Satellite Changes Coming - May 31st, 2015

Not hardly. They are already making X dollars. Increase their STB expenses by Y dollars, and they make X-Y dollars. I'm sure they have some experts calculating when the tipping point for short term losses for long term gains is. But are they reading entrails when they do that?

Now with the Hopper series, maybe they could introduce a low ball cheapo version, maybe with only two tuners, maybe even with either no HDD or a very small storage for trick plays only, and the single TV support of today. Then it might be easier to entice a customer to add a Joey down the line. Then a full Hopper....

THEN it might be easier to retire old MPEG-2 boxes. The new hardware would be cheap enough, maybe.
If Dish came out with a two tuner or 4 tuner hopper, I would be in for that.
Three tuners just makes no sense.
Call me an "even number" kind of a guy.
 
If Dish came out with a two tuner or 4 tuner hopper, I would be in for that.
Three tuners just makes no sense.
Call me an "even number" kind of a guy.

I agree. I always thought that 4 sat tuners made more sense than 3. But then DISH wouldn't be able to sell the super joey, with two extra sat tuners for $10.00 a month. Add to that the price of the hopper at $12.00 a month and you have $22.00 for a 5 tuner setup.
 
The difference between a Joey and a Super Joey is only $3 ($7 vs $10) so they are only gaining $3 not $10 for the extra two tuners. If someone only has one room of viewing then that would be the only case where they would gain the extra $10.
 
I thought Mike reported a 30% gain in a post somewhere in this thread.
It's 50% pure bandwidth, but the point was that the effective increase after factoring in necessary counter measures to ensure all the necessary packets are received (a smooth reliable video and audio stream) it may work out to only about a 30% "real world" increase in bandwidth.
 
Or DISH will come up with a new mpeg 6 or 8 that will fit more 4k channels on one sat transponder without effecting the picture quality. Or what we will call 4k lite. Just like they did with our Hd channels & we started calling them HD lite.

Such a new codec already exists. It is H.265, which is part of the MPEG. It will allow for multiple 4K video channels per a single transponder. However, the final version for satellite or RF wont' be presented until later this year, if it hasn't already.
 
The difference between a Joey and a Super Joey is only $3 ($7 vs $10) so they are only gaining $3 not $10 for the extra two tuners. If someone only has one room of viewing then that would be the only case where they would gain the extra $10.
Except you don't gain any extra sat tuners with a joey. I was talking about a 4 or 5 tuner hopper compared to what we have now with the 3 tuner hopper + 2 tuner super joey. IF they made a 4 or 5 tuner hopper they would have a hard time charging $22.00 a month for it, like they do the hopper/super joey combo today.
 
Such a new codec already exists. It is H.265, which is part of the MPEG. It will allow for multiple 4K video channels per a single transponder. However, the final version for satellite or RF wont' be presented until later this year, if it hasn't already.
Yes, it looks like they were thinking ahead. Wonder if they will call it mpeg 8 ?
 
Except you don't gain any extra sat tuners with a joey. I was talking about a 4 or 5 tuner hopper compared to what we have now with the 3 tuner hopper + 2 tuner super joey. IF they made a 4 or 5 tuner hopper they would have a hard time charging $22.00 a month for it, like they do the hopper/super joey combo today.

And how many people with only one TV are begging for a 5 tuner receiver? I'd be willing to wager that the majority of customers have at least one extra TV. I get what you're saying but it's more likely the people that want 5 tuners also have an extra TV, or three.
 
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I live in South Florida ( Coral Springs ) and I have 2 receivers, 4700 and 322. Just got off the phone with Dish and they are replacing my 4700 with a 311. I received the post card about "older" receivers a few days ago... She also said there was no cost and no cost change to my monthly bill. They are requiring me (via prepaid label) to return my old 4700 receiver.
 
My dad called me yesterday saying he got the letter. Looking through this thread the only thing he will do is swap out a 301
  • QPSK receivers include:
    • 301, 2800, 3700, 3900, 4900, 1000/1500, 3000/3500, 4000/4500, 5000/5500, 501, 508, 510
He also brought up the "dish change" but Minneapolis isnt on the list.

So basically (so I can tell him) all he has to do is call Dish (or maybe I'll do a chat or use DIRT for him) and they will send him out (assume...according to the previous posts) a 311 in its place? He has a 625, 322, 311 and a 301 (or maybe 2 301's I forget)
 
I had to recycle my old/owned 4900 and 301 and 111 receivers since they became un-activatable all of a sudden. :(
 
It may cost Dish less money to upgrade the receivers than to launch a new satellite to add additional capacity.

They cant just "launch a new satellite to add capacity." They have a finite amount of frequency at each orbital location that has been licensed by the FCC. I forget the amount of spectrum at each slot, but they cant just add, and add transponders to new satellites to increase capacity arbitrarily. If they do reach a deal with DirecTV/AT&T to acquire what frequencies that DTV has at 110 and 119, then they will have some additional space. Also, you have to remember, these receivers that they are replacing are anywhere from 10 to 18 years old, so it is definitely time for an upgrade.
 
But they can change the modulation and compression schemes
Exactly, I remember how much bandwith they reclaimed, when they went all mpeg 4 on HD channels and launched eastern arc. Mpeg 4 meant you could put 8 hd channels on the same transponder and you saw no difference between mpeg 2, where you could only put 3 hd channels on a transponder. If DISH could put western arc all mpeg 4 as well, they could reclaim even more,but to do so , they need to replace all the older mpeg 2 receivers. Now I am sure that they are working on some kind of new mpeg 8 or 10, or 12, etc., compression scheme. After all 4k is already going up on DIRECTV . DISH will need to throw some 4k channels up there too, if they want to compete and they as a company, are still servicing and maintaining older mpeg 2 receivers, that are tied to the last century technology.
 
After all 4k is already going up on DIRECTV . DISH will need to throw some 4k channels up there too, if they want to compete and they as a company, are still servicing and maintaining older mpeg 2 receivers, that are tied to the last century technology.
DirectTV is not putting any 4K content on their satellites.

It is all internet based, no DirecTV receiver supports 4K content, only the Samsung 4K RVU TVs can view it.

There will eventually be a few niche 4K channels on the satellites, but there isn't any now or in the near term.
 
DirectTV is not putting any 4K content on their satellites.

It is all internet based, no DirecTV receiver supports 4K content, only the Samsung 4K RVU TVs can view it.

There will eventually be a few niche 4K channels on the satellites, but there isn't any now or in the near term.

DirecTV is launching 2 new satellites in the next couple of years that will have a whole new frequency band on board in addition to all the regular Ku/Ka. Supposedly that's what they're planning to use for 4K.
 

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