Dish Network® Outlines Upcoming Hd Launch Schedule

[tigerfan33]

Then why has Memphis been taken off the list. I have spoken with all 4 station engineers. There is no tech issues. Dish hasn't even spoken with them.

When Birmingham hd locals were announced last Summer and then upliked, I called all stations there and talked to all engineers to see if there were any glitches with contracts.. They didn't even have ANY info on the situation and didn't even know they had been uplinked. Management or owner is the one you will have to talk to to get info.

BTW. A week later they fired up the hd in Birmingham.

 

[tomyo10]

well, I guess it isn't a big deal to those who already have their locals in HD, or can get them OTA. But to those who can't, yes, it is a big deal.

 

[kennya]

It never ceases to make me wonder, what is the big deal about receiving locals in HD? Except for the occasional sporting event, the major networks prime time line up leaves much to be desired. I'm sure that viewing the typical sit-com in HD improves the story line??? As far as VOOM goes, at least you aren't bombarded with up-converted commercials. But, each to their own.

I guess all of us do have opinions, but I am going to have to dis-agree with this one....

 

[wayne231]

Yeah well in most cases its not up to the engineers it's going to be someone who deals with the contracts with each station. I would speak to my local station engineers as well and they usually have no clue on the negotiations end of things. It all starts there with each station negotiating with the provider. So for Memphis area or any other local station market if you can its best to find out who does the negotiations for that station and see if they have been in talks with Dish or whatever provider it is.

Well, I gues station managers are just clueless too. Just make you wonder who really runs anything.

 

[Poke]

Well, I gues station managers are just clueless too. Just make you wonder who really runs anything.

Well I dont know what their title would be I'm sure it differs from market to market. But the ones for sure are going to know something are the one's in-voled in the Negations process. If the station manager are in-voled then yes they should know something. I know back when I was dealing with my local stations I usually had to speak with someone presidents office. Most time dealing with anyone else they would tell me they had no clue due to they were not in-voled in that part of the process. But like I have said it will differ from place to place.

 

[dishjim]

Tomyo,

Any channel that was listed and that is not listed currently is due to a technical issue. (A technical issue that has NOTHING to do with the new satellite)

For example here in Connecticut we were listed, but were not on yesterdays list. From what I am hearing is because of last weeks LIN Broadcasting announcement Dish wants to launch the Connecticut HD locals with the LIN stations included. This means they need fiber from the channels going to the various uplink centers. In addition the uplink centers need to be wired and equipment put in place to rebroadcast those channels.

From what i am hearing that they hope to launch the missing markets ON TIME however some the factors of getting those channels on line are out of their hands, so they pulled them off the list incase there is a delay.

All areas announced on the Charlie Chat are on the Radar and WILL be on Dish Network this year.

With all due respect I find it hard to believe that E* would announce Cleveland for the 2nd time in 2 years if everything wasn't in place.

 

[mike123abc]

Many stations are owned by companies that have a bunch of stations. The deal could be made with Dish and the local station office has no idea.

The biggest hold up on this is usually the fiber. Dish is at the mercy of the local providers to get a fiber line from the reception point to an uplink center.

 

[flyingsquirrel]

From a technical standpoint, why would you need a Fiber link with HDTV? I understand how the quality of the connection is important with an analog signal but with a digital signal you should be able to use almost anything that allows for a "Lock". That could be UTP or even microwave OTA or ATSC OTA.

What am I missing here?

Also, I am assuming that most of these locals already have Analog SD links to Dish, don't they? Why couldn't Dish switch run the digital signal over the existing link and then have dish "downres" the HD signal for SD?

I don't doubt that there could be other technical issues, like encoding and compression issues and such. But I don't think there should be connection issues. If anything, connection issues should be much less critical with anything digital. That's why IP-phones require have better quality with less resources.

 

[8bitbytes]

It never ceases to make me wonder, what is the big deal about receiving locals in HD? Except for the occasional sporting event, the major networks prime time line up leaves much to be desired. I'm sure that viewing the typical sit-com in HD improves the story line??? As far as VOOM goes, at least you aren't bombarded with up-converted commercials. But, each to their own.

If you have never watched Numb3rs in HD with 5.1 surround sound and a good sub, you have no idea what you are missing. In fact, if you watched a few things in HD on a 92" screen, you would see a lot of things you have been missing!

 

[digiblur]

It's not cheap to backhaul 4 HD locals at 15(give or take) megabits a piece and usually takes a while to get the line installed from point A to point B.

 

[darrencp22]

This is an incredibly dumb question. By why dont we have the technology to just "Grab" the signal from the antenna and retransmit to an uplink center? Why does fiber get ran? Seems like there must be a more "modern" approach.

 

[mike123abc]

From a technical standpoint, why would you need a Fiber link with HDTV? I understand how the quality of the connection is important with an analog signal but with a digital signal you should be able to use almost anything that allows for a "Lock". That could be UTP or even microwave OTA or ATSC OTA.

What am I missing here?

Also, I am assuming that most of these locals already have Analog SD links to Dish, don't they? Why couldn't Dish switch run the digital signal over the existing link and then have dish "downres" the HD signal for SD?

I don't doubt that there could be other technical issues, like encoding and compression issues and such. But I don't think there should be connection issues. If anything, connection issues should be much less critical with anything digital. That's why IP-phones require have better quality with less resources.

The fiber bandwidth for all the SD stations is probably about 1 HD channel's worth. This requires a significant upgrade in capacity. The uplink can be hundreds of miles away and involve different local fiber end point companies. So they could be involved with 2 local companies and 1 long haul company in getting the fiber connection done.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

From a technical standpoint, why would you need a Fiber link with HDTV? I understand how the quality of the connection is important with an analog signal but with a digital signal you should be able to use almost anything that allows for a "Lock". That could be UTP or even microwave OTA or ATSC OTA.

That would be nice if the uplink centers had line of sight to see the microwaves. But that is not the case.

They need to get the signals to the uplink (and backup uplink) somehow.

This takes time. Try calling up your phone company and order a bonded T-1 (which is only 3MB/s) and see how long it takes to get it installed. That line is not even fast enough to send one HD channel to the uplink.

 

[256HDfan]

Does anyone know which satellite the Huntsville, AL locals will be on? thanks.

 

[jahlight]

WGN HD?!?!? Cubs games in HD?!?!? Oh my I maybe back!!

 

[Jim S.]

It never ceases to make me wonder, what is the big deal about receiving locals in HD? Except for the occasional sporting event, the major networks prime time line up leaves much to be desired.

I think most of the network programs suck too, but there's one problem: the SD locals are so compressed that many programs look like crap on a big screen. (This is not limited to locals -- Travel comes to mind -- but they're definitely the majority of the worst level.)

 

[Maineiac]

Has anyone noticed that the Big 10 is no longer in our guide? I posted a thread a few months back that I had the sci-Fi and USA mapped after TBSHD but was told that was impossible. Could this be the slots foe 4 new HD channels ?

 

[NightRyder]

Has anyone noticed that the Big 10 is no longer in our guide? I posted a thread a few months back that I had the sci-Fi and USA mapped after TBSHD but was told that was impossible. Could this be the slots foe 4 new HD channels ?

Sorry no, the national preview just ended; Big 10 is still there (using the slots) it's just finally being treated as an RSN, which is what it is.

NightRyder

 

[bobl]

Not all local HD channels are sent via fiber. Here in San Francisco our big four network HD locals are picked up via regular antenna. Three of them are on what's known as Sutro Tower. This tower handles both analog and digital signals. There is work being done on the tower from time to time and when this happens we lose the Dish Network feed of these channels just as we lose the regular OTA feed. I'm sure fiber is the preferred choice and possibly the usual method of delivery but it's certainly not the only method of delivery used by Dish Network.

 

[rad]

With digital TV reception how important is it to have fiber vs. just using an OTA pickup? I could see with analog where OTA reception being a PITA for anything from ghosting/multipath to static during electrical storms. But with ATSC is most cases that's not a problem anymore, I know in Austin they just use OTA pickup, if you go by their local receiving facility and there's a bunch of antenna's on the roof.