Has Dish given up on adding any more local HD? I am in the Milwaukee market which was listed to get local HD programing. It didn't happen last year and I haven't seen any more cities added this year. Anyone know what gives?
Has Dish given up on local HD?
- Thread starter Russell Jorgensen
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The last three cities were added in December and January, and the last few have been on 118.7, which requires a Dish Plus dish/LNB combination. I don't know if there's a problem with the satellite, the special dishes, the LNBs, or something else.Has Dish given up on adding any more local HD? I am in the Milwaukee market which was listed to get local HD programing. It didn't happen last year and I haven't seen any more cities added this year. Anyone know what gives?
They are leaving the door wide open for local cable TV companies. Getting the networks in HD is very important to the "family", and the "family" will have more clout than a family member who want to stay with satellite.
Dish does not have satellite capacity to add much more LiL HD. While it is possible they could add more markets at this time the satellites look pretty full.
In the future it is possible they could start using their new MPEG-4 encoders they are testing on a few national channels on the LiL and put 6 channels/TP instead of the 4/TP they do now for LiL HD. Then they could add 50% more markets.
Or they could make arrangements for another satellite to be used, like they did with 118.7. The big spot beam satellite they were going to launch this year seems to be delayed until 2008.
In the future it is possible they could start using their new MPEG-4 encoders they are testing on a few national channels on the LiL and put 6 channels/TP instead of the 4/TP they do now for LiL HD. Then they could add 50% more markets.
Or they could make arrangements for another satellite to be used, like they did with 118.7. The big spot beam satellite they were going to launch this year seems to be delayed until 2008.
I truly can't believe that this is only a capacity issue - the reason is that they did fully expect to launch many more markets (sat capacity hasn't changed since they stated their plans) - the speculation for the delay that DirecTV had late last year is that they needed to replace some encoders.
Any ideas why DISH is behind its target?
Any ideas why DISH is behind its target?
Go look at the transponder charts - it is a capacity issue.
They are stuck until they get a spot beam sat to 129.
I said a year ago that Direct would fly past Dish in terms of HD LIL. The new Direct sats are in a completely different class then what E* has (100's of spot beams). But, they are starving for national coverage. And, have you seen that HUGE dish?
Try for over-the-air. It's really the best way to get Hi-Def locals.
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Ok, what's crazy to me is the whole thing about locals in HD. All I want is ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX, CW in HD. I could care less about wether my local weather is in HD right now or the news which they would take years to be able to afford the stuff to do that in such a small market.
Congress and the FCC should allow us to receive a National CBS, NBC, CW, FOX, ETC in HD and having to provide all of these local markets markets in HD which broadcast the same thing would be useless. I guess some of the bigger cities may broadcast local sports which would be good in HD, but not sure that is even happening. I get CBS, NBC, ABC in HD via OTA. I had to do a move to get FOX in HD. The best HD is OTA but having HD via satellite and comparing, it hard to tell the difference.
Congress and the FCC should allow us to receive a National CBS, NBC, CW, FOX, ETC in HD and having to provide all of these local markets markets in HD which broadcast the same thing would be useless. I guess some of the bigger cities may broadcast local sports which would be good in HD, but not sure that is even happening. I get CBS, NBC, ABC in HD via OTA. I had to do a move to get FOX in HD. The best HD is OTA but having HD via satellite and comparing, it hard to tell the difference.
Ok - so its truly a capacity issue. My question though is what changed from when they said they planned to launch 50 or more markets in late 2005 to now? Was that announcement ever intended to come to fruition?
The way to truely do it would be to use hundreds of feeder SD feeds for the local news, and commercials and cut to the national HD feeds for Prime time, or to the local HD feed for Sports!
If they just gave everyone HD receivers (no matter if they had HD or not) and took off all the SD locals we would have a ton of room for HD locals.
I'm sure more wives, HOA busybodies, etc, prefer that "HUGE" (since when is 22.5" by 32.5" huge?) D* dish to the dish farms required in some placed to get E* HD.
Look at all of the different configurations required by E*:
Dish 1000
Dish 1000.2
Dish 1000+
Dish 500 & Dish 300 @ 61.5
Dish 500+ & Dish 300 @ 61.5
BTW at 23.8" x 30.9" the Dish 500+/1000+ dishes are just as "HUGE" as the D* 5LNB dish.
But not enough room for all the locals. Swapping SD for HD for all channels will still require 4X the capacity being used now.If they just gave everyone HD receivers (no matter if they had HD or not) and took off all the SD locals we would have a ton of room for HD locals.
Here in the West Palm Beach area we do not have the Local HD Channels on DN as of yet. For a long time I did not get a straight answer from the Costumer Services Rep until recently. The fate of Our locals are up in the air with no date insight.
I guess is my bad by not sticking with DTV. Our HD locals are up and running with DTV for quite some time now.
I guess is my bad by not sticking with DTV. Our HD locals are up and running with DTV for quite some time now.
Don't worry ScoBuck. NYC locals are up. You can come over from D* now if you want.
Not sure if your wisea$$ answer is called for. You have a problem with someone asking a serious question?
How about a serious answer.
I just wish they would say if they were looking at adding them in the next 3 or 4 months or not. I live in Indianapolis, I can't imagine it's going to be that much longer. So, I don't want to spend the money on antenna if it turns out they will be available in 4 month or whatever. URRRGH! ANGER!
that's 2 avoidances - any reason why?
and why would I give up getting YES-HD, SNY-HD, MLB EI HD, NFL-HD?
back to a serious answer if you have one.
My sister-in-law, until last week, was a sales rep for one of the Indy network affiliates. She said that negotiations with E* broke down over a year ago and there is no end in sight at this time. OTOH, you are always going to get better HD OTA. Here it is not a matter of space, it's dollars.
