D* carried ZDTV since basically the beginning. I think it was only a matter of a month or two that it was only on bud. ZD owned it (even under the TechTV name) up until it went G4 in 04-05ish
I sort of remember Leo and Kate on the screen savers talking about Direct picking it up a few months in. I saw the first days on the bud and they said we are only available on the bud. They were analog with no encryption. Later when they became Tech Tv they encrypted using Scientific Atlanta's PowerVu . I didn't have a DVB receiver back then so they were lost for me. Even though they went DVB they were still free. When Comcast took over they went to secure mode. It's the old story the damn cable giants get control remove free access and screw up the channel. When the ratings fall off services like Direct toss them and they wonder why.
BTW I think Direct statistical multiplexer tossed the G4 bit's back at the other channels. I noticed some picture improvement on other channels using that transponder.
I say cut the deadwood and give us the bits back to the good channels! :up
EDIT:
Channels sharing G4's mux. These channels gained a bit of bandwidth with G4 being a slate now.
D8-101 Transponder 27:
CNN, Cooking, SyFy, BBC America, Disney East, Nick JR, VH1 Classic, GMC, Showtime 2, Showtime 3. There are 2 sonic channels on there too but they use very little.
I thought my eyes were deceiving me when I was watching one of these last night but it all makes sense the quality would be better with more bits in the bit pool. It also depends on the master source coming in. I know that Disneys SD master is fantastic I've seen it so it looks real good. I also seen, Cooking, Showtime, SyFy, and BBC America they have a good masters too. Nick Jr and VH1 classic masters are a bit bittstarved so they may not be as good. Can't comment on CNN and GMC never saw the masters. Loosing G4 is a good thing