PR-Sorta, DirecTV

Digital Dude

Home Theater Editor
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Feb 9, 2005
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SHADO
Q- What are the fastest turtles in the world?

A- Anyone at CEDIA wearing a DirecTV shirt when they spot a person with Press credentials!

I walked up to the DirecTV booth and a representative was talking to an attendee and he turned around, saw my press badge, and immediatly said "Don't quote me on that!"

My interview was peppered with insightful replies like, "Sometime in the future", "I'm not sure", "there's no timetable", I can't comment" and "you'll have to talk to the guy that's here tomorrow"!

They could film Anger Management 3 at the DirecTV Booth, if only DirecTV could take a page out of JVC's handbook, but I digress.

I was able to pull a bit of info from Direc, and will see reps from all their divisions on Saturday.

Here's what's newsworthy.

DirecTV's Slimline Dish
P1010599.jpg


Here are the LNBs, from left is the 99/101/103 integrated, the 110, and the 119.
P1010600.jpg



Unfortunatly the mast is the same proprietary 2.0" outside diameter as the AT-9, meaning good luck finding the right size if you want to prepare a pole mount ahead of the installer.

The dish's form factor is very Starchoice/Primestar reminiscient, and is 15% lighter weight than the AT-9.

The slimline will be released as the stock of AT-9 dishes runs dry, DirecTV is estimating December.

A couple of differences from the AT-9 are the redesigned rear of the Dish,
P1010604.jpg


Notice no more dither, tuning should be much easier. There are dials on either side of the mounting bracket as shown below.

P1010601.jpg


P1010602.jpg


I was told by the DirecTV rep that after you peak the signal that you move the small dial 3 rotations left, get a reading, then turn it clockwise until you get the same reading, and finally turn it back counterclockwise 1/2 way between the 2 settings.

Seems much easier that the AT-9.

On a related note I asked if DirecTV was going to continue to reduce pay for installs like they have for 3 years, the reply was "I don't know."

DirecTV's focus at CEDIA is an about face from their position of the last 2 years, that's signing up as many independant dealers as possible. They are also loooking for HSP's. Seems the draconian pay cuts to installers by HSPs are coming back to bite them.

Direc stated they are loooking for "High-end" installs and integration, in my opinion they are putting the cart before the horse. They need to straighten out their industry trailing HD before going after discriminating customers.


Finally the word on what you've all been waiting for.

Q-When will the OTA tuners in the HR20-700 be activated?
A- Um, there's going to be a download sometime in the future.
Q-Is that within a month? End of year?
A- Sometime in the future.

I'll try to find out more Saturday, leave your questions here for me to ask.
 
Digital Dude said:
The dish is nice, and looks to be a whole lot easier than the AT-9.
Dude,
I get to watch the installer put mine up tommorow :)
I may have to take it down and replace it with the slimline when it comes out.

Can you bring a few home with you ???

Jimbo
 
Jimbos said:
Dude,
I get to watch the installer put mine up tommorow :)
I may have to take it down and replace it with the slimline when it comes out.

Can you bring a few home with you ???

Jimbo


I may be fat but I still couldn't hide one of those under my shirt!
 
hdtvtechno said:
Cool looking dish there.....

But can you ask them if the slimline can be mounted on the same hardware mount as the regular 3 lnb dish... ?
Thanks


They need to make a U-bolt version.


Is this the info?

(From above) "Unfortunately the mast is the same proprietary 2.0" outside diameter as the AT-9"
 
Yu got it Charper. Same mounting as AT-9. The trusty 1 5/8" round and phase III mounts are a thing of the past.
 
Is it me, or does the LNB assembly look like DirecTV forgot the fourth feedhorn to the right of 119? Or, is the design supposed to make it "look" symmetrical from the ground?
 
Are these guys trained by Carl Rove or what? Talk about spin and vagueness.

Question I have is when will they take advantage of the ethernet port on the HR20? What are their plans for VOD and other content they cant/wont do over sat? I am ready for my "in the future" vague answer.
 
It still looks pretty big...and only 15% lighter means, what 3-4 pounds off...more like an "LittleLessEnormous" dish....

Was hoping for more reductioin in size and weight....

What is the actual dish, 20% less in surface area??
 
It looks to attempt be wider and not as tall and more elliptical, and made of a different composite material; yet achieving the same reflector surface area, maybe larger with higher gain values.
 
The physical sixe is 25" x 29" alot smaller than the DISH Super Dish, but definatly larger than the 3 LNB. (18.5 x 24) I think.

Jimbo
 
Other than the integrated LNB assembly, its doesn't seem that much different than the AT9. I bet monopoles are still going to be needed to keep it stable.
 
For those of us still using the "old" 3 lnb dish and are looking to upgrade when the new slimline is available, is the number of feeds off the dish still 4?
TIA
 
Why does the LNB on the right (as you look at your picture) have what looks like a "visor/hat rim" or "hood" around the top of it?

Ok, after looking at the picture some more, the one on the right picks up 3 satellites, the middle one 110, the left picks up 119 (why is 119 bigger?). Are all 3 of these LNB's capable of picking up both Ka and Ku sats, so if they wanted to launch all Ka sats in the future this dish would work?

Does this dish look easier to install?

Thanks.
 
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I dunno man looks like same sh*t we've been dealing with all along not many changes. So far I remember 4 modifications of Ka Ku dish. First square dish with dithering mechanism 33 lbs. Then same dish with different shaped LNBs and broken elevation bolts. Then in between came round shaped smaller dish with improved dither system. That dish did weight less and looked more appealing but for some reason we only received them for about a week. Might be just different manufacturer or something. Now we install same square dishes with new dither mechanism.
I think new slimline dish will be more like those round ones we got for a short period of time. It has weight reduction but very insignificant maybe 5 pounds or so. Shape of slimline again resembles a lot what we have just less corners. Really not very different. I am not impressed.
 
" Finally the word on what you've all been waiting for.

Q-When will the OTA tuners in the HR20-700 be activated?
A- Um, there's going to be a download sometime in the future.
Q-Is that within a month? End of year?
A- Sometime in the future.

I'll try to find out more Saturday, leave your questions here for me to ask."


Do you have an answer to this question yet?