Why go to Directv at this time

jappleboy

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
May 20, 2006
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Why go to D at this time. The new HD package will not be out tell some time at the end of the year. The MLB extra innings will not go over to all Directv tell 2008, And the new DVR4mpg has big time troubles. So i am staying tell next year. The only reason for the move will be the MLB package at this time. And i am not moving tell next year.
 
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The new HD package will not be out tell some time at the end of the year.

Where have you seen that D* won't have them until the end of the year? D*'s PR says Jan. 8, 2007--DIRECTV, the nation's leading satellite television service provider, is hailing 2007 as the "Year of HD" with the planned launch and carriage of 100 national high-definition (HD) channels. With this substantial HD muscle, DIRECTV will offer three-times more HD programming than any other multi-channel distributor, with the majority of these channels launching in Q3. so they could be up by 9/30/07, if not earlier, all depends on the D10 satellite making it on station OK.
 
Where have you seen that D* won't have them until the end of the year? D*'s PR says Jan. 8, 2007--DIRECTV, the nation's leading satellite television service provider, is hailing 2007 as the "Year of HD" with the planned launch and carriage of 100 national high-definition (HD) channels. With this substantial HD muscle, DIRECTV will offer three-times more HD programming than any other multi-channel distributor, with the majority of these channels launching in Q3. so they could be up by 9/30/07, if not earlier, all depends on the D10 satellite making it on station OK.

The theory of satellite relativity says: Add at least 6 months to every announcement.
 
Well 1st of all most of the channels that will be added my guess will be locals in HD. My guess is that Dish will to be the HD leader by the end of the year due to Direct will add some HD channels but so will Dish. Which means right now Dish has the most HD Channels in 34-30 depending on if you get your 4 locals in HD. Overall I think its funny how big numbers get thrown around when the facts show something different. :)
 
Well 1st of all most of the channels that will be added my guess will be locals in HD. My guess is that Dish will to be the HD leader by the end of the year due to Direct will add some HD channels but so will Dish. Which means right now Dish has the most HD Channels in 34-30 depending on if you get your 4 locals in HD. Overall I think its funny how big numbers get thrown around when the facts show something different. :)

Poke, why do you keep singing this same old tune? Yes, most of the channels that can be added will be local, just because they will have the capacity to do up to 1500 local HD channels once all four Ka satellites are launched and operational this year, according to their schedule. They will have capacity for only 150 national channels. How are they getting this capacity, but using the 64 Ka band transponder frequencies that they're licensed to use at 99 and 103.

Now D* has put their PR maching to work saying that they will add 100 NATIONAL (not local) HD channels in 2007. Let's say for arguments sake that the program providers come up with only 40% of those channels, 40, and E* doesn't have those channels now, so they will need to add 40 new channels to match D*. At 4 HD channels per transponder, where does E* have the capacity to do this? Do they have the capacity of 10 transponders laying around doing nothing to add these channels in 2007? Remember, E11 is to be an in orbit spare. If E* has this capacity available that's great but you keep saying that E* will continue to be the HD leader, please back it up with some numbers on how they can do this. Please don't fall back to the there won't be all these national HD channels in 2007, lets assume that D* isn't blowing smoke up everyone's a** and the content providers come through.
 
I still think that the gameplan here is that D* is going to upconvert non-HD signal with national networks who agree.

No national network would add an HD channel just for D*...it doesn't represent enough marketshare on its own to justify the investment.

I am sure some channels WILL add a true HD channel, and I expect E* will pick all or most of those up as they happen. But D*'s total HD customers are probably in the 2-3 million range (doubtless someone knows the actual figure). I gather in the cable/satellite market the networks get to tout their total household penetration, so these networks would be able to claim the 2-3million in their viewership from such a deal. But on its own, that can't be enough to justify the investment in creating a true HD network.

But remember that each and every one of those networks ALWAYS could have gotten this benefit. What makes this year so special that suddenly that 2-3 million really, really matters?

How many national network HD channels have launched on average in the last several years? 3 per year? Maybe 5? And remember that is based on the aggregate HD market, summing all cable and satellite providers. D* probably represents no more than 20% of the total national HD market at a guess. That simply isn't big enough to suddenly change all the dynamics of channel launch decisions. And there is no way that anyone launching a new HD network is going to go exclusive with D*, either.

I don't think D* would be so brazen that they would make claims of 100 national networks without having some belief they could really do it.

In my opinion, this will probably be mediocre quality upconversion, not true HD. That said, it would be a HUGE improvement over SD signal on an HD set and I might well switch if and when it happens.

But the idea of 100 national network launches in HD in one year? Laughable.

PS: It is also possible that much of the 100 they are counting are somehow going to be based on on-demand technology, which Dish is also adding this year without actually calling them "channels."
 
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Well 1st of all most of the channels that will be added my guess will be locals in HD. My guess is that Dish will to be the HD leader by the end of the year due to Direct will add some HD channels but so will Dish. Which means right now Dish has the most HD Channels in 34-30 depending on if you get your 4 locals in HD. Overall I think its funny how big numbers get thrown around when the facts show something different. :)

Why do you continue with this same mantra "most of the D* channels added will be local HD's"? D* has made official announcments and has agreements with many new HD NATIONALS and is in the process of working out agreements with many other new NATIONAL HD channels. This has been confirmed by some of the channels themselves. They want to premier on D*. Do some research poke. AVS forums have lots of info on D*'s future HD additions. I hope for you E* subs that E* will also add some new HD's but they haven't made any sort of announcements for 2007 and instead seem to be in trouble with some of their current channels like HBO/Cinemax and Court TV. MLBEI seems to be gone for E* and headed for D* and it looks like the Big Ten channel is going with D*. Something is going on at E* and I don't exactly what it is! Maybe a sell out? Theirs been some minor talk of a possibility of a takeover being possible. It just doesn't seem like E* is pushing for improvement like they used to. :)
 
Poke, why do you keep singing this same old tune? Yes, most of the channels that can be added will be local, just because they will have the capacity to do up to 1500 local HD channels once all four Ka satellites are launched and operational this year, according to their schedule. They will have capacity for only 150 national channels. How are they getting this capacity, but using the 64 Ka band transponder frequencies that they're licensed to use at 99 and 103.

Now D* has put their PR maching to work saying that they will add 100 NATIONAL (not local) HD channels in 2007. Let's say for arguments sake that the program providers come up with only 40% of those channels, 40, and E* doesn't have those channels now, so they will need to add 40 new channels to match D*. At 4 HD channels per transponder, where does E* have the capacity to do this? Do they have the capacity of 10 transponders laying around doing nothing to add these channels in 2007? Remember, E11 is to be an in orbit spare. If E* has this capacity available that's great but you keep saying that E* will continue to be the HD leader, please back it up with some numbers on how they can do this. Please don't fall back to the there won't be all these national HD channels in 2007, lets assume that D* isn't blowing smoke up everyone's a** and the content providers come through.

What channels to get to a 100?
 
Rad,
Who told you E11 is to be a spare ;0 Not the case ;0 E11 will replace E8. E8 will go elsewhere or be the spare ;0 Satt providers NEVER leave a new satellite doing nothing ;0 What a waste of cash would that be. Newer means stronger in all cases here ;0 Where E13 will go is the only mystery at this stage! Short of replacing E3, there arent many key slots for it to go. 129 will be Ciel 2. They already have E6 spare at 110.3 incase of a failure.

-B
 
No reason to just up-convert. Cable will also have the capacity over the next year. Be it removing analog channels, moving to mpeg4, or digital switching.

As for adding more HD this year, Dish will probably just down rez everything to 1280x1080. Plenty of room to cram more channels in with mpeg4 1280x1080.
 
Why do you continue with this same mantra "most of the D* channels added will be local HD's"? D* has made official announcments and has agreements with many new HD NATIONALS and is in the process of working out agreements with many other new NATIONAL HD channels. This has been confirmed by some of the channels themselves. They want to premier on D*. Do some research poke. AVS forums have lots of info on D*'s future HD additions. I hope for you E* subs that E* will also add some new HD's but they haven't made any sort of announcements for 2007 and instead seem to be in trouble with some of their current channels like HBO/Cinemax and Court TV. MLBEI seems to be gone for E* and headed for D* and it looks like the Big Ten channel is going with D*. Something is going on at E* and I don't exactly what it is! Maybe a sell out? Theirs been some minor talk of a possibility of a takeover being possible. It just doesn't seem like E* is pushing for improvement like they used to. :)

1st most the channels I think will be locals. 2nd there not even 100 National HD Channels out there for anyone to offer. Yes I have done my research this is not rocket science. Dish has done the smart thing by not making any claims to things that have not happen yet. I don't think their will be a sell out if there would be one it might be with Direct and AT&T. So we will see who adds what channels in HD over the next month or so. My guess is yes Direct will add some more HD Channels by the end of the year. But my guess is that Direct HD Subscribers will not see 100 channels of HD. They will have their 4 locals and then whatever National Channels in HD Direct offers which the total probably wont be 100. It all comes down to what Networks get their HD Version of their channel up then what TV Providers decide to carry them. But for now it is out of Directs hand and Dish,Comcast or whoever. So we agree to disagree but the facts are still the facts and right now Dish offers more HD Channels to me than what Direct can offer. Could that change maybe but right now I see Direct adding more but in that same process Dish will do the same. Either way Satellite TV Service is by far better than cable. But we will see by this fall what Direct and Dish will add as far as HD. Overall more HD is always a good thing. :)
 
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Why go to D at this time. The new HD package will not be out tell some time at the end of the year. The MLB extra innings will not go over to all Directv tell 2008, And the new DVR4mpg has big time troubles. So i am staying tell next year. The only reason for the move will be the MLB package at this time. And i am not moving tell next year.

For me the answer is quite simple. No HD locals and no plans for HD locals in the Reno, NV DMA. Don't know who decided that Reno should be my locals 'cause I live in CA, but that's the way it is. Next option is to "move" to Sacramento but E* doesn't have Fox in HD and NASCAR is on Fox.

Regarding the DVR, I think it took about 8 months for the major bugs to be fixed on the 622. Now it is an awesome machine and we hardly hear of any complaints. I suspect it will be the same story for the HR20.

If E* merely announced plans for Reno I would stay. There is not even that.
 
Rad,
Who told you E11 is to be a spare ;0 Not the case ;0 E11 will replace E8. E8 will go elsewhere or be the spare ;0 Satt providers NEVER leave a new satellite doing nothing ;0 What a waste of cash would that be. Newer means stronger in all cases here ;0 Where E13 will go is the only mystery at this stage! Short of replacing E3, there arent many key slots for it to go. 129 will be Ciel 2. They already have E6 spare at 110.3 incase of a failure.

-B

Sorry, I just saw some other thread where folks said E11 would be a in orbit spare.

That still doesn't address the question I put to Poke as to where E* has extra capacity to add 40 new HD channels. He keeps saying that E* will match whatever D* does for national HD channels but doesn't say how they will do this. If they did, why haven't the put up some of the other national HD channels that are out there now?
 
I am not sure what E* is going to do, I have to assume they will be adding more HD. Though I wonder as they have had a lot of distractions recently. They seem to be fighting with everyone. I have had E* for 8 years and have been relatively happy with them up unto this past year. This past year has brought me problems with customer support - it is hard to understand them, lousy installation of new Dish for HD, incorrect billing and now a $10 increase on my programming package. I started looking more closely at cable and D*. With the latest announcment about MLB EI being exclusive to D*, I just signed up with D*. They are coming out Saturday to install. I will miss some things about E*, but I just couldn't give up MLB.

I hope E* resolves their issues with HBO or they will be losing more customers. They really need to stop yanking channels from their line up. I rarely ever watch Court TV, but there are people who watched it extensively. I hope this next year E* will focus more on keeping customers happy.

If it weren't for MLB, I would probably have downgraded my package to make up for the price increase and stuck with E* a little longer.
 

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