Charlie Chat and Voom 21

[Carter]

So, deosn't it stand to reason that they will be able to blow away E* on HD content, or is all the space to provide HD locals?

Am I missing something here?

-k

If we go by what the press releases say then Spaceway 1 and 2 will be used for HD LIL. The wild card is the Ka payload on DirecTV 8. There are no press releases stating what it will be used for. I am guessing it will be used for new national HD channels and NFL-ST HD games.

 

[rocatman]

Regarding the question of bandwidth, Dish should have plenty of bandwidth at 105 W once AMC-15 is moved there which should occur by early June 2005. Ka band testing at 113 W has to finish by May 21, 2005 and then AMC-15 must be moved to 105 W. Even with the current SD locals at 105 W on AMC-2, there should be 8 - 10 TPs free with AMC-15. Dish uses very high error correction with AMC-2 currently at 105 W because of it low power (60 watts/TP) which limits the number of SD channels per TP to 12. The higher powered AMC-15 (140 watts/TP) should be able to use much less error correction such that 16 SD channels/TP. This should free up several TPs currently being used at 105 W. In addition, the TPs on AMC-15 are also wider in frequency than any of the DBS TPs so 4 HD channels/TP on AMC-15 should allow for greater bandwidth per HD channel than 3 HD channels/TP on the DBS TPs at 110 W or the wings (61.5 and 148 W). There is also AMC-16 that has to finish Ka band testing at 97 W by June 7, 2005. It will then be moved back to 85 W giving Dish another 24 Ku band TPs. It is similar to AMC-15 in that it has wider frequency TPs with a capacity of up to 96 HD channels. All of these HD channel capacity numbers are based on using MPEG-2.

A previous post mentioned DirecTV's plans for HD locals using the Spaceway satellites providing 500 HD local channels. I believe this 500 channel number is with using MPEG-4. If Dish acquires the Rainbow-1 satellite, they will have the capacity to easily compete with DirecTV. There are 130 spotbeam TPs on Rainbow-1 and even if Dish can use only 100 of these TPs, this still would give them the capacity of 600 - 900 HD local channels using MPEG-4.

 

[shanewalker]

Thanks for that info rocatman...it makes sense in light of Charlie's comments last night. Both his matter-of-fact statement on E* expanding its HD offerings within the year and his insistence that that was tied to MPEG-4 are well defined by your details. We'll just have to see how Coke and Pepsi differentiate themselves once these plans of D* and E* go green...but it makes sense that they'd both have to keep somewhat nose-to-nose at the very least in order to stay competitive. Interesting...

 

[Amphicar770]

Charlie mentioned Voom 21 and said something like they looked interested but do not expect any HD from E* until MPEG-4 is in place. He also said the September Charlie Chat will be the HD chat but we all have heard that before and the HD chat became nothing. MPEG-4 transition for E* is supposed to start Late Fall or early Winter...

Typical Charlie. He will throw out enough of a teaser to make E* look appealing to Voom subs looking for a new provider. At the same time he will not promise anything as ultimately he will not deliver either.

If I were D* or E* I would cherry pick the Voom offerings now and grab Rave, Monsters, Rush. Make even a few available and they would be the logical Voom replacement.

Not sure what I will do myself. Cable seems like the best bet. The big downside there is that the Cable boxes do not have a built in OTA ATSC tuner. I get 15 channels OTA and would like to integrate them all into my guide from one box.

D* get ruled out just on the cost of the HD hardware. For 3 HD STB's we are talking almost $1,000.

E* does integrate the OTA but their boxes are full of bugs and their HD offerings are the weakest of the whole bunch.

I feel like my Ferarri has just been wrecked and I must now replace it with an Eastern European econobox. Hmm, Yugo or Lada, what a choice.

 

[kjk164]

So is it true or just rumor about Directtv getting voom channels ?

 

[Bruce]

If I were D* or E* I would cherry pick the Voom offerings now and grab Rave, Monsters, Rush. Make even a few available and they would be the logical Voom replacement.

But why them before TNT-HD (D*) and Universal-HD (E*) and ESPN 2 and InHD 1 and 2 (both) and of course Starz, Max and TMC ( also both ) these channels would have more of a mass appeal then any of the Voom channels would, if anything was going to be added, they would, but not right now on any provider.

The bad thing about this is Rainbow just signed a new carriage agreement with D* and E* as far as AMC and the other channels goes, that would have been a perfect time to add on a couple of Voom HD channels with the deal, that is how TNT-HD got on E*, when the deal was signed with Time Warner last year that had TNT and TBS in it, it also included TNT-HD as part of the deal, same thing with viacom and E*, when they agreed to a deal, it included as far as a new channel goes, NickToons to be on E*.

 

[Fredinva]

So Dave's got three birds scheduled to go up. Hope they make it.

Thus Dish is One bird ahead already, by purchasing the Voom 61.5 bird transponders.

And you think you'll see more HD content from DTV? It's all for local HD across the country. Don't count on a bunch of new HD channels.

fred

 

[siujoey]

D* get ruled out just on the cost of the HD hardware. For 3 HD STB's we are talking almost $1,000.

E* does integrate the OTA but their boxes are full of bugs and their HD offerings are the weakest of the whole bunch.

I feel like my Ferarri has just been wrecked and I must now replace it with an Eastern European econobox. Hmm, Yugo or Lada, what a choice.

I agree!!! I understand some gripes about not having certain SD channels in the beginning, but I think if you subscribed to E* or D* over Voom at the end and had an HDTV, (especially a really nice one) you should be required by law to forfeit it to me so that I will be able to make better decisions for it.

 

[DarrellP]

MonstersHD, RaveHD, RushHD and the InHD channels have more appeal to me than another movie channel in HD, since those require a higher package tier that I am not willing to pay for (I know, I'm cheap!).

 

[klen]

MonstersHD, RaveHD, RushHD and the InHD channels have more appeal to me than another movie channel in HD, since those require a higher package tier that I am not willing to pay for (I know, I'm cheap!).

Towards the end, Rave was really getting great. Monsters was usually good, sometimes great. Rush was always great. Ultra usually had babes on, so it was good to have on with the volume down. I even enjoyed moov/lab occasionally.

Hell, they were all good except for Auction and Gallery. The movie channels could have easily been cut down to 4 to cut down on repeats.

 

[dlm10541]

D* is currently starting to offer HD locals in the top 12 DMAs..

In the NYC area I will get all 4 majors now and UPN,WB and PBS this summer.
Since I can't get OTA that softens the blow a little for me at least. Being installed next week

 

[James Long]

D* is currently starting to offer HD locals in the top 12 DMAs..

No. D* is currently PROMISING to offer HD locals.

JL

 

[Tvlman]

How could you tell whether Charlie Chat was a re-run or not? Sounds the same each time.

 

[tnsprin]

they don't have the mp4 chips yet though.

They have the chips. But I expect they don't have the software.

 

[GreatMac]

Towards the end, Rave was really getting great. Monsters was usually good, sometimes great. Rush was always great. Ultra usually had babes on, so it was good to have on with the volume down. I even enjoyed moov/lab occasionally.

Hell, they were all good except for Auction and Gallery. The movie channels could have easily been cut down to 4 to cut down on repeats.

Yeah, well, Gallery and Equator are actually great, and even Auction has some very good shows. Monsters and Kung Fu are not really my cup of tea, never saw anything I wanted to watch on them, but guess they have an audience too. Lab was really the only one one that I felt could be axed, but I guess it could look good on tha plasma if you are smoking something

As far as repeats, if you watch HBO for a month, you've seen most of the suff they rotate for the next couple of months. Not that different really, just that Voom has a better sellection of movies.