So.... with all these local channel moves to 129...

[bcshields]

and off of 121/105... does that mean Dish will have the capacity, once it stops mirroring the local channels, for even more locals? Maybe a push to carry all DMA's?

Or should I just go back to sleep since I'm dreaming.

 

[rocatman]

There are a few factors to consider related to this issue. There are a handful of DMAs that Dish does not carry the locals that have a full compliment of channels but the vast majority only have 1 - 3 local channels. The significantly viewed legislation may make it more practical for Dish to provide locals for these smaller DMAs since they may be able to provide locals from nearby DMAs to complete a local package compliment. In terms of bandwidth, besides the use of 129 W, the launch of E-10, the acquisition of Rainbow-1, the move of AMC-16 to 118.7 W and the use of E-4 at 77 W should make significantly more bandwidth available near term but Dish needs a great deal more bandwidth for national and local HD channels. Potential profits for the most part will dictate any new bandwidth usage.

 

[JPointerWI]

and off of 121/105... does that mean Dish will have the capacity, once it stops mirroring the local channels, for even more locals? Maybe a push to carry all DMA's?

Or should I just go back to sleep since I'm dreaming.

First of all, it's going to take a long time to move all the DMA's off 105.
Second, rememeber that the 105 satellite is leased, not owned by echostar, so it would make sense that they would want to get rid of it, not keep adding.

But then again, I could be totally wrong, who knows.

 

[bcshields]

Nah, they have plans to use 105 for satellite broadband... but that doesn't have anything to do with what channels are on it, isn't that a seperate part of the hybrid bird?

As for LIL HD. Now, I don't dabble too much in HD, but isn't for the most part the programming everyone wants to view is broadcast nationally on the network stations? Who wants to see local news in HD (I especially don't, you should see the gap toothed newscasters we have here)? So wouldn't it make much more sense for Dish to launch the major markets in HD in every time zone.. say, NY, LA, Chicago, Denver, and Atlanta and have your HD subs subscribe to them like distant local channels?

 

[Tom Bombadil]

Just wondering ...

After the release of the D1000 and the move of VOOM to 129, what dish config do you think E* would recommend for someone who has their locals at 121 and wants the HD/VOOM pak too?

 

[mattb]

If your on 121 (superdish) for locals, and want Voom they will probally I would guess install a Superdish for your locals on 121 + a Dish300 for Voom pointing either at 129 or 61.5 for Voom. Im not an installer but that's what I would suspect.

 

[JPointerWI]

It would most likely be a dish500. As far as I know, Dish stopped making Dish300's a while ago. The slightly larger size of the dish500 will help with rain fade too.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

That would be a bummer. Instead of a nice, neat D1000, you would get a big ugly SuperDish AND a D500!?!? Sounds like a worse case scenario.

 

[HokieEngineer]

Nah, they have plans to use 105 for satellite broadband... but that doesn't have anything to do with what channels are on it, isn't that a seperate part of the hybrid bird?

As for LIL HD. Now, I don't dabble too much in HD, but isn't for the most part the programming everyone wants to view is broadcast nationally on the network stations? Who wants to see local news in HD (I especially don't, you should see the gap toothed newscasters we have here)? So wouldn't it make much more sense for Dish to launch the major markets in HD in every time zone.. say, NY, LA, Chicago, Denver, and Atlanta and have your HD subs subscribe to them like distant local channels?

They can't provide you with a "national" HD local feed if you dont live in a Owned and Operated by the broadcaster market. Meaning, if CBS doesnt own your local CBS station, you cant get the national feed. Why? MO MO MONEY!

Your local station loses ratings when you dont watch their feed. They dont like that. I could give two flying figs about it, but thats the way it is. Thank the NAB for that. Its so silly to have so much duplication of content up there. Its gonna be even worse with HD lil.

The fact remains that your local station wants the ad $$$$ from the locally inserted ads inbetween your favorite prime time shows. Notice how most of the commericials are for big name brands (national commericials), then a few an hour are really lame, low quality ads for some local mom and pop store? Unless they figure out a way to splice in the local parts into the national broadcast, we are doomed to have lil HD.

The other factor is regionalized sports and other things. Say your local station is showing a football game in HD, but dish gives you the "national" station, which is showing some other football game that isnt the local team. Riots would ensue.

 

[bcshields]

crap. maybe mpeg4 will help ease the restraints on transponder space and allow for better quality HDLIL

 

[Tom Bombadil]

mpeg4 is the only HDLIL hope for everyone outside of a few major markets. Between 61.5 and 129, they may be able to offer a few HDLILs. Everyone else is going to be waiting for a while (1yr? 2yrs? 3yrs?)

Of course as my indoor antenna pulls in every network in HD for free, I could care less if Dish ever offers HDLIL in my area.

 

[rocatman]

mpeg4 is the only HDLIL hope for everyone outside of a few major markets. Between 61.5 and 129, they may be able to offer a few HDLILs. Everyone else is going to be waiting for a while (1yr? 2yrs? 3yrs?)

Of course as my indoor antenna pulls in every network in HD for free, I could care less if Dish ever offers HDLIL in my area.

The Rainbow-1 satellite has 130 spotbeam TPs enough for 780 HD LILs at 6 HD channels per TP using MPEG-4. I don't think Dish will be able to use all 130 from 61.5 W since some have bad look angles out on the west coast but even if they use 100 TPs, that gets you 600 HD LIL channels. How many markets would that cover? It is certainly a big question whether Dish will offer HD LILs to large number of markets in the near future but now they definitely have the capacity for it.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

When I said they may be able to offer a few from 61.5, I was meaning now, with mpeg-2. As Dish has not yet announced a strategy for mpeg-4, or any receivers compatible with mpeg-4, offering a large number of HDLILs may be a ways off.

But I agree that the capacity is there for covering many markets.

Problem is, that offering HDLILs off of 61.5 is a tough sell. You are talking a two-dish solution for the entire East Coast. A lot of people in cities are not going to be thrilled about that. Sure a lot of us enthusiasts on this board are okay with it but the typical homeowner wants a one-dish solution. A D1000 would be fine on a roof, but two D500s is going to drive people to D* for their HDLILs. This would be a tremendous marketing advantage for D* to exploit.

 

[rocatman]

When I said they may be able to offer a few from 61.5, I was meaning now, with mpeg-2. As Dish has not yet announced a strategy for mpeg-4, or any receivers compatible with mpeg-4, offering a large number of HDLILs may be a ways off.

But I agree that the capacity is there for covering many markets.

Problem is, that offering HDLILs off of 61.5 is a tough sell. You are talking a two-dish solution for the entire East Coast. A lot of people in cities are not going to be thrilled about that. Sure a lot of us enthusiasts on this board are okay with it but the typical homeowner wants a one-dish solution. A D1000 would be fine on a roof, but two D500s is going to drive people to D* for their HDLILs. This would be a tremendous marketing advantage for D* to exploit.

It would be a tremendous marketing advantage except for the fact that DirecTV will be using Ka band for HD LILs requiring a larger dish than a Superdish. This large dish may not be able to be mounted to a roof because of its size and the associated wind loads.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

Hard to believe that D* would offer a dish solution that would be too large to mount on a roof, as that is where most dishes are mounted.

Still, a two-dish solution, requiring a clear line of sight to 61.5, 110, and 119, is an ugly, ugly solution for NYC, Boston, all of New England, NJ, etc., etc. That D* one large dish would have to be pretty bad to be worse than where E* seems to be headed.

 

[HokieEngineer]

Not sure where you guys are getting this 100+ spotbeam number, but from this site:

http://www.skyrocket.de/space/doc_sdat/rainbow-1.htm

Says R1 has 36 transponders, which can be either used in CONUS or spotbeam mode. It also appears Rainbow had plans for 5 other satellites, which would provide HD local spotbeam coverage, but these were scrapped. Check out the link on that page to the other rainbow sats that were discontinued.

If someone could please provide a link to information about R1 having all these spotbeams I'd appreciate it!