National Network HD feeds (Urgent Update):

[LonghornXP]

I've just got word that once your local market has HD LIL channels available customers will no longer get a national HD network feed even if your local station is O&O. No matter what hardware you have as long as HD locals are available in your market even if you don't want them you will no longer get a national network feed in SD or HD for that matter.

I know I've said otherwise but I'm assuming that someone at D* has been reading what I've said and I got a call from someone I can't name at D* telling me to tell everyone this information.

Sorry to break this bad news but this isn't a D* choice because once local channels are in your market the local station owners won't allow D* to offer those customers anything but their SD and HD local channels.

You must understand that this isn't a DirecTV choice and if you want this changed you must fight with your local station owners. Also even if one of your local stations is an O&O station you still won't get the national HD feed from that network because this O&O deal was only setup until they offer HD LIL channels. This was never planned to be a perminent offering.

 

[Neutron]

That's crappy. I know my wife will be pissed because our local ABC here is a day behind in her soaps. She's always watching the NY feed.

 

[rkr0923]

maybe the new sat launch will fail or be delayed or not work once it's up or even better...go astray and blow up!

 

[Gen Custer]

So does that mean that if you don't want to give up your HDTivo until the HD DVR with MPEG4 is out you will lose all HD network feeds until the new DVR ships next year. This is ridiculous if you have to choose between network feeds and a DVR!

 

[Brewer4]

maybe the new sat launch will fail or be delayed or not work once it's up or even better...go astray and blow up!

There's a viable solution!

 

[CPanther95]

That's asinine. HD-LILs are no more available to D* MPEG2 households than they are available to E* customers. In fact, the local HD channels are already available to D* customers via cable, with less hardware necessary than those from D*.

If it is truly pressure coming from outside of D*, they should recognize that D* is proceeding exactly as promised and will be making a good-faith effort to convert all existing HD customers in a timely manner. To force their hand is logistical and customer relations PITA - all to accelerate the process by a few months? Stupid.

 

[minorthr]

Well thats just fing great. What the hell are you supposed to do to record HD then on nbc, cbs etc... I was planing on holding off on the HD locals till the HD DVR came out. Now I'm really Glad I just shelled out $200 on the HD Tivo and decided to stay with D* over comcast

 

[Juan]

You guys have seemed to have forgotten that Rupert Is a card carrying member of the NAB!!!

 

[LonghornXP]

So does that mean that if you don't want to give up your HDTivo until the HD DVR with MPEG4 is out you will lose all HD network feeds until the new DVR ships next year. This is ridiculous if you have to choose between network feeds and a DVR!

Once a market gets HD local channels you can still get the network feeds for the next year or so but after that its done. Their computer system can't tell apart one customer from another so they have to turn everyone off or on within certain zipcodes but once everyone has been upgraded and/or has at least 90 days notification of changes to their service and what they can do that would be it.

So at some point you will not get it anymore but you won't lose it while your deciding if you want to upgrade your HD Tivo. Now this pretty much means that after the last 90 notice has been sent out for that DMA if you still keep your HD Tivo you will lose the network feed. Again no company will be able to offer this to you in the future as this isn't a company choice from your provider but a choice made by the local station owners that all providers must follow.

 

[LonghornXP]

That's asinine. HD-LILs are no more available to D* MPEG2 households than they are available to E* customers. In fact, the local HD channels are already available to D* customers via cable, with less hardware necessary than those from D*.

If it is truly pressure coming from outside of D*, they should recognize that D* is proceeding exactly as promised and will be making a good-faith effort to convert all existing HD customers in a timely manner. To force their hand is logistical and customer relations PITA - all to accelerate the process by a few months? Stupid.

Please read my post above this one. Also D* isn't rushing this like you seem to think and they know this hurts some people. Also keep in mind that say if your in a market that has say an ABC local station that doesn't broadcast D* will have the right to provide another local ABC HD station as part of your local channel service. In most cases this nearby market would also show the same local sporting events in HDTV if available that your actual local station would show.

 

[CPanther95]

Once a market gets HD local channels you can still get the network feeds for the next year or so but after that its done. Their computer system can't tell apart one customer from another so they have to turn everyone off or on within certain zipcodes but once everyone has been upgraded and/or has at least 90 days notification of changes to their service and what they can do that would be it.

So at some point you will not get it anymore but you won't lose it while your deciding if you want to upgrade your HD Tivo. Now this pretty much means that after the last 90 notice has been sent out for that DMA if you still keep your HD Tivo you will lose the network feed. Again no company will be able to offer this to you in the future as this isn't a company choice from your provider but a choice made by the local station owners that all providers must follow.

That doesn't sound as bad. As long as it is "at some point" in the future past the point that they have their MPEG4 HD-DVR available, subs will at least have a viable means to continue (at least functionally) the same service.

I read the original post as it being a more immediate occurance after a market's LILs are added.

 

[LonghornXP]

Well thats just fing great. What the hell are you supposed to do to record HD then on nbc, cbs etc... I was planing on holding off on the HD locals till the HD DVR came out. Now I'm really Glad I just shelled out $200 on the HD Tivo and decided to stay with D* over comcast

Again your network feeds won't be turned off until every customer in your DMA has a chance to upgrade their boxes. As long as one customer still doesn't have a chance to upgrade and/or that last customer still has his/her 90 days you won't lose your network feeds. But yes you at some point will be indirectly forced to take that free upgrade to continue to receive HD local channels from your local market instead of the network feeds.

Again people can continue to blame DirecTV for these problems but doing so does no good because it isn't their choice. If you don't think what I said above is fair you should contact the FCC, your local government and/or your local network owners.

Again if you have your local O&O Fox station for example like I do in Tampa available OTA and on satellite in both SD and HD what is the reason to keep the network feed. Even today you can no longer get the LA feed if your on the east coast nor can you get the out of market sporting events without them being blacked out on the NY Fox feed. I don't mean to sound like I don't care but I see this issue involving very very few people in the long run while in the short run you won't lose anything without having plenty of time to decide your options.

 

[LonghornXP]

You guys have seemed to have forgotten that Rupert Is a card carrying member of the NAB!!!

Which is exactly why his company DirecTV will follow the book on this for one simple reason.

1. Dish and other companies would cry foul and yell antitrust which means that all providers including cable and dish network would be allowed to carry network feeds. Could you imagine how much crap Rupert would cause himself and his "friends" if a cable company could just demand that say the local ABC station pay them for the HD feed or they would just offer their customers a network feed.

You again must understand that this isn't as simple as you all think it is and just because Rupert has some control with the NAB doesn't mean its his doing. If Rupert could he would give D* more local channel power for his company instead of cable companies but he can't. I think by Rupert adding HD locals on his company DirecTV via satellite is actually good. Could you imagine how much worse it could be right now because I can. You will be better off with options for local HD channels in the future with only a very very few people losing something like a soap show a few hours later or earlier.

 

[LonghornXP]

That doesn't sound as bad. As long as it is "at some point" in the future past the point that they have their MPEG4 HD-DVR available, subs will at least have a viable means to continue (at least functionally) the same service.

I read the original post as it being a more immediate occurance after a market's LILs are added.

That was why I set things right because it did sound like that. No customers will lose the network feeds until they can have 90 days to accept a replacement box similiar to what they currently have. This means that as long as one customer within that DMA can't get an HD DVR replacement for their HD Tivo no customer within that DMA will lose a network feed.

Edit...I swear I always have to remember to be very very specific and almost try and guess what questions will be asked. I should have known better to leave my computer for four hours with that post knowing full well that all heck would break loose when I got back.

 

[CPanther95]

If they enhance their National HD channels via MPEG4 (and assuming there are no MPEG4 hardware issues) most of us will be clamoring to upgrade before D* gets to the point that they are "forcing" us to upgrade - even the DNS'ers. For us OTA'ers, we'll still be able to holdout until the point that the additional programming offsets the loss of the Tivo interface (or at least until NFL ST next year).

 

[rstokas]

so SD DNS is gone too?

 

[LonghornXP]

If they enhance their National HD channels via MPEG4 (and assuming there are no MPEG4 hardware issues) most of us will be clamoring to upgrade before D* gets to the point that they are "forcing" us to upgrade - even the DNS'ers. For us OTA'ers, we'll still be able to holdout until the point that the additional programming offsets the loss of the Tivo interface (or at least until NFL ST next year).

Hey if your in one of the later DMA markets you can still upgrade to MPEG4 for NFL Sunday Ticket without losing your national network feeds. This issue only apples when your DMA gets upgraded with HD local channels. From what I hear many customers in the bottom 150 DMA markets will be given the choice to take the nearest market that has got HD locals via satellite until their area gets upgraded but that would be your choice. That would also get you a free hardware upgrade as well but that won't start to occur until at least close to the end of next year around September timeframe.

 

[LonghornXP]

so SD DNS is gone too?

SD DNS will be gone once they start offering a nearby markets SD channels in those markets that currently don't have SD local channels. I'm also hearing that SD local channels won't be added in anymore markets because HD locals will be the only locals offered after 2009. Between that time customers can get a nearby SD market like I said.

 

[Ramy]

Please read my post above this one. Also D* isn't rushing this like you seem to think and they know this hurts some people. Also keep in mind that say if your in a market that has say an ABC local station that doesn't broadcast D* will have the right to provide another local ABC HD station as part of your local channel service. In most cases this nearby market would also show the same local sporting events in HDTV if available that your actual local station would show.

I am glad to hear about that if a major network station doesn't offer HD that we can keep the national channel. CBS(WOWK) has digital but no HD and the station has told everyone they don't plan to offer it unless it is mandatory by law. DMA#62

 

[LonghornXP]

I am glad to hear about that if a major network station doesn't offer HD that we can keep the national channel. CBS(WOWK) has digital but no HD and the station has told everyone they don't plan to offer it unless it is mandatory by law. DMA#62

I didn't say you would get a national feed. What I said was that if your market has HD local channels available via satellite that if one of your local channels doesn't do HDTV DirecTV wouldn't carry it. They would instead provide a nearby local markets HD feed of that network.

So for example lets say if an Orlando CBS station didn't broadcast in HDTV. So if Orlando got HD local channels via satellite available to them those customers might get the HD version of Tampa's CBS station instead of the Orlando CBS HD feed. Now my example above is just that an example because both markets have HDTV. I hope this gives you a better idea of what you would get.