I'm looking forward to a single dish for HD/Internationals and if happens I will be back to D*. Let me shed some light on this ESPN MPEG2 quality: I have cable now and the picture on my 73" is fantastic. I am 100% sure that ESPN will dramatically improve when the switch to MPEG4 occurs.
DirecTV Rumor: MPEG2 to MEPG4 HD Mirroring / NEW HD Info
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I am also speculating, Jason, but here are my thoughts:
I realize it isn't necessarily an authoritative source, but Lyngsat indicates that Directv 10 has 18 transponders spread between 18327 and 18648 MHz, 1 through 16 use 8 bands with LHCP and RHCP and 18 is shown as RHCP only at a non-contiguous frequency. The Ka-low band is 500 MHz wide, so this may indicate some additional spectrum is available (These are probably center frequencies and most of the transponders are spaced 40 MHz apart, so the entire band should support up to 12 frequencies or 24 transponders). The Boeing fact sheet indicates that there are 28 National/Alaska and 4 National/Hawaii TWTs (but some transponders may use more than one TWT). This band is separate from the Ka-high band used for Spaceway 1 &2, so those transponders shouldn't subtract from that total. If Directv is able to use all of this space, that would indicate that it may possible to have 7 more Ka-low transponders. Obviously this wouldn't fully use the capabilities of Directv 12, but I also think there is some latitude on whether a particular frequency is used for CONUS or spotbeam, so possibly some both Directv 10 (or 11) and 12 could provide spotbeams to different areas on common frequencies and with some shifting between CONUS and spots it may be possible to use all of the capabilities of two Ka satelliites at the same location, as is done with the Ku sats.
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Actually, the filing says that Dish will be leasing transponder space on Canadian DBS provider Bell ExpressVu's Nimiq 5 satellite. I believe that DirecTV will relocate their satellite presently at 72.5 to a holding position as an in flight spare.
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On my 120" ESPN is the fuzziest of the HD channels, I too am 100% sure that ESPN will dramatically improve in MPEG4
Bob, I followed that as best I could. I guess the best way to say is it could be possible to have D12 at an existing spot, we don't really know. If they can, it would be less than 100% utilized. Did I understand that right?
Either way, we'll know in 2009
On my 120" ESPN is the fuzziest of the HD channels, I too am 100% sure that ESPN will dramatically improve in MPEG4
Its fine on my tv...
You must be one of the lucky ones. I have a Samsung LNT4665f LCD TV 1080p and ESPN looks terrible on it. There's a drastic difference between mpeg2 and mpeg 4 channels on my tv.
Yeah I'm definitely looking forward to ESPN and TNT in Mpeg4, the Nascar races look much messier than the local Fox broadcasts were, or Speed HD (when it's not freezing every few minutes 
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Bob, I followed that as best I could. I guess the best way to say is it could be possible to have D12 at an existing spot, we don't really know. If they can, it would be less than 100% utilized. Did I understand that right?
Either way, we'll know in 2009
That's my take on it (and it would also provide some backup capability). If they were to do that, I suspect it would be at 103 since there are some spotbeam issues with D10.
In any case the addition of D11 should provide significant additional capacity near term (and hopefully we won't run out of space before D12 is available, wherever it ends up).
Sometimes it is the feed. ESPN2 hd is MPEG4 on Dish, while ESPN hd is still MPEG2. Sometimes ESPN2 hd will look terrible on Dish. A majoity of the time ESPN2 hd will look better than ESPN hd on Dish.
Are you sure? i think the list of channels for E that are still in mpeg2 include espn2.
I don't care if they have to go back to MPEG1. I just want a better picture, and hopefully before I buy a brand new 1080p HDTV early next year.
D* originally said D12 was to be a spare, now they're saying they plan to launch it next year and it will take them to 200 national HD channel capacity. Although I've seen nothing mentioned on the net that says when it would launch and even by what company.
Wow, hate to call out a guy with 2500+ posts. Man, look at YES, look at MASN, look at, well hell, BTN, and just about every other network that shows sports and compare that to ESPN. Heck, as another poster stated, look at ESPN News and compare it to ESPN. Fine? I know PQ can somewhat be in the eyes of the beholder but, no, no way, it is not fine by any stretch of the imagination. The other day the Phillies game was on ESPN and the MLBEI feed from Comcast (which by the way is pretty good too) so their you had it, same game, ESPN and the RSN feed, no comparison, RSN feed which is in MPEG4 blew away ESPN, on anybody's TV. I hope the conversion does the trick, I am still skeptical though.
I can concur with everything you stated. Even some of the crappy 720p FSN feeds look better than the ESPN feed. The best by far is NESN and YES.
What a waste of space for HD locals. D* and E* should have really put something together to share a satellite just for locals.
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