For the final years the alternate was only on 209-1. They still labeled it "ESPN Alternate", but it was only used for the weekends where ESPN2 and ABC swapped games in portions of the country.
NFL Network & RedZone coming to DIRECTV Satellite, Stream and U-Verse
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directv is not likey to have that live 24/7 they will likey have it as an part time channel
Does Anybody have Red Zone as a Full time channel ?
I don't think it has ever been Full time.
Actually typically the NFL's contracts require providers to carry it 24/7, even during the offseason. During the offseason it typically just shows this (from my Spectrum TiVo). Whether they will make an exception for DirecTV or not remains to be seen, but it likely would set a precedent they'd have to honor then with other providers too if they let them make it part time.
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Thats not having programming 24/7, all that is is a Slide to show they have it ... I would not consider that having it 24/7
Now it would be different if it was on the NFL Network (D* 212 in this case) during live games and back to their normal NFL shows outside of the Red Zone games.
That would be 24/7.
That slide is coming from the NFL's Red Zone channel, it's not inserted by the provider and is the same one that the feed being tested by DIRECTV stream is showing. It's also not a still image, the background gridiron moves around while various music from the NFL library loops in the background.
It doesn't matter what's on it, they are still devoting a QAM feed 24/7/365 to pass along whatever NFL Red Zone is sending out via Galaxy 13 TPN 22. The local Blue Ridge system here does the same thing where Red Zone's video and audio streams are always taking up 15 Mbps on RF 59, Program 2 (14.5 MPEG-2 1080i video, 384 kbps primary AC-3 5.1 audio, 192 kbps secondary AC-3 stereo audio). If it were a part time feed, they would only have the QAM feed active during Sunday afternoons or share the bandwidth with other part time channels like what some cable companies do with their RSN alternates. i.e. Optimum's NYC DMA systems have MSG2, MSGSN2 and YES2 share a dedicate sports alternate channel, and if they need all 3 RSN alternates live, they pre-empt the scrolling guide channels.
DIRECTV's part time channels are truely part time. Whenever they are not in use, they are remapped to Ku and Ka offline slates and their bandwidth is repurposed for CINEHD and in some cases SD Infomercial channels.
It doesn't matter what's on it, they are still devoting a QAM feed 24/7/365 to pass along whatever NFL Red Zone is sending out via Galaxy 13 TPN 22. The local Blue Ridge system here does the same thing where Red Zone's video and audio streams are always taking up 15 Mbps on RF 59, Program 2 (14.5 MPEG-2 1080i video, 384 kbps primary AC-3 5.1 audio, 192 kbps secondary AC-3 stereo audio). If it were a part time feed, they would only have the QAM feed active during Sunday afternoons or share the bandwidth with other part time channels like what some cable companies do with their RSN alternates. i.e. Optimum's NYC DMA systems have MSG2, MSGSN2 and YES2 share a dedicate sports alternate channel, and if they need all 3 RSN alternates live, they pre-empt the scrolling guide channels.
DIRECTV's part time channels are truely part time. Whenever they are not in use, they are remapped to Ku and Ka offline slates and their bandwidth is repurposed for CINEHD and in some cases SD Infomercial channels.
Thank you, that is the point I was trying to make. It might not have true "programming" on it, but I would expect the channel to be active all the time like it is on other providers as you describe.
Never thought a cable co would still use MPEG-2 compression! Comcast here uses MPEG-4
Many cable companies still use MPEG-2 because they need to be compatible with their oldest HD boxes still out in the field. Blue Ridge only uses MPEG-4 for the premium multiplex channels and Sports iNDemand's Out of market channels.
Xfinity also switched to X1/IP delivery for most new HD channels instead of upgrading the capacity of all their systems to 1 GHz networks. So people using legacy boxes and TiVOs with cable cards are missing many of their HD channels. Like I'm not sure about Scranton, but at least in Connecticut, the HD feeds for AHC, ASPiRE, BBC News, Cleo, Comedy.TV, Cooking Channel, Disney Jr, FOX Deportes, Fuse, FXM, GAC Family, Grio, GSN, Hallmark Drama, INSP, JBS, Justice Central, Magnolia, MTV2, Newsnation, Newsmax, Nick Jr, Pop, Reelz, Revolt, Sundance, TBN, TUDN, TV Land, Universo and many others are X1/IP only and requires you to use Comcast as your ISP.
Xfinity also switched to X1/IP delivery for most new HD channels instead of upgrading the capacity of all their systems to 1 GHz networks. So people using legacy boxes and TiVOs with cable cards are missing many of their HD channels. Like I'm not sure about Scranton, but at least in Connecticut, the HD feeds for AHC, ASPiRE, BBC News, Cleo, Comedy.TV, Cooking Channel, Disney Jr, FOX Deportes, Fuse, FXM, GAC Family, Grio, GSN, Hallmark Drama, INSP, JBS, Justice Central, Magnolia, MTV2, Newsnation, Newsmax, Nick Jr, Pop, Reelz, Revolt, Sundance, TBN, TUDN, TV Land, Universo and many others are X1/IP only and requires you to use Comcast as your ISP.
Here, GSN HD isn’t X1 only, but it’s only in the 1000s, channel 1425, I think before the MCLU in 2017 it was one of a few HD channels in the 1000s that also included BBC America HD, FXX HD, then-Sprout HD, and Oxygen HD.
For DIRECTV Satellite, Red Zone is now in test mode on channel 211 as a Ka Offline channel, so it looks like it will only be carried part time for satellite customers.
They can use SDV to make it not use bandwidth all the time.
also directv has other channels that are part time that are full time on cable.
Every other national addition in the past 3 years like Marquee, SportsNet LA, Newsmax HD, TVG HD, SoYummy, BNC/Grio, Cleo TV, Showtime FamilyZone, Pinoy Box Office, OPM TV, AMC+, SariSari, OWN West, Hogar de HGTV, Barvana, Atrescine, Nuestra Vision, Estrella News, Meganoticias, Bounce, Grit, Cozi, getTV, LifeS, EarthX, Daystar HD, Daystar Espanol, EWTN Espanol, FMC and MeTV were mapped to unique TID-PIDs when they first appeared in test mode. Even channels that ended up never going live like Pac12 were mapped to unique TID-PIDs
Thanks for the reminder of that awful tease. One last year to go of not being able to watch so many Pac-12 football and basketball games without paying for a second TV service for DIRECTV customers.
Normally cable customers see those slates, but the MLB alt slate is only seen in rare instances where the receiver for MLBN at the headend doesn’t switch back from the alt feed to main feed. It’s also why the slate has a scroll saying to contact your provider for assistance.
The stream for the NFL Network alternate feed is now live on the app for satellite customers, but like with the MLB Net alternate, satellite customers get redirected to the "There's no Broadcast Airing at this time" stream between games instead of the "NFL Alt Channel 1" stream.
