E* new HD channels?

[johnner1999]

I figured I would post it here instead of a Dish forum as I wasn't trying (too hard) to start a flame war


But how is DishNetwork adding even more HD channels - I thought they were strapped for bandwidth just like DirecTV?

I know they have to compete with us and cable companies - are they launch a new satellite? Or does the Rainbow bird have more capacity then we thought it did?


half curious and half venting - at least till September

 

[rockymtnhigh]

They are switching to MPEG4, which opens up a lot of space for them. On August 15th, all of the Voom channels will go to Mpeg4; and that same day they will add 7 new channels, with more to come in September.

And it shows a great part of capitalism: COMPETITION. When DirecTV 10 goes live, Dish will be competing with them. The more HD the better, and we all win.

 

[MikeD-C05]

There is talk by SCOTT G., that all hd will go mpeg 4 by years end on DISH ,that will open the possiblity of even more hd channels to be added on the existing service. Then by spring of next year ALL sd/hd /internationals/locals in sd/hd will be available on the new sats ,launched in December of this year, ALL in mpeg 4 . DISH is going to relaunch its' entire service in mpeg4 at the new sats : 86.5 /97 . Then they will have room for upto 200 hd national channels .

 

[rad]

There is talk by SCOTT G., that all hd will go mpeg 4 by years end on DISH ,that will open the possiblity of even more hd channels to be added on the existing service. Then by spring of next year ALL sd/hd /internationals/locals in sd/hd will be available on the new sats ,launched in December of this year, ALL in mpeg 4 . DISH is going to relaunch its' entire service in mpeg4 at the new sats : 86.5 /97 . Then they will have room for upto 200 hd national channels .

I still want to see how E*'s going to put everything that Charlie announced onto two satellites, all the existing channels, up to 200 national HD channels and 100 HD LIL cities.

 

[Jimbo]

I want to know what they are planning to do with all those out there that do not have MPEG4 receivers, there have to be lots of them still.
They made mention that all channels are going to mpeg4.

I would have to guess that that would put a ton of subs without sat service ....
What a nightmare ....

Jimbo

 

[mdwatt]

Existing customer's service will be uninterrupted. The current sat locations will continue to broadcast the same way they do now, to the same equipment they do now. However new customers will be put onto the MPEG4 bandwagon, getting MPEG4 receivers and a new dish pointed at the new sat locations. The MPEG4 service will be an exact, simultaneous mirror of what they offer today. Little by little, existing customers will be upgraded to MPEG4, and the current receiver line will be phased out over the next few years.

MPEG4 compression is a beautiful thing. With MPEG4 you can fit almost 3 times the number of channels on a single transponder as you can with MPEG2. This will create a bandwidth/channel ratio that will allow E* to fit all current programming onto two birds.

 

[Jimbo]

Existing customer's service will be uninterrupted. The current sat locations will continue to broadcast the same way they do now, to the same equipment they do now. However new customers will be put onto the MPEG4 bandwagon, getting MPEG4 receivers and a new dish pointed at the new sat locations. The MPEG4 service will be an exact, simultaneous mirror of what they offer today. Little by little, existing customers will be upgraded to MPEG4, and the current receiver line will be phased out over the next few years.

MPEG4 compression is a beautiful thing. With MPEG4 you can fit almost 3 times the number of channels on a single transponder as you can with MPEG2. This will create a bandwidth/channel ratio that will allow E* to fit all current programming onto two birds.

A quote above said :
Then by spring of next year ALL sd/hd /internationals/locals in sd/hd will be available on the new sats ,launched in December of this year, ALL in mpeg 4 .

This is why I made the post I made stating that I found it hard to believe that everything would be in mpeg4 by spring and all subs would then have to have mpeg4 rec's, I don't see a mpeg2 to mpeg4 swap in that short of time.

Jimbo

 

[JAG72]

I still want to see how E*'s going to put everything that Charlie announced onto two satellites, all the existing channels, up to 200 national HD channels and 100 HD LIL cities.

I posed the exact same question in the E* forum. Two SAT's just does not appear to enough to the untrained eye.

 

[rad]

A quote above said :
Then by spring of next year ALL sd/hd /internationals/locals in sd/hd will be available on the new sats ,launched in December of this year, ALL in mpeg 4 .

This is why I made the post I made stating that I found it hard to believe that everything would be in mpeg4 by spring and all subs would then have to have mpeg4 rec's, I don't see a mpeg2 to mpeg4 swap in that short of time.

Jimbo

Jimbo, what he's talking about is the NEW E* all MPEG4 service, it will be seperate fomr the existing E* DBS offering. So nobody would be cut off of the existing SH or international channels, it's is know that Voom channels will be going to MPEG4 on 8/15 but that's all so far, with rumor of the rest of the HD channels going te enod of the year, but that's only a rumor.

 

[VinceT3]

they won't be swapping all receivers.. starting a new service using mpeg4 only.. old customers on the mpeg2 system could convert, but don't have to.. at least yet..

 

[atp1313]

I a perfect world, if everything were switched to MPEG4 (ignoring the problems of upgrading existing customers), how many channels can either service offer in a CONUS signal? In other words, how many channels fit on one transponder, then how many transponders on each bird, and finally, how many birds does each sat co have that can reach a CONUS audience?

As it has been explained in previous posts above, the mirrored MPEG2/4 service sounds like a good plan. But once either company coverts 100% of their sat's to MPEG4, how sweet can that be for us?

 

[mdwatt]

Check out this thread: http://www.satelliteguys.us/dish-network-forum/96083-team-summit-general-assembly-notes.html It was talked about extensively here.

 

[iwc5893]

What I want to know is why it is taking E* this long to switch everything to MPEG4? Why did they wait until D* launched its new sat to suddenly come up with and implement their HD plan?

 

[rad]

Check out this thread: http://www.satelliteguys.us/dish-network-forum/96083-team-summit-general-assembly-notes.html It was talked about extensively here.

I looked at that thread again and I don't see where someone says how E* can do what Charlie said with two satellites that are launching around the end of the year. He said the MPEG4 service would have:

200 LIL Cities in Standard Definion
HD Locals to 100 Cities
200 National HD Channels
1000 Standard Definition Channels
200 International Channels.

 

[webbydude]

What I want to know is why it is taking E* this long to switch everything to MPEG4? Why did they wait until D* launched its new sat to suddenly come up with and implement their HD plan?

Don't fool yourself into thinking "suddenly come up" with their HD plan. I'm sure they had their(and probably still have other) plans on the drawing board for a long time. More than likely it was a knee-jerk reaction to D* launching their bird.

 

[iwc5893]

Don't fool yourself into thinking "suddenly come up" with their HD plan. I'm sure they had their(and probably still have other) plans on the drawing board for a long time. More than likely it was a knee-jerk reaction to D* launching their bird.

That's my point

 

[cebbigh]

As a current E cust I am very happy that D is pushing their plan so hard. E might have had plans in place for a long time but I would bet the plan has been accelerated somewhat. I think what we are seeing is true competion and it will provide us all with better choices both short and long term.

 

[MikeD-C05]

Actually DISH has said last year on the CHarlie/TEch chats that they wanted to upgrade all customers to mpeg4 receivers in 3 years. All HD will be the first to go all mpeg 4 by years end , if you believe Scott G. and his hunch about it. Then they will have 2 more years to upgrade the rest to mpeg4. I think they will take longer since they will be running both the mpeg 4 service and the mpeg 2 service at the same time.

As to the planning issues, Directv has been saying for upto 3-4 years now that they are launching the new sats for more hd - up to 150 national hd channels. Do you really think that DISH has been sitting around NOT planning ahead for this eventual reality? Charlie just hasn't been talking about the plans for the new hd expansion till last May. Is the timing of the announcement that they will be launching two new sats by December of this year a coincedence? NO. OF course they are now telling people of their hd plans so they won't defect to DIRectv for the potential hd channels they will add in September. But don't think for a second that Charlie Ergen has been sitting on his but doing nothing. He is a gambeler and a poker player. He has been showing his poker face to the public but silently planning this move. DISH has said that they will NOT be second to anyone on HD and I mean REAL hd channels, not upcoverted place markers for the real hd channels when they launch. DISH will have all the hd channels that are in real hd the same as Directv does. They won't be putting channels that upcovert to near hd ,at least till the new mpeg 4 service is relaunched by next spring. Then they will have capacity for upto 200 national hd channels.

Besides you can put upto 6 - 8 hd channels on one transponder in mpeg4 and see no picture quality issues, in fact they look better . As to the sd channels they can put anywhere from 20 - 40 sd channels on one transponder in mpeg4 , without any lack of picture quality. THey too look better in mpeg 4. My bet is that when it is all said and done that the picture quality of ALL sd/hd channels will improve once they relaunch the entire service in mpeg 4. This is why they can fit all those channels on two sats ; one in conus and the other sat with reuseable spotbeams.

 

[digiblur]

I figured I would post it here instead of a Dish forum as I wasn't trying (too hard) to start a flame war


But how is DishNetwork adding even more HD channels - I thought they were strapped for bandwidth just like DirecTV?

I know they have to compete with us and cable companies - are they launch a new satellite? Or does the Rainbow bird have more capacity then we thought it did?


half curious and half venting - at least till September

There's bandwidth available on 61.5 and 129 for additional HD today even without the VOOM MPEG4 conversion. Not to mention the entire TP 17 on 110W is available. Plus they have loads of bandwidth available on their KU birds at 105 and 121 but there isn't a lot of superdish folks out there.

They aren't as strapped for bandwidth as you think.

 

[mdonnelly]

There's bandwidth available on 61.5 and 129 for additional HD today even without the VOOM MPEG4 conversion. Not to mention the entire TP 17 on 110W is available. Plus they have loads of bandwidth available on their KU birds at 105 and 121 but there isn't a lot of superdish folks out there.

They aren't as strapped for bandwidth as you think.

E5 at 129W could go belly-up at any minute. I wouldn't load it up with a lot of HD unless I had a backup in place.