National HD Channel Roll-Out Plans

[ScoBuck]

The claim was originally for the capacity of more than 150 national HD channels and three times more capacity than any competitor back when they expected to have both D10 and D11 up by now.

The current claim of "up to" 100 national HD channels is not about capacity (and flagrantly ignores it); they are about D* style national HD "channels".

Capacity when D10 comes on line should be half of the projected capacity. If the total capacity is "more than 150", the D10 capacity alone is obviously "more than 75".

How they use their capacity is probably immaterial.

What they call a "channel" versus the conventional meaning of the word is absolutely debatable.


For the benefit of those who would reply, I have thoughtfully broken out each idea in its own paragraph for ease in quoting.

I can sum up ALL of your continued REPEATED arguments as 'yada, yada, yada'.

DirecTV contracted with a company to build the birds, the birds have the stated capacity, they contracted with launch companies to send them to the sky - they built brand new uplink facilitles. They spoke with the content providers to advise them of the expected launch calendars for same. They financed the entire project.

The build and launch dates in their press releases are what the vendors gave them - and yes there were some delays, but you are continually blaming DirecTV for them, and that is 100% off-base.

Do you ever get tired of being NEGATIVE?

I challenge you to list 5 things that you honestly believe DirecTV has done right. C;mon stretch that cranium of yours.

 

[Brewer4]

The claim was originally for the capacity of more than 150 national HD channels and three times more capacity than any competitor back when they expected to have both D10 and D11 up by now.

The current claim of "up to" 100 national HD channels is not about capacity (and flagrantly ignores it); they are about D* style national HD "channels".

Capacity when D10 comes on line should be half of the projected capacity. If the total capacity is "more than 150", the D10 capacity alone is obviously "more than 75".

How they use their capacity is probably immaterial.

What they call a "channel" versus the conventional meaning of the word is absolutely debatable.


For the benefit of those who would reply, I have thoughtfully broken out each idea in its own paragraph for ease in quoting.

Didnt someone else's satellite blow up on the launch pad that caused a delay in everyone's plans this year? Given that, they are only a few months behind if at all. I think the Fall of 2007 has been long their goal. I think they wanted a bit more time before September but not all channel providers are ready either. I dont even know what you are arguing.

 

[rad]

Didnt someone else's satellite blow up on the launch pad that caused a delay in everyone's plans this year? Given that, they are only a few months behind if at all. I think the Fall of 2007 has been long their goal. I think they wanted a bit more time before September but not all channel providers are ready either. I dont even know what you are arguing.

In the 9/8/04 press release, they said D10 and D11 would launch in early 2007, but never said when they would start making programming available. The next time I see a date mentioned in the PR's is at 1/8/07 where they announced a number of channels that they'll carry in HD with "the majority of these channels launching in Q3. So it look like D*'s fairly close to their plan, even with Boeing, ILS and SeaLaunch delays.

 

[uncrules]

Do you ever get tired of being NEGATIVE?

After months of telling us that D10 would take 5 months to be tested, he has to come up with something to grind on.

 

[Jimbo]

After months of telling us that D10 would take 5 months to be tested, he has to come up with something to grind on.

5 months ???
I never heard that.....
Normally (and they are all different, no to sat testing the same) we see 4-8 weeks, and part of that is the deployment team testing and the rest is the provider testing.

Jimbo

 

[robbiee19]

All I care about is sometime in Sept. new CH willl light up. I think thats a plus for D* and us!

 

[bullwinklehdtv]

I agree with Scobuck, that is one damn funny post. Of course Dopey had a couple of funny posts too, he just didn't mean to.
Oh, and I am not certain, but fact of the matter is I don't think anyone from the D* side of things goes into the E* threads and tells them how bad E* is, not even too much about the 24/7 Football which is really quite humorous. No it's pretty much limited to the E* boys coming over here to try an rain on our parade.

I do wish every once and a while I could read a D* thread and have it actually be about D*

 

[uncrules]

5 months ???
I never heard that.....
Normally (and they are all different, no to sat testing the same) we see 4-8 weeks, and part of that is the deployment team testing and the rest is the provider testing.

Jimbo

Most people didn't believe harsh but he told everybody (at least on dbstalk) who would listen that it would take D10 5 months to be tested because Spaceway 1 took that long, even though it's circumstances were unique and didn't apply to D10.

 

[Stalker]

As some may have noticed, I have an inside contact that has been giving me advance on the HD locals launch dates - I have posted them here, and they have been pretty much dead on as to market and date.

I say that as a disclaimer, because I just spoke to him and he gave me some general info as to what he has been told by corporate regarding the second week of September. He has told me that he will release more to me and much more detail as the dates near. That being said, and of course subject to the naysayers here is what he told me.

The inside expectation now is to have 70 additional HD channels on the system starting mid-September and concluding by the end of September - and more through the end of the year and into the future. He did say that there is an internal listing of what is already signed on, and those still requiring a signature on the dotted line.

On the other hand, it looks like they will not be setting any further dates for additional HD local markets until AFTER launch of DIRECTV 10.

I will post as I gather info.

Do we know if part of this roll out includes more than one PPV channel?

 

[harshness]

I can sum up ALL of your continued REPEATED arguments as 'yada, yada, yada'.

What frustrates me is that seems to be your initial response to any challenge.

Do you ever get tired of being NEGATIVE?

If offering authoritative evidence is being negative, then no.

I challenge you to list 5 things that you honestly believe DirecTV has done right.

1. Having two OTA tuners in the HR20 was a good idea. It is one feature that I wish the ViP622 had. Hopefully they don't "improve" on the idea by removing the ATSC tuners from the HR21.

2. SWM is a great idea. It isn't done yet, but it is a great idea.

3. DIRECTV bailed on satellite delivered broadband.

4. DIRECTV bailed on their DSL service.

5. DIRECTV is using spotbeams effectively to avoid problems with "movers".

All I ask is that you come up with something more creative than "yadda, yadda, yadda".

 

[Bob Nielsen]

5. DIRECTV is using spotbeams effectively to avoid problems with "movers".

Golly--and here I thought it was a way to much more effectively (re-)use the limited bandwidth.

 

[harshness]

Didnt someone else's satellite blow up on the launch pad that caused a delay in everyone's plans this year?

There were a grand total of six launches scheduled on Sea Launch for 2007.

• NSS 8
• Thuraya 3
• DirecTV 11
• EchoStar 11
• Spaceway 3
• Galaxy 19

Spaceway 3, also projected by Boeing for "early 2007", went up on an Ariane 5 rocket 12 days ago.

Given that, they are only a few months behind if at all.

At least it appears it will happen in the same calendar year. "Few" and "early" seem to be quite subjective.

I think the Fall of 2007 has been long their goal.

I've seen compelling evidence that suggests that internally, Fall was the goal, but outwardly the advertising implied otherwise.

In the grand scheme, it is doubtful that the Sea Launch difficulty had a whole lot to do with the delays. It is apparent from the manufacturing delays in DIRECTV 10 that DIRECTV 11 probably wouldn't have been ready to fly much before today.

 

[ScoBuck]

In the grand scheme, it is doubtful that the Sea Launch difficulty had a whole lot to do with the delays. It is apparent from the manufacturing delays in DIRECTV 10 that DIRECTV 11 probably wouldn't have been ready to fly much before today.

Supposing that the above statement is true (and you haven't even been close on much of what you have said about these sats).

If both had been ready to go in July (and both were ready then) - then it would have meant that DirecTV's forecast to have this done in early 2007 would have been off by a grand total of a couple of months (3 at most). And that is what you have been railing on for the past year.

Get a grip man. Me thinks most of us are awfully tired of your repeated tails of woe.

 

[harshness]

If both had been ready to go in July (and both were ready then)

Do you have any evidence of this? Back in the day, Boeing used to announce completion of satellites.

And that is what you have been railing on for the past year.

With all of your personal assurances, insults, yaddas and blahs, do you have your CONUS HD RSNs yet (as it appears that nothing else matters)?

Me thinks most of us are awfully tired of your repeated tails of woe.

No more tired than some are of your repeated claims of "everything is alright" and how everything is essentially in accordance with the grand plan of 2004 give or take a sufficiently large margin of error.

 

[FlyingJ]

Do you have any evidence of this? Back in the day, Boeing used to announce completion of satellites.With all of your personal assurances, insults, yaddas and blahs, do you have your CONUS HD RSNs yet (as it appears that nothing else matters)?No more tired than some are of your repeated claims of "everything is alright" and how everything is essentially in accordance with the grand plan of 2004 give or take a sufficiently large margin of error.

The funny thing is Harsh, that Scobuck, Brew, etc...have a vested interest in this. We follow it, hope for the best and live in a world of reality. You meanwhile are sitting on the other side, happy to be there, and with no vested interest whatsoever are trying to shoot holes in everything D*. We just don't understand why, what are you getting out of it? Your arguments are just that, for the sake of arguing. You haven't come up with a valid statement the entire time. We are only about what, three weeks away, let it be, go enjoy your service and let us enjoy this special time in the world of HD.

 

[jpn]

Thats how you have to be ,Open minded. But I do agree with the fact that a lot of D* customers were not expecting sports packages to be over 50% of D* Claimed 100 HD channels.Thats where trouble starts,To be able to get all this HD the cost will be huge. $9.99 is getting you around 23 HD channels. Not even close to 100. The rest are in packages like Starz, HBO,NFL pack RSN's, MLB pack. All this is at additional cost.This is why I think the price is not going up this year for HD. But once they start getting a bigger line up by the end of 08,You can almost bet that price is going up. I've been a customer of D* for a long time,I know what I see,And I can admit it.

That kind of logic is the difference between E* and D*.

D* provides channels first and worries about cost later; E* refuses to offer channels, claims they don't want to raise rates, and uses it as a negotiating ploy against the provider.

Consider HD LIL's. With increased retransmit costs for HD lils, there hasn't been a corresponding D* rate increase. The HD lil rollout is started late-2005. If there is a price increase, it's more likely to be a totally revamped structure (more tiers) than nickel-and-diming subs ala E*.

 

[jpn]

Do you have any evidence of this? Back in the day, Boeing used to announce completion of satellites.With all of your personal assurances, insults, yaddas and blahs, do you have your CONUS HD RSNs yet (as it appears that nothing else matters)?No more tired than some are of your repeated claims of "everything is alright" and how everything is essentially in accordance with the grand plan of 2004 give or take a sufficiently large margin of error.

Referring to the sum of recent posts, not specifically the most recent quoted above: Is this what it means when it says Senior Member beneath your avatar? That one can throw all rational thought to the winds and go around trying to stir-up trouble?

Unbelievable. And unbelievably childish.

 

[atp1313]

Referring to the sum of recent posts, not specifically the most recent quoted above: Is this what it means when it says Senior Member beneath your avatar? That one can throw all rational thought to the winds and go around trying to stir-up trouble?

Unbelievable. And unbelievably childish.

SENIOR MEMBER simply refers to the number of posts a person submitted...I think like 100-200 posts. Once you reach that threshold, you become SENIOR MEMBER, though you may always be a lurker

 

[richiephx]

Referring to the sum of recent posts, not specifically the most recent quoted above: Is this what it means when it says Senior Member beneath your avatar? That one can throw all rational thought to the winds and go around trying to stir-up trouble?

Unbelievable. And unbelievably childish.

I guess one can make the same argument for supporter, public member or staff member too. Everyone has the same right to his opinion or comment, whether you agree or disagree. People need to get over their self-righteousness. All sides are welcomed, or are they?

 

[Ramy]

I guess one can make the same argument for supporter, public member or staff member too. Everyone has the same right to his opinion or comment, whether you agree or disagree. People need to get over their self-righteousness. All sides are welcomed, or are they?

Yes all sides or opinions are welcome. Nobody should take it to heart though.