# HD programming (mpeg4) via 61.5



## PROXUS (Apr 26, 2005)

Next month I'm moving to new loft. From what I understand, most of the time HOA is against any dish equipment installation in new buildings. I came up with idea to install my dish on tripod and place it on balcony. The only problem is that location of balcony allow me to receive signals from 61.5 but the rest is blocked.

Now my questions are:
- are those all HD channels (including mpeg4) listed on 61.5 signal?
- are those existing ones (VOOM) compressed with mpeg4?
- is this possible to get subscribtion for HD & International package only (I'm not going to be able to get AT60/120/180 because 110/119 is blocked)
- is 61.5 complete mirror of 129?

Thanks for any info


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## olgeezer (Dec 5, 2003)

PROXUS said:


> Next month I'm moving to new loft. From what I understand, most of the time HOA is against any dish equipment installation in new buildings. I came up with idea to install my dish on tripod and place it on balcony. The only problem is that location of balcony allow me to receive signals from 61.5 but the rest is blocked.
> 
> Now my questions are:
> - are those all HD channels (including mpeg4) listed on 61.5 signal?
> ...


Move to a southwest corner, install a dish 1000, or look for an alternative.


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## PROXUS (Apr 26, 2005)

olgeezer said:


> Move to a southwest corner, install a dish 1000, or look for an alternative.


Out of the question. My loft is corner 5th floor with view on 61.5 only. Since FCC reulations allow me to place SAT dish on the balcony this is my only option.

I just want to be sure that I will receive whole HD pack from DN before I will upgrade my 942 to new VIP.


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## Mikey (Oct 26, 2004)

All the national HD is on 61.5, but none of the Dish SD programming except for some public access channels. And the Chicago digitals are on 129, as I recall.


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## PROXUS (Apr 26, 2005)

Mikey said:


> All the national HD is on 61.5, but none of the Dish SD programming except for some public access channels. And the Chicago digitals are on 129, as I recall.


I don't care about Chicago HD locals...I can get them OTA.
The only local I use from sat is CBS-NY....mainly to watch CSI 

I just want to keep SAT for HD and international package. All the rest will go via cable so I don't careabout 110/119 feed.

....now the question is if HBO-HD is coming from 61.5 or standatd feed location (110) ?


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

Mikey said:


> All the national HD is on 61.5, but none of the Dish SD programming except for some public access channels. And the Chicago digitals are on 129, as I recall.


Unless I missed something, and sometimes I do... 61.5 and 129 do have mirrors of the HD channels they have on them... BUT not all HD channels are on those satellites. Last I knew the only HD on those was ESPN2HD, UniHD, and the 5 new Vooms + wherever they have added locals in HD either on 61.5 or 129 depending on the market.

The 110 satellite has HD on it that is on neither 61.5 or 129, or at least it used to. Everything not mentioned above (TNTHD, ESPNHD, DiscoveryHD, HDNet, HDNet Movies, 10 Vooms) are on 110. I don't remember where HBO and SHO HD are.

If I'm wrong, someone will correct me... but if I'm right, then you need 110 and 61.5 or 110 and 129 to get all the HD.


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## Ken Green (Oct 6, 2005)

All of Voom and the new MPEG4 are mirrored. I have 61.5° and get all HD's MPEG2 and MPEG4's, and CBSHDNY.
However, HDMe is correct, and both HBOHD, SHOWHD, are on 110°. 
See for yourself
61.5 HERE
129 HERE
110 HERE


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## audiomaster (Jun 24, 2004)

You might want to also consider that Dish wants to get back to a one dish solution. Now that they have a new sat coming on line, they may move things around, and likely away from 61.5 toward the 110 to 129 group. You will be locked into a 18 month contract so just be aware what you get might change before it ends!


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## Mikey (Oct 26, 2004)

HDMe said:


> Unless I missed something, and sometimes I do... 61.5 and 129 do have mirrors of the HD channels they have on them... BUT not all HD channels are on those satellites. Last I knew the only HD on those was ESPN2HD, UniHD, and the 5 new Vooms + wherever they have added locals in HD either on 61.5 or 129 depending on the market.
> 
> The 110 satellite has HD on it that is on neither 61.5 or 129, or at least it used to. Everything not mentioned above (TNTHD, ESPNHD, DiscoveryHD, HDNet, HDNet Movies, 10 Vooms) are on 110. I don't remember where HBO and SHO HD are.
> 
> If I'm wrong, someone will correct me... but if I'm right, then you need 110 and 61.5 or 110 and 129 to get all the HD.


You're right. I wasn't thinking about anything but the new stuff.


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## PROXUS (Apr 26, 2005)

audiomaster said:


> You might want to also consider that Dish wants to get back to a one dish solution. Now that they have a new sat coming on line, they may move things around, and likely away from 61.5 toward the 110 to 129 group. You will be locked into a 18 month contract so just be aware what you get might change before it ends!


Are you sure? ....from what I heard 61.5 is pretty crucial for NY location and there is no plans to move any of thi sprogramming to other sat.

I don't remember what exactly the problem was but something about NY unable to get HD signal from other birds.....or something like that


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## garys (Nov 4, 2005)

Most of NY state is not in the footprint for 129, therefore most of the HD content must be viewed on 61.5.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

Yeah, they would have to do something very creative if they wanted to take 61.5 offline or move it elsewhere... because there are a couple of spotty places for 129 and a couple of areas completely outside the footprint as mentioned above.

No way to get rid of 61.5 as a mirror unless they move something else OR rearrange a whole lot of stuff.


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## mchaney (Aug 17, 2006)

HDMe said:


> Yeah, they would have to do something very creative if they wanted to take 61.5 offline or move it elsewhere... because there are a couple of spotty places for 129 and a couple of areas completely outside the footprint as mentioned above.
> 
> No way to get rid of 61.5 as a mirror unless they move something else OR rearrange a whole lot of stuff.


Agreed! 129 is even difficult to get in Maryland. If you have any trees on your property, you can forget it. I have 4 acres of land and have moved the dish as far as 400 feet from the tree line and still can't get 129. That brings up a question that I've always wanted to ask: why would anyone in their right mind put a satellite at 129 for CONUS viewing? It's always made me shake my head as to why they'd put satellites down that low on the horizon.

Mike


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## Zvi (Feb 2, 2006)

kdg454 said:


> All of Voom and the new MPEG4 are mirrored. I have 61.5° and get all HD's MPEG2 and MPEG4's, and CBSHDNY.


Can you please elaborate on that, I mean mirroring issue? What does that mean exactly? For now most of the movies I record in HD are pretty badly compressed, which I believe iscauswed by mpeg2.


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## Slordak (Dec 17, 2003)

The term "mirroring" refers to the same content being available from two or more orbital locations. This means that you can receive a given channel by having a dish pointing at either satellite X or satellite Y, and don't in fact need both locations simultaneously.

This has nothing to do with quality, unless for some reason Dish was using different compression strategies or bitrates for the different mirrored versions.


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## Zvi (Feb 2, 2006)

Ok, understood, thanks. So, that means 1 sat is transmitting mpeg4 and another mpeg2? And is there info about which one is which format?

P.S. IMHO using MPEG4 gives you an ability to compress with less loss in PQ. I.e. same amount of data carries more info =>better PQ. At least I shouldn't be seeing jaggies on the edges. if they compress use the same bitrate with mpeg4 then to me it is no difference, quality will be still the same. Sure E* will be gaining something sending less data, at least bandwidth, but not me?


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

Each satellite can have a mixture of MPEG2 and MPEG4 programming. Generally speaking any channel that is uplinked in MPEG4 is in MPEG4 at all locations where it is uplinked. The exception being NFLHD's free preview which is in MPEG2 so people who don't subscribe to a DishHD package can see it.

Older channels are generally in MPEG2 - new channels are in MPEG4. Some channels are in MPEG2 but are only made available to MPEG4 receivers (but that's a complication for another thread).

There are a pair of higher bandwidth HDs on 148 (HBO and Show HD) but the rest are generally equal between their mirrors.

BTW: Mirroring can also be "the same content on one transponder showing up in two or more locations in the guide". But for this thread the definition of "the same content being placed at multiple orbital locations" is accurate.


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## Slordak (Dec 17, 2003)

Ahh, yes, thanks James


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## Zvi (Feb 2, 2006)

Thanks James.
Is there a list of mpeg4 chanels or that's classified?


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

Nearly all HD locals are MPEG4 ... a couple of the early markets are MPEG2 for MPEG4 receivers only. All the old pre-DishHD channels are MPEG2.

The last time I looked was June 15th, but along with most locals 9426 NFLHD and 9435 StarzHD are MPEG4.


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