Over 150 national HD channels in 2006?

[Sharpie]

Customer retention just told me that there will be over 150 national HD channels available for next year. I asked her what "national" meant. I asked her if ESPN and Discovery were considered "Nationals" and she said yes. I then asked how many national HD channels are there now and she said, "I think around 7." That sounds about right, I have the HD package and that sounds fairly close. I said to her, "let me get this straight, we currently have somewhere around 7 national HD channels and sometime next year that number will be 150?" "Yes" was her response. Holy craps! This sounds to good to be true, someone pinch me. There had to be something lost in translation.

 

[r.jones1116]

Hopefully, D* will at least double their current HD offering plus HD locals once this MPEG4 is fully implemented. It's the only way they can stay competitive in the HD market.

 

[guffy1]

Customer retention just told me that there will be over 150 national HD channels available for next year. I asked her what "national" meant. I asked her if ESPN and Discovery were considered "Nationals" and she said yes. I then asked how many national HD channels are there now and she said, "I think around 7." That sounds about right, I have the HD package and that sounds fairly close. I said to her, "let me get this straight, we currently have somewhere around 7 national HD channels and sometime next year that number will be 150?" "Yes" was her response. Holy craps! This sounds to good to be true, someone pinch me. There had to be something lost in translation.

I would say its more likely that you will win a multistate lottery..

Either you heard it wrong, or the person you talked to is grossly misinformed

 

[Sharpie]

She also said that this news about the 150 channels just came down from headquarters this week. She told me something like a lot of the channel signals will be upverted to be delivered in HD. She gave me some technological mumbo gumbo but I can't remember it.

 

[rad]

Well, that's interesting. This press release http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/aboutus/headline.jsp?id=09_08_2004A says that with the launch of D10 and D11 that they'll be able to do 150 national HD channels in 2007, not 2006.

The next two satellites, DIRECTV 10 and DIRECTV 11, will launch in early 2007. These satellites will have the capacity for more than 1,000 additional local HD channels, more than 150 national HD channels, and other new programming offerings. These satellites will provide DIRECTV the capability to bring local and national HD programming and other advanced services to every U.S. household. Consumers will be able to receive all of these services, as well as existing DIRECTV® programming, with a single small satellite dish.

So does that mean that D10 and D11 will be going up later this year vs. 2007??

 

[Sharpie]

Rad,

She did mention satellites, but I thought she said the satellites "were already there" Damn, I should have recorded the conversation like I said I was going to.

 

[Sean Mota]

Where are you going to get 150 HD National channels... There's not even 50!!! available today and I will doubt that you will have 50! available by 2006.

P.S. you can't deliver 150 even if you have capacity for 150!!!

 

[Juan]

Where are you going to get 150 HD National channels... There's not even 50!!! available today and I will doubt that you will have 50! available by 2006.

If you were to "upconvert" a sd channel to HD bandwidth What would it look like!!! I would "HOPE" it would be better than their current SD offerings

 

[Sean Mota]

BTW, before D* starts thinking about adding channels maybe they could do us all a favor and provide True HD channels at resolution of 1920x1080i with decent bitrates if they are going to have enough bandwith. I will be more excited about the current 7 HD channels getting the proper resolution and bitrate than 150 "ghost" HD channels.

 

[Sean Mota]

If you were to "upconvert" a sd channel to HD bandwidth What would it look like!!! I would "HOPE" it would be better than their current SD offerings

Gee... if that is their plan.... I will quit right now and cancel.... "upconvert" = HD National channels????? That is f*** delirious...

 

[Sharpie]

Sean,
Man, you're a buzz killer.

 

[Sean Mota]

Sharpie,

just trying to get my frustration on this forum about the lack of response that D* have shown to all of us about the current HD channels. I am as frustrated as anyone when I cannot watch HD channels on D* because they look like crap with sub-par resolution and bitrates. I pay a monthly bill every month and every month I cry over this.

 

[Sharpie]

Sean,

I too feel your pain. That extra $10.99 is a little hard to swallow for the channels and quality that we get.

 

[lou_do]

If you were to "upconvert" a sd channel to HD bandwidth What would it look like!!! I would "HOPE" it would be better than their current SD offerings

With the signals that are not HD, they will probably just do what the locals now do with their OTA 4x3 signal, add bars to the sides and send it OTA wide screen. That has me concerned as most of the TV manufacturers tell you not to leave your widescreen TV on 4 x 3, with black bars, as it burns into the screen. At least with the older receivers like my HTL-HD you could use the stretched mode and it only streched the extreme sides of the picture, to fill the entire wide screen area. The new H-20 doesn't have that feature and you have to look at squashed people, with a 4x3 video in standard mode, or add the non reccommended black bars to the sides of the picture.

 

[LonghornXP]

I'm going to kill this rumor right now. This CSR didn't get a memo of this period and the memo she did get was a while ago stating just their plans which they will tell the customers if they call in and ask about their ads.

Right now the 150 national HD channels is being stated as how many they "can" offer and not how many they will offer. They also will not be upconverting any SD channels to HD period.

National HD channels are considered to be the following channel types below.

Premium movie channels such as Starz HD and HBO HD.
HD Package type channels such as HDNet, Discovery HD.
Cable based networks that follow the base channels programming such as TNT HD, ESPN HD among others.

Sports Packages with HD games such as HD games via NFL Sunday Ticket or any sports packages HD offerings.

Also all PPV HD channels will be counted as national HD channels.

Simply everything above is counted as national HD offerings. The only HD channels that aren't counted as HD national channels are local HD channels and local RSN HD channels.

 

[rad]

Hope that clears things up.

So LonghornXP, have you heard anything lately on when D* will throw us a bone with a couple of new national HD channels????

Also, have you heard anything on how Spaceway 2 is doing?

 

[hdtvtechno]

BTW, before D* starts thinking about adding channels maybe they could do us all a favor and provide True HD channels at resolution of 1920x1080i with decent bitrates if they are going to have enough bandwith. I will be more excited about the current 7 HD channels getting the proper resolution and bitrate than 150 "ghost" HD channels.

Amen.

 

[hahler2]

With the signals that are not HD, they will probably just do what the locals now do with their OTA 4x3 signal, add bars to the sides and send it OTA wide screen. That has me concerned as most of the TV manufacturers tell you not to leave your widescreen TV on 4 x 3, with black bars, as it burns into the screen.

That's not completely true. It depends on the type of TV that you have. My Sony SXRD won't burn in no matter how long I watch 4x3 material with black bars on the side.

 

[LonghornXP]

Hope that clears things up.
So LonghornXP, have you heard anything lately on when D* will throw us a bone with a couple of new national HD channels????
Also, have you heard anything on how Spaceway 2 is doing?

I haven't heard much at all about new national HD channels but that doesn't mean they won't be coming soon either. Spaceway 2 is doing fine and is on schedule so far which is always good news. More information regarding their HD plans on both programming and hardware should come out at CES.

 

[jeffevans]

This is from the January 2006 issue of Satellite Direct (a TV guide for DIRECTV; not published by DIRECTV):
"On Nov. 17, DIRECTV launched the second of its four new satellites for high-definition TV programming. The satcaster plans to launch all four by 2007 when it's also scheduled to offer 150 national high-def channels and local HDTV channels in most markets."