Uplink Activity Wednesday, November 16th 2005

[dfergie]

Actually after the full V* pack is added plus the duece... what else is compelling? UHD is pretty stale after you watch it for awhile unless they start showing BSG season 2...the V* folks will tell you that Starz had more upconverts than real HD when they had it...

 

[riffjim4069]

Who actually thinks dish is gonna hand over 11 more voom channels for the same price ($5)? I mean, this is most all of the voom dbs service right? How much per month was that service? What price would you pay if the price was raised?

I'm guessing the HD pak might go up some next year after adding espn2-hd.

VOOM DBS was much more than the VOOM21 channels. At one time they offered 39 or 40 HD channels, and that doesn't include broadcast HD that could be received with the VOOM provided OTA antenna. Rainbow Media has mass marketed their other channels (WE, AMC, IFC, Fuse) and I suspect they will do the same for VOOM21:

AMC: 76 million subscribers
IFC: 35 million subscribers
WE: 50 million subscribers
Fuse: 33 million subscribers

Instead of selling their HD channels at a premium, like INHD & HDNET, they are going for market penetration in the hope of establishing themselves before HD becomes more mainstream.

 

[Spike]

AMC: 76 million subscribers
IFC: 35 million subscribers
WE: 50 million subscribers
Fuse: 33 million subscribers

This was an excellent Post! Wow.. Look at those sub. numbers!! I hope they can get voom's numbers up there.

 

[riffjim4069]

This was an excellent Post! Wow.. Look at those sub. numbers!! I hope they can get voom's numbers up there.

They can...just bundle them with their other cable channels for, oh, say 60 cents for the entire 21 HD channel lineup and viola!; VOOM has millions of subscribers, Cable and DBS providers have a butt load of HD to offer in their basic or basic HD programming tier, and Rainbow HD Networks has millions more to develop new programming...and even the capability to rapidly deploy: AMC-HD, IFC-HD, WE-HD.

The only thing missing is Cable/DBS ability to handle the VOOM21 lineup. However, E* will soon be offering VOOM21; D* will soon have the capacity to provide VOOM21 if they so choose (not clear); Verizon FiOS TV in my opinion will soon be offering VOOM21; Cable currently doesn't have the needed bandwidth until they upgrade a number of headends and transition to digital simulcasting. Of course VOD, VOIP and higher speed Internet access will also be vying for bandwidth so Cable appears to temporarily be at a disadvantage (FiOS TV excluded).

VOOM DBS lost a billion or more dollars launching a failed satellite service. However, launching a HD programming service can be done at a fraction of the cost, they already have the production facilities in place, and Rainbow Media has a pretty good track record of marketing their programming. I get the feeling we'll see VOOM21 launched on FiOS TV and Cablevision (and others?) starting 1 January.

I just want to see VOOM21 on E* before T-Day! We shall see...

 

[junianby]

Lets hope that E* will fix the Audio Sync problem and the Smearing or blocking on the right side of the picture on the 942 before they go live with the new hd channels. It is embarrassing when family or friends are here and have to watch what looks like old dubbed kung fu movies!!!

 

[John Kotches]

goaliebob says:

it is good news because earlyer in the week those transpoders were qpsk. you can not do 3hd channels with dd 5.1 audio on a qpsk transponder because its too much going through too little space.. so dish compresses these channels with 8psk to get the room needed to beable to do that. The channels on 129 that are in qpsk are 2 to a trasponder instead of 3. qpsk can handle 2 hd channels with dd 5.1 audio to a transponder with no problems.

You need to be very clear about this and what you said above is inaccurate. 8PSK is a different modulation scheme that increases the available bandwidth on a transponder. Greater bandwidth on a transponder == more channels per transponder.

Compression of channels is a seperate topic. It is possible to fit more HD channels per transponder through filtration. "HD Lite" sends out only 1280 scan lines instead of the whole 1920 is a form of compression.

You need to be very accurate in your terminology.

 

[mdonnelly]

goaliebob says:


You need to be very clear about this and what you said above is inaccurate. 8PSK is a different modulation scheme that increases the available bandwidth on a transponder. Greater bandwidth on a transponder == more channels per transponder.

Compression of channels is a seperate topic. It is possible to fit more HD channels per transponder through filtration. "HD Lite" sends out only 1280 scan lines instead of the whole 1920 is a form of compression.

You need to be very accurate in your terminology.

Actually, it seems to me that 8PSK is indeed compression, just as QPSK is compression. Lossless compression in this case, which is a good thing.

 

[riffjim4069]

I dont think that this has been reported but, all new voom channels tp's on 61.5 are now 8psk including the test transponders for east coast dns. The voom channels on 129 are still qpsk as they are paired up 2 hd channels to a tp. This is definatly good news.

Spoiler

This is pure speculation but with this move we may have new HD become avaible next wensday! ESPN2 and voom 21. This is pure speculation and may not come true!

But the question is, can 8PSK or 8PSK Turbo support three (3) 1920x1080i HD channels per TP?

 

[CJPC]

Well, the best analogy I could think of (seems right, but probably wayyy off)

Mpeg2/4 is like the box you put your package in, and UPS is the way it gets there, but there are other, more efficient ways of getting your package there in time!

Edit. (Just trying to help), Both would be a means of making things more efficient (ie compressed etc), just trying to make an anaology for the others

 

[HokieEngineer]

They already do 3 1920x1080 channels on one 8psk transponder. TNTHD, PPVHD, and HBOHD are on one TP. Now, who's to say if that is sufficient bitrate for each channel.. . CJPC your box example is pretty good.

8PSK is not a compression, its a modulation, as was pointed out by John. It is not compressing anything. It is simply allowing more bits to be transmitted at once. (three bits per symbol instead of two bits).

 

[CJPC]

So 8PSK is just more efficient then your nomal qpsk etc? (The three bits vs two bits?

 

[CKNA]

Actually, it seems to me that 8PSK is indeed compression, just as QPSK is compression. Lossless compression in this case, which is a good thing.

No it is not compression!!! 8PSK is modulation!

 

[goaliebob99]

John is right... I just said it that way to give the user a good idea of how its done without going into the technical aspect of things

 

[Juan]

Who actually thinks dish is gonna hand over 11 more voom channels for the same price ($5)? I mean, this is most all of the voom dbs service right? How much per month was that service? What price would you pay if the price was raised?

I'm guessing the HD pak might go up some next year after adding espn2-hd.

The original 10 arent worth the 5 dollars they are charging!!!

 

[vinnyv07]

The original 10 arent worth the 5 dollars they are charging!!!

I think the 10 is worth 5 bucks. Hell, 5 bucks can't buy much of anything these days. Even if they endlessly loop everything that they have (which most of the time they do)....it's still worth 5 bucks. And hell for 15 bucks ...voom plus the dish hd isn't a bad deal. I was paying 50 bucks a mth for those ch's with voom....and there was no HD net or hdnet movies. I didn't really need the other STD ch's Voom was offering.

 

[Juan]

I think the 10 is worth 5 bucks. Hell, 5 bucks can't buy much of anything these days. Even if they endlessly loop everything that they have (which most of the time they do)....it's still worth 5 bucks. And hell for 15 bucks ...voom plus the dish hd isn't a bad deal. I was paying 50 bucks a mth for those ch's with voom....and there was no HD net or hdnet movies. I didn't really need the other STD ch's Voom was offering.

nope They show the same content over and over again for the last 6months

 

[jsb_hburg]

nope They show the same content over and over again for the last 6months

That may be true to some extent; but they have been adding content. The additions are not near the same pace during the DBS days. However, I have not seen all the movies and shows. If some movies repeat, fine as I don't have a Dish DVR.

The Voom 10 have been worth the $5.

 

[FreddyvsJasonvsAsh]

well starting in January they have new movies coming out on VOOM

 

[Smith P.]

Not lines, but dots

<skip>
"HD Lite" sends out only 1280 scan lines instead of the whole 1920 is a form of compression.

You need to be very accurate in your terminology.

That's funny how yourself felt in same category .
The numbers what you used represent pixels [dots] in one line, ie horizontal resolution.

 

[John Kotches]

That's funny how yourself felt in same category .
The numbers what you used represent pixels [dots] in one line, ie horizontal resolution.

What do you think a scan line is other than a collection of pixels?