D11 outage 2/27/2024 (Resolved on 2/28)

[Tom Speer]

So related to this topic...I'm confused about how the sat signal meters work on a DirecTV receiver. When D11 died, I could obviously see that all the x-ponders on 99cb were 0's...but since D11 also has spot beams, where are those signals shown? Are those then shown on the 99s meter selection? And what about D14's spot beams; are those ALSO shown on the 99s meter selection?

If this is all correct, then I would assume this is how things work on the 103 constellation of sats, correct?

On the 99s display, TPN numbers 1 to 8 are spot beams from D14. TPNs 15 to 24 are spot beams from D11. They only show transponders that your receiver can lock onto. It searches through all the TIDS using a given TPN number, and reports the frst one it can lock onto. Each TID (transponder identifier) has different modulation characteristics, so it has to search through all of them. Take a look at the Network Decoder map tab in the Weekly Transponder map.

 

[KyL416]

NFL Network, NewsNation and FOX Business are back to normal and are no longer acting like PPV channels

 

[Inclined Orbit]

On the 99s display, TPN numbers 1 to 8 are spot beams from D14. TPNs 15 to 24 are spot beams from D11. They only show transponders that your receiver can lock onto. It searches through all the TIDS using a given TPN number, and reports the frst one it can lock onto. Each TID (transponder identifier) has different modulation characteristics, so it has to search through all of them. Take a look at the Network Decoder map tab in the Weekly Transponder map.

All of the HD transponders should have the exact same modulation characteristics such as modulation type, symbol rate, data rate, FEC, etc. The thing that is specific to each DirecTV HD transponder is the scrambling code. That is an obscure feature in the DVBS2 protocol and I think DirecTV is the only one using it. The scrambling code was put in to avoid DirecTV receivers from locking onto an adjacent spot beam which otherwise has the exact same parameters as the desired spot beam. The scrambling code is the main reason aftermarket satellite meters cannot lock on and demodulate/decode a DirecTV transponder as the scrambling codes are not supposed to be published.

 

[Wobble]

DTV Satellite is still the best with the channel listings. IMO Pick what package that fits your needs and or budget. Nice there is internet streaming for those channels that did not respond to the satellites. Not being able to record any local National network programs last night was a bit of inconvenience. My wife told me this morning, she was able to watch those programs on Parmount+ this morning. Most every night, she has 2 shows she records at the same time slot, to watch the next day.

 

[dtv757]

Just wanted to say special thanks to everyone here for your Updates !

 

[David Ortiz]

I'd live to see the post mortem on this incident.

I love when misspells create entirely different thoughts.

 

[syphix]

This what they’re calling it

View: https://x.com/directvhelp/status/1762857390179754161?s=46

"A space event" sounds like something external to the satellite having a mechanical issue. I suppose we'll never know exactly what that "event" was...

 

[David Ortiz]

"A space event" sounds like something external to the satellite having a mechanical issue. I suppose we'll never know exactly what that "event" was...

Well, it is rocket science.

 

[Tom Speer]

Possibilities that: come to mind for a "Space Event":

• a Meteorite
• Debris (Space Junk)
• Thruster malfunction
• Power system malfunction

Perhaps a need to meneuver out of position to avoid one of the first two. If there was some sort of collision, these satellites have a lot of redundancy and backup systems. If they continue to have fewer National transponders, it would indicate some damage.

 

[TheTechGuru]

The solution is already there, move everyone to streaming for whatever channels get left off any shuffling they do of channels.

Not everyone lives somewhere with internet access (or at least uncapped access that's fast enough for streaming).

Hope someone offers a new 5DTV C-Band option when DirecTV and DishNet go defunct.

 

[dishrich]

DirecTV Restores Service After Nationwide Satellite TV Outage

According to DirecTV, the issue involved a 'space event' that required a team of engineers and rocket scientists to fix

www.nexttv.com

 

[KyL416]

I wish news sites would stop using DownDetector as the main basis for their articles covering service outages. It's clear most writers have no idea how that site functions as they keep on using their numbers as if it's some kind of definitive scale on how many areas were impacted at a given time. It also only counts your report for the hour or so after you reported it, as they don't have the ability to tell them your report is resolved.

"Troubled peaked Tuesday afternoon, with 1,378 reports, but complaints continued to trickle in early Wednesday morning." <-- This line is highly misleading. The outage didn't expand across the country during the day like some kind of cascading shutdown, the issue began at around 3am ET for EVERYONE when D11 went out and NOTHING changed until shortly after 8pm ET when they started moving those channels I listed to D10, D12 and D14. The only "regional" recovery was between 6am-9am ET this morning when they started testing random transponders at reduced strength until everything came back at full strength, so some markets got their locals back before others. Also keep in mind most of the engineers and "rocket scientists" are based in El Segundo, so for them the recovery was between 3am-6am local time, and they were at work long before that to get to the point where they could start uplinking channels to D11 again.

D11 is also one of the satellites that don't have the ability to mirror to Puerto Rico, so the most watched national channels like USA, Discovery, TNT, TBS, HBO, ESPN, CNN, FOX News, Bravo, Hallmark, HGTV, etc are on D14, D15 or D16.

For obvious reasons, the first people who reported the issue were ones who had locals on D11, which led to an answerer of TV that a lot of people go to for information incorrectly claiming that only locals were impacted. Then a few hours later people started noticing that Newsmax, FOX Business, NewsNation and NFL Network were down when their morning shows started, Spanish speaking viewers also noticed that Univision East and TUDN were down. The other big "wave" of reports came during the evening when primetime viewers noticed their locals were down along with a handful of RSNs, ACCN and the League Pass Mix.

 

[Jimbo]

The solution is already there, move everyone to streaming for whatever channels get left off any shuffling they do of channels.

The people without Genies, can't get Streaming channels.

Now if they would allow more than 1 Genie per account, that would be different.

 

[slice1900]

As the satellites age this will get interesting, they do not plan to add further replacements. The closer we get to 2030 they may have to make decisions to remove channels from the platform. Losing spot beams would make tough calls on local markets.

D11 & D12 have identical spot beam configurations, so worst case if one of them completely failed I suppose they could double up the channels on every beam. That would mean halving the bit rate for each channel, so quality would take a hit, but MPEG4 compressors have improved since those satellites were launched so while it would be noticeable it wouldn't be like stepping down to SD quality.

The national channels could divide the hit across four satellites (or maybe cause them to bite the bullet and finally drop MPEG2 SD entirely) so it would be almost unnoticeable, especially if they took some rarely viewed channels from MPEG4 HD to MPEG4 SD to allowing preserving the same bandwidth for the most viewed channels.

 

[Plywodstatebum]

Cool maybe we will get another 5 dollars

 

[lordodogg]

One question is why did they not remap all of the affected channels to another transponder on d10/12/14 to show a "No need to call us" slate. Are they just doing away with those slates? Cause when most of my locals were down due to a transmitter problem early last month, they did not ever show those slates, just black screens.

 

[Juan]

I wish news sites would stop using DownDetector as the main basis for their articles covering service outages. It's clear most writers have no idea how that site functions as they keep on using their numbers as if it's some kind of definitive scale on how many areas were impacted at a given time. It also only counts your report for the hour or so after you reported it, as they don't have the ability to tell them your report is resolved.

"Troubled peaked Tuesday afternoon, with 1,378 reports, but complaints continued to trickle in early Wednesday morning." <-- This line is highly misleading. The outage didn't expand across the country during the day like some kind of cascading shutdown, the issue began at around 3am ET for EVERYONE when D11 went out and NOTHING changed until shortly after 8pm ET when they started moving those channels I listed to D10, D12 and D14. The only "regional" recovery was between 6am-9am ET this morning when they started testing random transponders at reduced strength until everything came back at full strength, so some markets got their locals back before others. Also keep in mind most of the engineers and "rocket scientists" are based in El Segundo, so for them the recovery was between 3am-6am local time, and they were at work long before that to get to the point where they could start uplinking channels to D11 again.

D11 is also one of the satellites that don't have the ability to mirror to Puerto Rico, so the most watched national channels like USA, Discovery, TNT, TBS, HBO, ESPN, CNN, FOX News, Bravo, Hallmark, HGTV, etc are on D14, D15 or D16.

For obvious reasons, the first people who reported the issue were ones who had locals on D11, which led to an answerer of TV that a lot of people go to for information incorrectly claiming that only locals were impacted. Then a few hours later people started noticing that Newsmax, FOX Business, NewsNation and NFL Network were down when their morning shows started, Spanish speaking viewers also noticed that Univision East and TUDN were down. The other big "wave" of reports came during the evening when primetime viewers noticed their locals were down along with a handful of RSNs, ACCN and the League Pass Mix.

They are probably AI articles...AI scours the internet for information..it doesn't do any real research or talk to people

 

[Juan]

One question is why did they not remap all of the affected channels to another transponder on d10/12/14 to show a "No need to call us" slate. Are they just doing away with those slates? Cause when most of my locals were down due to a transmitter problem early last month, they did not ever show those slates, just black screens.

Would you rather have a slate or one of your channels back?

 

[lordodogg]

Would you rather have a slate or one of your channels back?

Whatever channels they can temporarily bring back up PLUS a slate on whatever hadn't come back yet.

 

[raoul5788]

Would you rather have a slate or one of your channels back?

non sequitur