What's on the minds of every DIRECTV HD customer these days. We're thinking "When the blasted are we going to get more high-def stations?" Well, we have good news and bad news. First the good: DIRECTV is, in fact, launching two new satellites.
Cool. The bad news is that they aren't until next spring and summer.
Sucks. Satellite, blandly but accurately named, Directv-10 is scheduled to launch on April 6 and then Directv-11 sometime in the summer of '07. Unfortunately, this is right on schedule with their DIRECTV's
plans from two years ago yesterday. We were hoping that maybe, just maybe, they would get up there a bit sooner and just because these birds are flying doesn't mean that they are going to be active immediately. It takes time to get them set and who knows, they might not be turned on till both of 'em are up there. We still don't know exactly what they are going to be used for but one can only hope, and pray, that they will remedy
DIRECTV's bandwidth problems and provide subscribers with many new HD stations. But the big question is, can they hold their subscriber base for at least another 9 months with their current lackluster high-def lineup when Dish Network offers 30 high definition channels.
[Thanks, Xavier]
posted Sep 11th 2006 5:44PM
LyngSat says DirecTV will launch another sat on September 19, 2006 an 9S Ariane 5 101.0°W 54 Ku tps.
The 101° position is where some HD content is already currently located.
This is why I'll be switching to Verizon when then hook up my neighborhood. Which will be before they launch their satellite.
DirecTV doesn't do HD, they only do HDlite. Kind of like EDTV (something less than HD).
GhostDoggy...um no, DirecTV is miles beyond EDTV and should not be compared. It is still 720p/1080i to the set. Now the compression is does effect the image, but it isn't even close to EDTV. Your comment is uncalled for.
@GhostDoggy
I've heard that from other people as well. Where did you get that information that DirecTV is not HD?
In fact...to continue, the local HD-PBS station here (WTTW) pumps out TERRIBLE HD content due to compression. Water turns to blocks, etc. I think DirecTV's HD image is the most consistent and is above par when compared to some of the crap that local over the air stations and even Comcast does.
I still think it makes sense to merge DirecTV and Dish. If Charlie Ergin (sic) wasn't so universally hated [allegedly] in Congress, that tentative merger from a couple of years back would have sailed through. Then they could pool their satellite resources together and make a unified competitor to the entrenched cablecos AND the telephone monoliths entering the market.
Maybe putting Ergin (sic) and Murdoch together would cancel each other out, just as in mathematics two negatives become a positive.
ps. same goes for Sirus and XM.
@ NVTanner
I looked at DirecTV's FCC application for the 9S satellite and it says that the 9s is a replamecent for their DirecTV 1 satellite at 72.5 W, no mention of additional bandwith....
DirecTV already lost me to Dish. I'm not waiting around for them to get their act together. Why should I wait, when there's a vastly better alternative? I'm loving my 30 HD channels and the 622 DVR. I can always reevaluate in a year.
in fact directv is HD-lite. its WAY better than EDTV of course, but the signal is 1280x1080i scaled to 1920x1080i instead of true 1920x1080i.
well, its probably x1088 since that's divisible by 16.
This is great news! I just got the Directv HD DVR(HR10-250) hoping that directv won't turn off the MPEG-2 HD feeds until summer 2008. With the second launch in late 2007, this looks very likely. This news along with the fact that the 6.3 release to the TiVo software is going to be downloaded in the next week or so confirms I made the right decision.
For all those that have Dish, doesn't the VIP622 only have 1 OTA tuner? I would much rather have a real TiVo with 2 HD OTA tuners than have Monsters HD. To each his own I guess.
Considering the Sunday Ticket contract runs through 2010, I will likely be staying with DirecTV at least until then. That is, unless the NFL suddenly folds.
Very, very disappointed with every other aspect of DirecTV though. It all has to do with HDTV. I've been a customer for 3 years, but had an HDTV for 1, and that's when things went south. I don't live in a market good enough for them to provide my local HD channels; I will likely have to ditch my HR10-250 once more channels actually do become available; I've waited over a year for the 6.3 TiVo update, etc etc.
The only bright spot I have is that hopefully I will be moving in the next 6-9 months, and when I do you can bet I will be sure to install a nice, powerful OTA solution instead of the indoor antenna I have now.
Xavier
Just passing on whats in LyngSat on launches for this year. Possibly bad information, although LyngSat is usually right on these dates and equipment sent up.
I myself am just looking forward to seeing more sats sent up to orbit....the sooner.... the better!!
DTV and Dish both over compress so for now I'll stick to cable. My local Brighthouse Networks (cable) has much better image quality. Satellites need to beef up the bandwidth and hurry up with MPEG4.
Thanks NVTanner I appreciate the info either way....
Yeah, cable and telcos have so much more localized bandwidth. Theres no denying that OnDemand is awesome technology... and that they can do HDTV OnDemand...
maybe as a precursor to fully merging, DirecTV and Dish could make an arrangement to share bandwidth across commonly broadcasted channels. That way there wouldnt be two ESPNs, two Comedy Centrals, two New York NBC Affiliates, etc, broadcast, and they could each have A LOT more bandwidth for additional programming. But that would probably require a lot of consumer hardware changes... idk
Yes, the DISH VIP622 only has one OTA tuner. But I don't miss a second one, I have my networks available in HD on DISH, so I can record three HD network shows at once, one OTA and two on the Sat Tuners. I have yet needed more than 2 actually, but I actually have one night the coming season where I am planning on recording three things at once (ABC,NBC and CBS!). So two OTA tuners might be nice, but I don't really need it. Definitely not worth $800 for a new TIVO HD.
As for the Sats for DirectTV, hopefully this will give DirectTV more HD channels, competition is always a good thing, and we all need more HD! :)