DishNetwork Uplink Activity Report - 5/22/2008 4:09pm - 49 changes

[HokieEngineer]

Summary of capacity at 61.5:

Unusable transponders (until they replace E3, or move another bird to 61.5 that can cover those frequencies):
4,6,26,28

# of Available HD channels per TP (Some TPs have TMP channels already defined):
TP16: 2 (TMP 13,16) (13 = SHOTO, 16 = TMC-E)
TP17: 7 (no channels defined)
TP20: 7 (TMP B,C,G,J,K,L,O)
TP21: 7 (TMP P,Q,R,S,T,14,15) (14 = WGNHD, 15 = SHO-W)
TP24: 7 (TMP A,D,F,H,I,M,N)

Total of 30 possible channels.

After that, they are out of room. All other TPs are filled with content. 129 has enough room to mirror all of that, so dont worry about being left out on the western side!

I am assuming once they play satellite shuffle and move E6 to an eastern arc location, they will mirror all the SD/mpeg2 HD stuff from 110/119 onto E6, and eastern arc will be "born". They'd still be in a bind for new HD, unless they can get 4,6,26,28 active on 61.5... because:

They will have 3 groups of customers
1. Existing Eastern US customers that dont have an EA dish. They will be pissed if new HD is added that they cant get. (for example, added to 129 and E6 at 72).

2. New Eastern US customers that have an EA dish. No forseen problems with this group.

3. Western US customers. No problems here either, except for a wobbly satellite at 129. Won't even need a dish upgrade.

 

[mike123abc]

Summary of capacity at 61.5:

Unusable transponders (until they replace E3, or move another bird to 61.5 that can cover those frequencies):
4,6,26,28

# of Available HD channels per TP (Some TPs have TMP channels already defined):
TP16: 2 (TMP 13,16) (13 = SHOTO, 16 = TMC-E)
TP17: 7 (no channels defined)
TP20: 7 (TMP B,C,G,J,K,L,O)
TP21: 7 (TMP P,Q,R,S,T,14,15) (14 = WGNHD, 15 = SHO-W)
TP24: 7 (TMP A,D,F,H,I,M,N)

Total of 30 possible channels.

I think they will be tempted to use TP 17 for spot beams, it can be reused 13 times, that is a lot of coverage, one of the most reusable TPs on E12. They could move some internationals off, but they seem to be not doing much to move internationals.

 

[kstuart]

They'd still be in a bind for new HD, unless they can get 4,6,26,28 active on 61.5... because:

They will have 3 groups of customers
1. Existing Eastern US customers that dont have an EA dish. They will be pissed if new HD is added that they cant get. (for example, added to 129 and E6 at 72).

2. New Eastern US customers that have an EA dish. No forseen problems with this group.

3. Western US customers. No problems here either, except for a wobbly satellite at 129. Won't even need a dish upgrade.

You're forgetting (as everyone does):

- 8 channels of National HD space at 110, when the MPEG2-HD channels are converted to MPEG4-HD (the process has already started).

- Further National HD space at 110, when E*11 reaches there (I have yet to see a calculation of the exact space added by the greater bandwidth due to higher power which means lower FEC requirements).

All of those channels will be mirrored at 72.5 for Eastern Arc customers, the other two types will have 110.

 

[Chris_R]

What planet have you been on for the past two weeks ?

Dish removed 15 HD channels from the system, these channels use the vacated space, plus 5 HD channels space that became available when E* decided to use 72.5 instead of 61.5 for mirroring 110/119 content.

Hey I'm just reading the uplink reports as I'm able, so I'm sorry if I've read something incorrectly. I'm out of the loop on this 72.5 deal that I'm actually just hearing about, as I live on the west coast & use 129. I'm aware the 15 Voom channels were taken off...but...if I'm reading the charts correctly that are being posted, there are 7 "TEMP" HD channels per transponder on both 61.5 and 129, and even right now, at least one transponder with 7 national HD channels from the group that went up last week. Just seems to me they're spreading the bandwidth pretty thin.

 

[kstuart]

They've been using 7 HD channels in MPEG4 per transponder for many months now.

 

[memo90061]

yay more channels uplinked and on my birthday! lol.. im happy with the channels that were added but ill be even more happy when new ones get added. i just wish the local spanish channels were in HD. i cant wait to watch soap operas in HD. lol

 

[mdwatt]

Adding premiums in HD will attract customers who spend a lot each month on TV. There's a term that defines the value of the average subscriber and DISH really needs that figure to go up a little. Catching some cable HD subs as well as some DirecTV HD subs will help that.

My estimate:

SPIKE HD
LIFETIME HD
FX HD
SPEED HD

PREMIUMS HD

Once we get these, I'm switching to the HD only pack.

 

[Rey]

throw comedy central in there and i go to

 

[AriesGodofWar]

throw comedy central in there and i go to

I like Comedy Central, but for the $30+ cost savings, I can live without it, for a while anyway.

 

[jerryez]

What does Comedy Central have that would be in HD immediately.

 

[costanzas_wallet]

just curious.. even though they have a lot of HD channels up, and more to add with little room to grow, does it matter that a large large large majority of content on said HD channels are in SD?

It doesn't seem to me that it would take up as nearly as much bandwidth than it would if they were 24/7 HD. Does this come into play at all?

 

[digiblur]

No. Its still HD resolution they have to send up.

 

[psychicmind]

Considering that old news report that the problem with dish financially is that dish was basically "slumming" it and going after the low-rent type of customers, it is possible that Charlie wants to snag back some customers who really want Premium movie channels in HD. A big HD Premiums offering would help to snag up some $100+/month type of customers. Those same customers would definitely want the HD-DVRs like the 722 or even some of these new receivers they debuted at Team Summit.

I'm one of those customers...

As one of the biggest voomers complaining, that would shut me up instantly.

I already pay for all premiums, so if 15 HD versions are added, that would at least make-up for the now missing 15 24/7 HD Voom channels. TMC HD would be very nice as they do cater to horror fans.

I would also buy a new receiver once the new birds are in the air and DISH no longer need to "make room".

 

[M Sparks]

Actually these are available as of right now as actual channels...
ALL THE HBO AND CINEMAX FEEDS ARE IN HD NOW, BOTH EAST AND WEST...AND TRUST ME DISH DOESNT EVEN CARRY ALL THE HBO/MAX FEEDS IN SD.

Cinemax only has half of their channels up in HD, other coming soon.

STARZ HAS A FEW IN HD,

They have 4 and DirecTV carries all 4.

A&E CRIMES AND INVESTIGATION NETWORK HD

Pretty sure this is not on the air yet. 4th quarter, I think.

 

[M Sparks]

"Lifetime Networks has launched its second HDTV service, Lifetime Television HD, joining sister channel Lifetime Movie Network HD, which bowed last year, officials said Wednesday." Source.

Thanks...first I've heard of this. Not that I would actually watch it, but I try to keep up on what's available.

 

[M Sparks]

# of Available HD channels per TP (Some TPs have TMP channels already defined):
TP16: 2 (TMP 13,16) (13 = SHOTO, 16 = TMC-E)
TP17: 7 (no channels defined)
TP20: 7 (TMP B,C,G,J,K,L,O)
TP21: 7 (TMP P,Q,R,S,T,14,15) (14 = WGNHD, 15 = SHO-W)
TP24: 7 (TMP A,D,F,H,I,M,N)

Total of 30 possible channels.

After that, they are out of room. All other TPs are filled with content. 129 has enough room to mirror all of that, so dont worry about being left out on the western side!

You forgot TMP E, on TP 19.

Also, isn't Mojo sill uplinked? It was TMP 5 or TMP 6 or something like that.

So does that make 32?

 

[Rey]

What does Comedy Central have that would be in HD immediately.

if you go to their website you'll see they have hd clips of john stewart and steven colbert shows. also the south park episodes too.

 

[kstuart]

No. Its still HD resolution they have to send up.

Resolution is only one of the components that makes a digital video "HD".

For some reason, people have fixated on resolution - perhaps because people are used to resolution in terms of their digital still cameras.

A video that consisted of a 1920x1080 image that never changes (in other words, a still picture) uses a tiny fraction of the bandwidth needed for an 480p SD video channel.

So, a 4x3 SD upconverted video uses 75% of the bitrate needed for a full 16x9 HD video - because 25% of the image never changes. that's the case whether it is black bars or gray bars with the words "ESPN HD".

Ironically, 4x3 SD upconverted video only uses 75% of the bandwidth needed for stretch-o-vision - another reason why Dish Network should put some pressure on channels that use it.

Bitrate is the most important factor in digital television.

If you took the Super Bowl broadcast and broadcast it in two streams:

1920x1080 at 2mbps bitrate

1280x1080 at 20mbps bitrate

I guarantee you that the second one (lower resolution and higher bitrate) would have noticeably better PQ.

 

[costanzas_wallet]

how much bandwidth can dish handle??? 20 is real high in internet terms, but ive never thought to looking into what cable/dish providers use for video. Can dish support that kind of bandwidth?

 

[mike123abc]

how much bandwidth can dish handle??? 20 is real high in internet terms, but ive never thought to looking into what cable/dish providers use for video. Can dish support that kind of bandwidth?

The current 8PSK HD TP that dish uses can do over 40mbit/sec. Of course they do not just put one program on that, but they could if they wanted to do so. They have been putting 6-7 programs on one TP lately. They multiplex so different programs can borrow each others bits when they are showing a low bit rate scene.