, we no longer watch the SD version. And, the warning may have gone out only on the SD feed.

BTW, when you say NHK Japan, are you referring to TV Japan, or is there a different feed available from Dish for universities and such? I do know that NHK has two direct international feeds: NHK World and NHK World Premium. So, I thought that maybe they might be available to special customer types, separate from TV Japan.

 

[weaselfest]

it is TV Japan.
Thanks for the good info. We will contact our Dish rep and see what our options are. Timing couldn't have been worse on this, as the department providing funding just invested in hardware to convert the analog video to a QAM channel and doesn't have deep pockets for an HD upgrade right now.

 

[GaryPen]

it is TV Japan.
Thanks for the good info. We will contact our Dish rep and see what our options are. Timing couldn't have been worse on this, as the department providing funding just invested in hardware to convert the analog video to a QAM channel and doesn't have deep pockets for an HD upgrade right now.

If Dish changes the way they transmit a channel that you subscribe to so that you can no longer receive it without a HW upgrade, they should provide the upgrade free of charge.

 

[navychop]

If Dish changes the way they transmit a channel that you subscribe to so that you can no longer receive it without a HW upgrade, they should provide the upgrade free of charge.

That might be different for a commercial customer.

 

[Claude Greiner]

I would imagine they would provide a standard feed, as to not risk pissing off existing customers

 

[GaryPen]

That might be different for a commercial customer.

I am also administer my company's commercial account. We get free upgrades for obsolete gear.

I would imagine they would provide a standard feed, as to not risk pissing off existing customers

I agree. It's easy enough to downconvert the HD feed for an SD channel. I'll bet they already do that for some HD/SD simulcasts.