Discussion of D*s upcoming conversion to MPEG 4

[Tonedeaf]

The picture quality, particularly of supercompressed SD channels, sucks now and it will suck with MPEG4 too. If you have a large HDTV, get VOOM - it is the ONLY way! And it looks like Voom is getting MPEG4 sooner than that. And the Voom HD channels.... ah, I am in love

Cheers!

Better get all the love you can now, as Voom will be gone before you know it.

 

[pradike]

Better get all the love you can now, as Voom will be gone before you know it.

Right on....the SD channels on Voom suck there too...and those proprietary "home grown" wacko HD channels - YUCK! Gee- maybe that's why only 25,000 people got Voom after more than a year on the market - ya think?

It's wait and see time regarding the MPEG4 equipment and deployment. no one KNOWS for sure what this will end up being like, so speculate away, but realize that's all it is...

 

[tdti1]

If you want the best picture in HD, you must get a good OTA setup, and a big dish.

 

[beast37799]

true c band is just like ota when it comes to picutre quality but then again how many people can not only afford cband equipment but can have a 6 ft dish on there roof or lawn

 

[GreatMac]

Right on....the SD channels on Voom suck there too...and those proprietary "home grown" wacko HD channels - YUCK!....

Uh-u-um, no, you are plain wrong.

If you really think that on anything plasma or LCD over 30" Voom and D* look the same, you either need new equipment, or a new prescription, or simply have no idea of what you are talking about - Voom is much better :neener

As far as the proprietary channels, I love them. The movie channels are good enough so I have cancelled HBO, SHO, etc, which makes my accountant happy In fact, the movie channel selection is very good and has a broad range: from World Cinema channel (stuff like Fellini marathons) to channels for western, horror, comedy and even kung fu - all in HD! Equator (what the Travel Channel should be) and Gallery (HD documentaries about art, artists and art history) are unique and frequently fantastic, and I find myself watching them often and actually learning something in the process (you might want to try this...) Rave is also good: where else can you see Radiohead or DM's Band concerts in HD and DD sound?

So, try before you trash. Anyway, it looks like Voom is staying in business (and for the $1 install, what do I loose?)

And yes, Voom is still saying MPEG4 by Spring 2005, together with the HD DVR :clap

P.S. In 1996 I had Dish :haha

 

[beast37799]

gee will u think that way after voom goes bye bye cause guess what 25k subs cant support it not even 50k can. also i was at my local sears today and i noticed the voom display was blocked by the bargin rack of open underwear :clap

 

[GreatMac]

gee will u think that way after voom goes bye bye cause guess what 25k subs cant support it not even 50k can. also i was at my local sears today and i noticed the voom display was blocked by the bargin rack of open underwear :clap

Gee, and I am enjoying it now , and will for the foreseeable future (read the latest Voom news :neener And I get more HD content, much, much more! And I get better PQ on SD stuff!!! And I have invested a whole $1 in this happiness!!!!!

Think, in a relatively short time (in geological terms) we'll all be dead (behind the open underwear rack there are the Sears-branded open coffins :yikes ) But that does not mean that we can't enjoy life for all it is worth @party Thats how it is with Voom: if you have a large HD-capable screen, then less compression and more and better HD content equals Voom love ! Happy Valentine's!

P.S. I like your signature: you should live by it... :haha :clap

 

[pradike]

Uh-u-um, no, you are plain wrong....As far as the proprietary channels, I love them.

And yes, Voom is still saying MPEG4 by Spring 2005, together with the HD DVR :clap

Yeah, right....there are only 25,000 Voom subscribers after 17 months in business out of the 3+ million in the market - and I'm wrong? NOT. You, my friend, are a fan of a dead, lame, and clearly sinking-ship programming delivery service. If you love those paint-dryuing and grass-growing channels - all power to you.

As far as the Voom MPEG4 and DVR pipe dreams - they don't even know how they're going to pay the light bill next month, let alone, go forward with anything of significance going forward. They're even considering dipping into the family $$$ just to keep this farse afloat.

The Dolans are living on fantasy island, and the plane is about to land to take them away. The only reason they now are trying to salvage the remnants of Voom is to save some level of personal self-respect after this huge business debacle. The Voom business model for this company was flawed out of the gate, their equipment is a joke, and their delivery execution has been bush-league level attrocious. Just what most would expect from a cable-company-managed company. In the mean time, D* and E* get bigger, and Voom is a fly on the wall. Time for a reality check Big Mac. Sounds more like a Whopper.

In contrast, D*TV has not only publicaly announced thier MPEG4 plans and have the MONEY to do it, but actually has a delivery timeline to do so. Let's see - 4 new sats going up and paid for - new MPEG4 boxes and DVRs being manufactured as we speak for 2005 delivery - sound like a firm commitment to me - more so than others can say.

 

[silversurfer]

Folks lets get this thread back on topic......Thank you!

 

[GreatMac]

Yeah, right....there are only 25,000 Voom subscribers after 17 months in business out of the 3+ million in the market - and I'm wrong?

Blah, blah, blah.... You probably don't even have a High Def monitor, since by your "logic", after almost a decade, HD sets are still a small minority of all TV sets sold in the US.

The bottom line is that I HAVE tried everything from cable to D* and E*, and IMHO VOOM is by far the best. I actually watch TV again (and yes, I watch mostly the VOOM HD exclusives, they are that good).

You, on the other hand, have been stuck in one place since '96 and will not budge. Nothing I can do about this, but it is your loss.

Not everyone has a need for Voom. I posted Voom info for those who have large HD monitors and may benefit from switching to Voom. The install is $1, so if you don't like it, you can turn it off and go back to D*. I still have my old dish on my roof, all I would have to do is reconnect the cables and call for activation (well, I am taking it down soon ). But in the meantime, I am enjoying my VOOM. As I said, if you see Voom on a large plasma, you would never want to go back. And the exclusive programming rocks.

I actually think Voom will stay in business. They just started advertising. I am a fairly recent convert, but the installer in my area said that lately more than half of the new installs he does are for Voom (he does D* and E* too). In 1996, I chose to go with E* over D* (at the time E* was doing less compression and PQ was a bit better), even though people like you kept saying E* was about to fold. Well, E* almost bought D* :lick I think Voom has fired up people in a way no other sat service has in a long time (look at me , but also look at their forums). They are that good!

P.S. Oops, sorry, didn't mean to hijack the thread. I will shut up now
MPEG4 is a good thing, since it does save bandwidth, and everyone will be doing it (Voom earlier than others). What I was saying is that maybe D* adding local HD channels, which are easily accessible OTA anyway, is not the best way to utilize the extra bandwidth saved from going to MPEG4. Better PQ is important too, at least to some.

But I guess adding local HD feeds works for advertising purposes, hence the D* claim that they are adding 1000s of HD channels. Right :down

 

[pradike]

Blah, blah, blah.... You probably don't even have a High Def monitor, since by your "logic", after almost a decade, HD sets are still a small minority of all TV sets sold in the US.

P.S. Oops, sorry, didn't mean to hijack the thread. I will shut up now

Sorry to disappoint you but I have 2 HD units - 1 HD projector in a dedicated home theater on a 106" screen and 1 large LCD HD unit in my family room.

You are confusing the # of HD sets with # of HD subscribers - they're not one in the same by a long shot. Also, I'm happy you like Voom, but there must be some viable market reason why only 25,000 folks signed up in 16 months, even with strong "price incentives".

Anyway, back on topic - MPEG4 conversion - it used to amaze me how Voomers thought MPREG4 was the greatest CONCEPT since sliced bread, right up until the time D*TV announced it would actually DELIVER IT. Now D*TV is pronounced as the evil empire for thinking such things. But like I said, I'm no longer surprised at what Voomers say.

The clock is ticking, and once MPEG4 is live on D*TV, and deployed to at least 51% of their customers, they'll have a major competitive edge over cable and others.

 

[Uplink]

Whats going to happen with regular sd DirecTV receivers? Will DirecTV send out new ones to all their customers?

 

[caesar gdi]

not anytime soon... I would expect D* to keep some mpeg2 going for at least 3 more years, maybe even as long as 6.

 

[agregjones]

I lost quite a bit but I didn't have the $1 deal from Voom. I had the free deal. After they changed their pricing scheme, I cancelled and continued to get billed for four months.

Many of us have tried all the options. I have been very upfront about my opinions of each. Voom does have a better PQ on my set in my opinion. Voom also has a higher price per month for setups that interested me. With Voom, I found myself watching tape delayed soccer in HD instead of watching a program of my choosing through a DVR. The extra channels with Voom are useless to me unless I have the option to watch their programming on my schedule instead of theirs. An incompetent billing department, horrible customer service and the lack of a basic DVR forced me back into the arms of DirecTV.

Competition is a good thing. I hope Voom stays in business as long as possible because it will force all satellite providers to compete at that level. There are tradeoffs with each service and picking one is a matter of choosing your priorities.

***Suggestion: can we change the title of the thread since this is no longer breaking news?

 

[pradike]

DirecTV MPEG technology plans announced

DirecTV announced that Tandberg will be their MPEG4 HDTV delivery technology partner here, as well as some details:

Tandberg Partnership

 

[hdtvtechno]

Nothing new there, i seen that press release sometime ago.

 

[hongcho]

Really? That PR is dated Feb. 15, 2005.

I don't think there was a PR about which equipment DirecTV was going to use for MPEG-4 AVC encodings. The above PR is (probably) from Tandberg.

Hong.

 

[moonman]

H/D Lite here to stay?

From the PR.....

"Key features include extensive video pre-processing for noise reduction and horizontal picture resolution resizing. "

 

[moonman]

Nothing new there, i seen that press release sometime ago.

This is the PR you are thinking of...note that it doe's not name D* directly,
the release was made due to requirements with the SEC before they filed
statements with the SEC.
"TANDBERG Television Wins $9M N. American MPEG-4 HDTV System
Date: 28 January 2005

Oslo, Norway, 28th January 2005 - TANDBERG Television (TAT.OL), a leading provider of professional video compression and TV delivery systems, today announced that it has received an order, valued in excess of $9M, from a leading North American satellite broadcaster.

The contract is the world's first order to be announced for an MPEG-4 AVC HDTV video headend and will see TANDBERG Television deploy its EN5990 encoder within fully redundant systems complete with its Reflex™ statistical multiplexing software. First to market with MPEG-4 AVC HD compression systems, TANDBERG Television has developed the EN5990 to enable broadcasters and operators to respond to the dramatically increased consumer demand for more HDTV programming. By using the power, flexibility and bandwidth efficiency of MPEG-4 AVC the bandwidth required for the real-time delivery of outstanding High Definition images can be halved compared to traditional MPEG-2 solutions. The majority of these systems will be delivered in the first half of 2005. "

 

[bshef]

fact or fiction

We called CSR regarding the future Mpeg4 in relation to our $1000 HD Tivo that we purchased and if our box will then be obsolete. CSR put us on hold for 15 min to speak with a supervisor.
CSR came back to report that the current HD Tivo's will simply need (from D*) a software upgrade to decode Mpeg 4.
Additionally hearing rumors that D* will end their relationship with Tivo (when?) and then come out with their own DVR?

I'm having a hard time sifting through what is fact and what is fiction! Can't believe everything I read on the forums.