Im hearing rumors that Directv will be shutting down either 101 or 119 satellites, or not sending SD programming to those satellites anymore. Does anyone know about this?
directv satelite change?
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DIRECTV specific messages should be posted in the DIRECTV forum. This forum is for Satellite Guys forum support.
DIRECTV hasn't been using 110W for the continental US (CONUS) a while now and 119W is limited to SD, perhaps some SD locals and some audio channels (there may also be some Spanish language HD there now that I think of it). 101W probably isn't going anywhere but the content there will change soon (this year); perhaps to move all of the CONUS SD content (and probably some local channels) from 119W (speculation).
Since probably 2010 (the SL3 debuted in 2008), DIRECTV has been installing SL3 HD antennas (in markets where SD locals aren't on 119W) that are only capable of 99W, 101W and 103W. Phase III dishes are ancient history.
MPEG2 LOCALS are going away in April, not all MPEG2 channels.
At least that is what I have been told by DIRECTV.
At least that is what I have been told by DIRECTV.
You are correct.
They are starting with locals first and eventually switching everything over.
If you look at 119, it’s only SD locals and Spanish.
Once you get rid of the locals, the Spanish can easily be moved to 101 or reverse band
Your only talking like 74 Spanish channels in SD, which I believe can be crammed onto 2 or 3 transponders elsewhere
They are phasing out MPEG2 locals on 101 & 119 spot beams over time starting in April. By the end of this year, Directv will no longer use the 110, 119 and 95 satellites, and 101 will be (mostly) converted to DVB-S2 and MPEG4. They will need to maintain at least two DSS transponders for HD receivers that have a DSS only network tuner, so it is possible there may still be some MPEG2 SD programming on those transponders. Everything else will be either MPEG4 SD or MPEG4 HD, and there will no longer be any "SD duplicates".
Are you saying Directv is dumping their proprietary ku transmission code and switching to the standard International DVB-S2 format?
There are no 4K channels so there can be as much space for them as they want but there's nothing to put in that space. They are going 100% MPEG4 which is not 100% HD but it will eliminate seeing 206 ESPNHD then 206 ESPN (SD) in the guide because they will drop the unnecessary SD duplicates. Channels that are SD now (like Discovery Life or CSPAN) will still be SD but they will be MPEG4 SD instead of MPEG2 SD.
I wouldn't hold your breath. If there was going to be linear 4K channels, you'd think we would have heard something about at least one of them by now. Not a word. Not even HBO, Discovery, ESPN - the usual first ones. (Like you said they were first to HD and there was even ESPN 3D.) There was a big difference between SD and HD. There is not a big difference between HD and 4K. 4K has been out for a while now. Most people outside forums like this don't know what it is and don't care. They might have a 4K TV but probably didn't buy it for that - the TV just came that way.
It means no mean SD duplicates, like myself and others said earlier. Channels that are not offered in HD will still be in SD, but in MPEG4 SD. So there will be ESPN HD only. HBO HD only. FS1 HD only. CNN HD only. If you have SD duplicate locals, they will go away, too. MPEG4 SD locals will stay, they are labeled "A3" in the description. But channels like CSPAN, for example, will still be SD (at least to start) but will be in the MPEG 4 format that only a few SD channels are in now. Most SD is MPEG2 format now. NASA is one of them. The national MPEG4 channels are not noted in anyway, other than not being from the 101 satellite in the transponder spreadsheet. MPEG2 is what is going away this year, starting with locals in April.
In this day and age there is no reason for any channel not to be offered in HD. DirecTV is still far behind in their HD offerings from other providers.
Maybe, maybe not. Compared to Comcast here, it's night and day, hands-down, no-doubt Directv leads with HD. Not even close. Dish doesn't count because, well, it's Dish and they are not full HD and are missing so many basic channels. There are no other providers here. Compared to my brother's Fios in Boston, it's a wash.
Spectrum has us beat, at least in the former Time Warner areas in NC where I used to live. They have more channels and more HD and I can only think of 1 channel (FS2) that we have in HD that they don't but maybe there are just a couple of others. And they may have them HD now. It's not quite the as good in NY two towns over from me, but close. Internet is a little slower than I have with Comcast, though. And it's cheaper. But I don't know if Spectrum is like that everywhere. Directv has added a number of good options over the past few years but I agree that there shouldn't be SD in 2019. Granted some channels still don't have an HD feed to offer providers, but since that's the case, there's another reason to not hold one's breath waiting for 4K!
Mostly. They have been using DVB-S2 on one transponder on 119 for years - the one carrying several MPEG4 HD channels. They'll do the same for most of the transponders on 101, but will have to keep at least two on their proprietary DSS format due to hardware limitations in some of the H2x/HR2x models.
Of course Directv doesn't use the "standard" DVB-S2, but a slightly tweaked version.
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