Let down of DirecTV - front page sat guys

[skottey]

A few times a day I refresh the main page of Satelliteguys.us in hopes of seeing some new HD announced. Sure, once in a while there is the announcement of locals being added for the poor folks in those markets that went without locals in HD over D* for so long, but what about new HD nationals?

The newest sat is up and they added a handful of mediocre stuff in August.

I am longing for the day that Scott has a posting on the front page that says Direc TV adding 20+ REAL HD channels October 1st or something along those lines.

I am longing for the day I read about all the existing HBO/MAX carried channels getting carried in HD and maybe, just maybe, seeing that HBO Zone and HBO Comedy will be joining the lineup, in HD. Even better would be a few more of the Max channels put up in HD. It is well known that all 26 HBO/MAX channels are offered by HBO in HD. I believe Verizon will be, or is in some parts, the first to carry them all in HD (see OCT 2nd FIOS Tampa Market getting all of them). I am longing to see the addition of the Travel Channel and Fox News in HD on DirecTV. Before election night I hope? If not, maybe we will get lucky and Fox Biz HD will simulcast Fox News HD for ONE NIGHT for the election coverage.

I love DirecTV and have only had it for four or five months or so. It blows away BHN cable and is better than what I had with Dish Network. FIOS is coming to my neighborhood soon. I guess I am stuck in a contract with DirecTV so I will have to finish that out. What, is it two years? I don't even know. My love could turn to hate if they suddenly stop adding channels and other providers pull ahead. I am a football fan but dont need Sunday ticket since team is my local team and I don't carry about the rest. Same with hockey (but other carriers have Center Ice anyway)

How does the contract work anyway? How much does it cost to break it if I get fed up next year for example?

 

[jokeworm]

How does the contract work anyway? How much does it cost to break it if I get fed up next year for example?

$20 per month for the number of months that are left on your two year contract .. i think ....

The new national HD is coming ...

Directv are saying that contracts need to be signed before they can go live ... and those posters "in the know" are indicating another few weeks yet before we see anything new ... (November?)

My own guess is that they are already scheduling new installs quite some time out right now because of the new football season .. they probably want to concentrate all advertising dollars on the new football season right now - then when the frenzy dies down a little and sales begin to slack off .. they can push another boatload of new HD out there and begin the next campaign blitz ...

Makes lots of sense from a marketing point of view .. if you run too many campaigns at the same time - it only confuses the customer ...

 

[uncrules]

Well, be prepared to being kept let down for a while longer. More than one source has indicated that it will still be a few weeks before we get new channels. And I agree that the launch of D11 has been a bust so far. We waited and tracked D11 for many months and all we've gotten is the conversion of MPEG2 to MPEG4 (which is the best part of the D11 launch so far) 4 more regular channels, and a bunch of converted to full time RSNs and more HD PPVs than you can shake a stick at. Lame.

 

[uncrules]

Makes lots of sense from a marketing point of view .. if you run too many campaigns at the same time - it only confuses the customer ...

Or you end up with angry customers who are waiting for more of the channels that they want.

 

[skottey]

Well, be prepared to being kept let down for a while longer. More than one source has indicated that it will still be a few weeks before we get new channels. And I agree that the launch of D11 has been a bust so far. We waited and tracked D11 for many months and all we've gotten is the conversion of MPEG2 to MPEG4 (which is the best part of the D11 launch so far) 4 more regular channels, and a bunch of converted to full time RSNs and more HD PPVs than you can shake a stick at. Lame.

Well, I can wait a few weeks. I just want to know when. Give us a date. That is what I hate most about BHN cable. They know nothing when you call them and they give only a few days notice of new stuff. It just pops up with nothing to look forward to.

Some will tell me they don't want to make announcements about new stuff until the ink is dry on the contracts. Fine, I understand that, but the fact is they had made an announcement in June of 2007 that they would be adding 12 or so HBO/MAX HDs in the fall when the new sat went live. Well, they didn't add those new channels and the excuse I hear on here is that they filled the sat to capacity. Fine, but what is the reason now? We all know they have the capacity. Instead they added all those PPVs. Seriously, FIOS is adding all the HBO and Cinemax HD channels. Why cant D* just give us a few even. A few at a time would be cool. How about HBO2 E/W HD this month? Next month give us MorMax HD E/W. Maybe in December they could give us HBO Signature HD... but nothing? Why nothing? We know they came to a carriage agreement with TW for the HBO/MAX channels because they announced it in June of '07. What is the hold up? This isn't what I signed on for when I selected DirecTV.

They had that big push last year for months talking about what was coming. Eventually they came through with most of it. That was a success. Why not do that again?

And I don't want to hear one moron say there aren't any more HD nationals to add. There are TONS that we don't get.

 

[j.stouder]

I know it may not seem like much to some of the folks on this thread, but I am very grateful for the D11 launch as I will soon be getting HD lil as are many other DMA's. Many of my friends won't switch to DTV because they haven't offered HD lil yet (while Dish, FIOS, and cable do). ST looks noticibly better in MPEG-4 and overall, I am very happy with the service I get. Just thought I would throw my two cents in.....

 

[richiephx]

Yeah, I really can't wait for D* to add more placeholder channels like MTVHD, VH1HD, NIKHD (to name a few) that doesn't show any HD programming. (oops, I stand corrected...MTVHD had the VMAs in HD, once). I can wait.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

All the excitment (and air) has been sucked out of the Satellite Industry over the past few weeks.

To me it is depressing. And whats sad is all the people I am talking to on the inside have no idea of whats going on. It seems like BOTH ships are running and there is no one steering the ships.

I want some excitement and was exited for a long long time, but something changed over the past few weeks, and now like many of you I am no longer feeling the "joy".

Come on DirecTV and Dish... wake up already!

 

[skottey]

Yeah, I really can't wait for D* to add more placeholder channels like MTVHD, VH1HD, NIKHD (to name a few) that doesn't show any HD programming. (oops, I stand corrected...MTVHD had the VMAs in HD, once). I can wait.

There is tons of HD on the HBO and Max channels. Travel Channel HD has HD too. They aren't all as sad as MTV and VH1's HD channels.

 

[uncrules]

All the excitment (and air) has been sucked out of the Satellite Industry over the past few weeks.

To me it is depressing. And whats sad is all the people I am talking to on the inside have no idea of whats going on. It seems like BOTH ships are running and there is no one steering the ships.

I want some excitement and was exited for a long long time, but something changed over the past few weeks, and now like many of you I am no longer feeling the "joy".

Come on DirecTV and Dish... wake up already!

If both sides have gone quiet at the same time, could it be that they are seriously talking about trying to merge again? I know when we they tried to merge last time, D* basically went into shut down mode and stopped working on various projects.

If not that then maybe the rumor I saw that said that the recent Liberty Media and D* moves coming from Malone were the first step in a sell to AT&T.

If you are about to be sold or merge with somebody else, the current projects you are working on are held up until the future management is decided. You certainly don't want to do stuff that new management may squash.

Then again, maybe people's fear about how Malone would run D* have come true.

 

[VMI90]

While all the new national HD channels have been nice, it's the HD locals for the Richmond, VA area that will have made the wait worth it. I'm hoping to wake up tomorrow (Thursday at the latest) to see them! If that happens, then the launch of D11 will have been a success in my book.

 

[MattJ2124]

Agreed, if I wake up to Youngstown locals in hd tomorrow (as I am supposed to) D11 will definitely have been worth it to me...

 

[rad]

While all the new national HD channels have been nice, it's the HD locals for the Richmond, VA area that will have made the wait worth it. I'm hoping to wake up tomorrow (Thursday at the latest) to see them! If that happens, then the launch of D11 will have been a success in my book.

So mirroring the old MPEG2 HD channels in MPEG4 on D11 for everyone didn't make is a success, just that you get your locals?

 

[HD#1]

Well as most of you I wont be holding my breathe for new channels. But all in all I am satisfied with what D11 has done so far, converting MPEG 2 to MPEG 4 was the hot topic after the big launch last year, we were complaining about the difference in the picture quality,now that D* has changed this we now want more channels. I am just going to wait and see but overall I am satisfied so far

 

[darrencp22]

I was very patient. I am now disappointed. I really dont want much. I'm mostly dying for Fox News. I cant think of anything else I would really watch aside from the Outdoor Channel.

 

[jappleboy]

It is coming

I bet you will see a big roll out of HD channel by Directv in NOV, or DEC, I can not see them letting Dish end the year on a upside not after the big push last year.Now what do we all talk about when Directv rolls out the last of the true HD channels

 

[jokeworm]

I was very patient. I am now disappointed. I really dont want much. I'm mostly dying for Fox News. I cant think of anything else I would really watch aside from the Outdoor Channel.

I'd like travel channel ... and my local cable company have "comedy central HD" listed as .. coming soon .... other than that .... I'm not sure what else they could add right now that i would watch.

HD Channels - Cox HD Service - Oklahoma - Cox Communications

I'd still rather be with Directv than Dish by a long long way ... it'd take a fairly major announcement to get me back on Dish's side ... everything just seems more relaxed and organized over here on this side of the fence .... though the grass over there looks like its going to get a little greener before the end of the year

 

[DJ Matt]

I'm really satisfied. I just switched from cable back in early August. My cable company was offering less than 20 national HD channels and it was very disappointing. I would like to see Travel Channel HD pop up though. I am surprised we haven't heard anything about new HD additions. I thought for sure at the end of September we would be getting more HD channels, but no announcements have been made so far. While I was with cable it seemed like once a month DirecTV was either adding more HD or announcing more HD and now that I am with them things have kind of gone off the grid a bit so to speak, but I don't have a problem right now with waiting. For those of you who have been with DirecTV, its understandable to why some of you may be upset.

 

[cebbigh]

Fios TV just became available to my city last week, I have to say it is very tempting. I have about 12 months left on my contract.

 

[skottey]

I bet you will see a big roll out of HD channel by Directv in NOV, or DEC, I can not see them letting Dish end the year on a upside not after the big push last year.Now what do we all talk about when Directv rolls out the last of the true HD channels

I think it is almost safe to say that if DirecTV doesn't add Fox News HD by election day, it is probably going to be a long time before they add it. If they were serious about adding it, they would be hurrying to get it up prior to such a big news event.