NPS live chat today

[tdti1]

Just a reminder

Mike's Chat 4 p.m. EST

Mike Mountford, CEO of NPS, will begin hosting a monthly live web chat beginning March 21 at 4 p.m. You will be able to login to www.callnps.com/chat.htm to ask questions, hear about the latest vision for NPS and the C-Band industry, and communicate directly with Mike. The monthly live chat is scheduled for the 3rd Monday of every month. Join us!

 

[iammike]

A quick correction. The date should read February 20th.


http://www.callnps.com/chat.htm

 

[Gary Murrell]

someone needs to ask about HD

-Gary

 

[madpoet]

Amen

 

[iammike]

Most of the chat was HD questions. Not sure those of us with R5000 mods are going to be happy about the direction though. They're looking at a platform called Auroras.

http://www.auroras.tv/index-home.html

The Auroras platform would introduce another non-4dtv receiver that we would need to purchase. There is a good chance it will be a DVR though. It sounded like we were at least a year away, as they indicated it wouldn't happen until 2007. I missed the first part of the chat, so I don't know if its a done deal or just a work in progress.

 

[tdti1]

Not bad though, we can just slave it to the 4dtv.

 

[iammike]

Not bad though, we can just slave it to the 4dtv.

Yeah, but the $550 to $650 we spent on the r5000 mod is only good for 4dtv. Guess I shouldn't get to excited until some more concrete details become available.

 

[lilyarbie]

Question

Quote on chat today talking about new programming provider for NPS, Auroras, in 2007 from chat host at NPS:

All of their signals will be on one satellite. The big difference is they intend to have 150-220 channels plus 20 HD channels.

Does that mean Aurora is jamming that many channels onto one satellite? I looked at their website and it talks about MPEG-4 compression technology and being able to use bitrates as low as 1.5mb/s on NTSC and 8.0mb/s on HD.

Also this referring to the question asked about Ku-band users not being able to get programming with the current 4DTV service, but will possibly get it with the new upcoming service:

" No, that's not going to be possible. But these same people will be able to get a stationary dish for the Auroras platform if that works in 2007."

Definition of stationary: Not moving or fixed. Not capable of being moved.

This sounds to me like a DBS sort of configuration for C-band, does it not? "All signals on one satellite" "a stationary dish for the Auroras platform"

Also, on the website, it is stated that the service is originally intended for rural phone companies who want to provide a reasonable lower cost of television services to its customers. To me, it sounds like all a telephone service needs to get started is to have one dish aimed at the Auroras satellite and be able to transmit the information down the broadband lines to its customers. Being rural, I suspect it being this way since there are many rural areas who don't have the amount of money to throw into something real expensive to give to customers and have their costs really outweigh their revenue.

http://www.auroras.tv/index-home.html
http://www.callnps.com/chat.htm

 

[tdti1]

Ya if you will want only the channels they have, you can have a stationary big dish, 4dtv will still be used also, it is sad that we will not have the master feeds in the next few years, but I am enjoying them as much as I can while I can

 

[lilyarbie]

Sounds like the death of C-band....

Not literally speaking that there is a death of C-band. People will have C-band dishes for years to come in order to get all the Free-To-Air programming out there. Also, they come in handy for the least amount of rain fade for DBS services.
The idea of having a C-band dish for high grade programming, first generation programming seems to be coming to an end then if this seems to be true. This will make it no different than another DBS service out there. The only difference is you won't be using multiple Ku satellites for compressed non-first generation programming, you'll be using one C-band satellite for programming. I guess it does sort of make sense to me because in the chat, it was revealed that Motorola would not release a megapipe receiver due to multiple negotiations from NPS. There is also the fact that subscribers are continuing to decline from the 4DTV service and it was rumored that Motorola had abandoned the 4DTV format. There was also multiple channels requested by NPS that were turned down and would not even make contact with NPS to negotiate carrying their channels to C-band customers. C-band today is more commercialized than it once was. Even though, C-band was originally designated for commercialized purposes, it caught on with the public for FTA from the beginning and then for subscription purposes. As time went on, the use of C-band by the public began to decline due to the increase of customers for cable companies and DBS companies who were getting fed their signals via C-band. Today, majority of people in the U.S. get their television from cable and DBS services. In fact, the numbers are in the millions whereas the numbers for C-band are only in the thousands now. It seems natural after looking at these facts that the days of the "true C-band" are numbered. I think, as time goes on, this Aurora service will grab hold of more C-banders and the other master programming will cease for the public C-band users. Due to the fact that the Aurora programming will be highly compressed and will possibly become the main source of programming for the public use of C-band dishes, more people will give up subscriptions to C-band based programming and will in turn revert to DBS providers. Of course my predictions might be inaccurate for the near future of C-band, because there are other factors involved such as the quality of the compressed aurora programming in comparison to the DBS quality of compressed programming and other factors I failed to recall. I just think that since it's been 20+ years since the beginning of public C-band use that the advantages of using the big dish are going to dwindle to little on the subscription side in comparison to the other factors of subscription television services (cable and DBS). Basically, the only advantages I see of having a C-band dish in the future will be for unencrypted free to air programming. I think also though that FTA will eventually die out as well since more and more programmers are encrypting their feeds so that the general public does not know what is going on until it airs "Live" on the network or cable channels.

 

[nailzs]

Great not only will we have to listen to Direct, and Dish customers pi$$ and moan about crappy picture quality, now those that have C-Band can experence it first hand. Hopefully FIOS will be in my area before this happens.

 

[tdti1]

Great not only will we have to listen to Direct, and Dish customers pi$$ and moan about crappy picture quality, now those that have C-Band can experence it first hand. Hopefully FIOS will be in my area before this happens.

Don't get mad yet, the master feeds on big dish will still be around on 4dtv for a few more years. I would say 5-6 years.