# Rumor: More DirecTV High Definition Info



## Chris Blount (Jun 22, 2001)

I've just received the following information:

HD football will be on channels 90 - 98 every week.

NBC HD East/West and Bravo HD will not be up until September now.

Olympic HD channels will be up August 13th

DirecTV is currently working on all kinds of interactive services in addition to Mosaic.

I know this is nothing new but DirecTV will have tons of HD content in the near future. I can't give specifics at this time but all I have to say is "Watch out Voom!"


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## wipeout (Jul 15, 2003)

You tease.


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## Cyclone (Jul 1, 2002)

I've heard these kinds of promises before.


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## Chris Blount (Jun 22, 2001)

Cyclone said:


> I've heard this kind of promises before.


I know, I really hate doing that but the ball is definitely in motion for DirecTV. All will be revealed in time.


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## wipeout (Jul 15, 2003)

Will this additional content be out before 2005?


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## Chris Blount (Jun 22, 2001)

wipeout said:


> Will this additional content be out before 2005?


That's hard to say at this time. I guess I should have specified that "near future" means over the coming months. I would suspect though that by 2005, there will be plenty to watch.


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## beasst37799 (Mar 8, 2004)

Chris Blount said:


> I've just received the following information:
> 
> HD football will be on channels 90 - 98 every week.
> 
> ...


so does this mean we wont get the olympic feeds via nbc hd now ???


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## bonscott87 (Jan 21, 2003)

The Olympic HD feed has always going to be on the special events channel and DirecTV has announced it as such on their web site. Channel 84. Nothing to do with NBC-HD.


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## tahoerob (Mar 22, 2003)

Chris Blount said:


> I've just received the following information:
> 
> ..............
> NBC HD East/West and Bravo HD will not be up until September now.
> .....


So, thus this mean that if I live in a O & O NBC area w\o OTA reception, I could get NBC east HD????

What if I cannot get OTA NBC, could I try for a waiver from local NBC station if not O & O????

Is there a list of O & O NBC stations????


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## Scott Greczkowski (Mar 21, 2002)

You will get the Olympics if you live in an area where you are allowed to get them. They will be carried by DirecTV in HD, just DirecTV is not adding WNBC or KNBC to their lineups until after the olympics, instead they will be carrying a direct HDTV feed from NBC for the Olympics.

Thanks Chris for decyphering those press releases and my posts at the other site.

How long ago did I say that DirecTV told me "look out VOOM" for its HD offerings? From what I know DirecTV will basically be offering all regular domestic HD offerings, however VOOM will still have the benifit of all 21 of their exclusive channels which keep on improving all the time.

The funny thing about this is it seems Dish is just sitting on their hands as DirecTV gets ready to ramp up on things.

All in all the consumer will win out.


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## tahoerob (Mar 22, 2003)

Found the resource here:
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/List-of-NBC-affiliates

Los Angeles - KNBC-TV/KNBC-DT [NBC 4 (NBC O&O)]
San Diego - KNSD-TV/KNSD-DT [NBC 7/39 (NBC O&O)]
San Francisco - San Jose - KNTV-TV [NBC 11/cable 3 (NBC O&O)]
Hartford, CN - New Britain - WVIT-TV/WVIT-DT(35) [NBC 30 (NBC O&O)]
Washington, DC - WRC-TV/WRC-DT(48) [NBC 4 (NBC O&O)]
Miami - WTVJ-TV(6)/WTVJ-DT(31) [NBC 6 (NBC O&O)]
Chicago - WMAQ-TV/WMAQ-DT(29) [NBC 5 (NBC O&O)]
New York, NY WNBC-TV/WNBC-DT [NBC 4 (NBC O&O)]
Providence WJAR-TV/WJAR-DT [NBC 10 (NBC O&O)]

It does not have all of them. I also found this which may be more complete:
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/National-Broadcasting-Company

NBC supplies programming to more than 200 American affiliated stations. It owns and operates stations in 
Chicago, 
Philadelphia, 
Los Angeles, 
Miami, 
New York City, 
Washington, DC, 
San Jose, 
Dallas/Fort Worth, 
San Diego, 
Hartford, Connecticut, 
Raleigh, North Carolina, 
Columbus, Ohio, 
Birmingham, Alabama, and 
Providence, Rhode Island.


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## Lee L (Aug 15, 2002)

So, no info about TNT-HD?


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## SamC (Jan 20, 2003)

On June 28th, EIGHTEEN MONTHS LATE, DirecTV finally got 7S up and running. Freeing up space for HD offerings and space on the main sat for more SD offerings. And with nothing to do be sit and wait for the gang that couldn't shoot straight to get 7S up they had plenty of time to plan what to do with that space.

And now, almost 2 months later, DirecTV has added, .....

NOTHING.

It has "plans" for the future. Right. 

The day the capacity was available they should have had stuff up and ready to fill it.


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## beasst37799 (Mar 8, 2004)

First they had to make sure that 7s works . second they had to transfer all the locals they were planning to move to the new sat.Third they have to upgrade those users who needed the new dish to keep there locals and give themselves time to do this .Fourth they have to get aggrements to carry those channels which they probley couldnt do until 7s was up and running .i rather they make sure everything works before they announce or add anything but thats just me


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## Moorebid (Jun 7, 2004)

Chris Blount said:


> I know this is nothing new but DirecTV will have tons of HD content in the near future. I can't give specifics at this time but all I have to say is "Watch out Voom!"


And will they be recompressing this content as well? Will they have to push it to 8mbps to make it all fit? Or will they [ever] have sufficient bandwidth to stop recompressing any HD content? They can't even pass through their current HD content untouched. *shrug*

More HD content != good HD content


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## matthpd195 (Jun 23, 2004)

ANY HD is much better than crappy cable with NO HD available...even if it is a little compressed!


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## Guest (Aug 6, 2004)

2050 more likely than 2005. Must have been a typo.


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## Zach2 (May 18, 2003)

Chris Blount said:


> I've just received the following information:
> 
> HD football will be on channels 90 - 98 every week.
> 
> ...


Do you know if any of these HD channels will be on sat. 101?


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## Skyboss (Jan 22, 2004)

_First they had to make sure that 7s works . second they had to transfer all the locals they were planning to move to the new sat.Third they have to upgrade those users who needed the new dish to keep there locals and give themselves time to do this .Fourth they have to get aggrements to carry those channels which they probley couldnt do until 7s was up and running .i rather they make sure everything works before they announce or add anything but thats just me_

We're not getting squat until football season is over. Directv 8 is due in the first quarter '05 when we'll see some additions and 9S in the second quarter '05 will really start freeing ups ome space. They have room for NBC, Fox, Football and Bravo now. Once football is over, then we'll see some additions. Let's just hope D* 8 and 9S don't blow up on the pad.

Sorry, just wanna puke at all the hype.


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## bonscott87 (Jan 21, 2003)

8 and 9S are backups or replacements for what is already up there. They won't free up that much bandwidth without running the risk of loss of service should one of the main sats fail.


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## hdtvfan0001 (Jul 28, 2004)

bonscott87 said:


> 8 and 9S are backups or replacements for what is already up there. They won't free up that much bandwidth without running the risk of loss of service should one of the main sats fail.


Not so...both 8S and 9S were "re-speced" to include more bandwidth than their original ordered requirements. In addition, with the advent of the 7S migration, as well as 2 other Skyway sats THIS year (one is up already), there will be a ton of new potential bandwidth, if and when D*TV wants to use it.

The real question boils down to D*TV's general mentality to add HD content when they feel there is "a legitimate market demand" and "desired content". 
Carey has been, in particular, been heard many times saying "we don't just want to broadcast HD content for the sake of saying so like some other content providers" (obviously Voom). He has also said "We intend on being the HD provider leader, and will continue to add HD programming as we see a viable market for this content". My guess is seeing Voom getting less than 25,000 subscribers in their first 9 months of business isn't much of a concern - not when they've added 20 times that many in just the last 3 months.

In short, when D*TV sees a market demand for more HD, and the content providers ante up and provide some quality content, D*TV will have it. Clearly, they don't want to withdraw something in the HD channel stable after it's been released (big mistake)....so they're taking a slower, "let's give it some thought" approach.

Yes, that makes many of us impatient, but it's a sound business practice.


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## ddobson (Nov 25, 2003)

SamC said:


> On June 28th, EIGHTEEN MONTHS LATE, DirecTV finally got 7S up and running. Freeing up space for HD offerings and space on the main sat for more SD offerings. And with nothing to do be sit and wait for the gang that couldn't shoot straight to get 7S up they had plenty of time to plan what to do with that space.
> 
> And now, almost 2 months later, DirecTV has added, .....
> 
> ...


Now Now Now.....

I got back from a trip last night and my TIVO had several new channels of PPV available that I had to block out..

So they have added something with their gained capacity.

JUNK!!!!!!!!!!!


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## Greg Bimson (May 5, 2003)

SamC said:


> On June 28th, EIGHTEEN MONTHS LATE, DirecTV finally got 7S up and running. Freeing up space for HD offerings and space on the main sat for more SD offerings.


This link is the press release from Loral stating an expected delivery date of late 2003. Hardly 18 months late. Maybe EIGHT months late.


SamC said:


> And with nothing to do be sit and wait for the gang that couldn't shoot straight to get 7S up they had plenty of time to plan what to do with that space.
> 
> And now, almost 2 months later, DirecTV has added, .....
> 
> ...


Of course nothing has been added. DirecTV has only regained about four transponders of space at 119 and nothing at 101 by use of the DirecTV 7S satellite. All of the space has not become available, yet. The eight markets on CONUS transponders at 101 have not been migrated to 119 (DirecTV 7S) yet. DirecTV is probably trying to get all their subscribers in the eight markets where DirecTV will be migrating those local markets to install the elliptical satellite dish to continue to receive their local channels.


hdtvfan0001 said:


> Not so...both 8S and 9S were "re-speced" to include more bandwidth than their original ordered requirements. In addition, with the advent of the 7S migration, as well as 2 other Skyway sats THIS year (one is up already), there will be a ton of new potential bandwidth, if and when D*TV wants to use it.


DirecTV 8 will be including a Ka-band payload. This was the only re-specfication on this satellite. DirecTV 9S will resemble DirecTV 7S and has not be re-speced.

The first of the Spaceway birds is not due to launch until the middle of next year.


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## bonscott87 (Jan 21, 2003)

Greg Bimson said:


> ...is the press release from Loral stating an expected delivery date of late 2003. Hardly 18 months late. Maybe EIGHT months late.


Not counting the fact it was scheduled to be launched in early Feb. '04 but delayed a couple months because the previous sat launch of a similar satellite went wrong and the sat was disabled. Somehow I think waiting a couple extra months for them to make sure that the same problem didn't occur so that 7S didn't become a hunk of space junk was worth it.

All in all you could say that 7S was dealyed *maybe* 4 months longer then planned, 6 if you push it. Like Greg said, certainly no 18 months.


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## n8dagr8 (Aug 14, 2004)

Still, I must agree, D*TV could do something about adding more HD, ASAP, i.e. TNT-HD. Dish has been getting TNT-HD since the western conference finals back in May, along with Law and Order (sorry but it's a great show), some NASCAR, as well as other programming. I watch TNT quite a bit and would love to have it in HD. Why we don't get it, I'm pretty sure, is a contract negotiaton that is going slowly. 

Also, will they be offering USA-HD anytime? Just curious, they show a lot of movies and etc.
Thanks,


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## tahoerob (Mar 22, 2003)

n8dagr8 said:


> Still, I must agree, D*TV could do something about adding more HD, ASAP, i.e. TNT-HD. Dish has been getting TNT-HD since the western conference finals back in May, along with Law and Order (sorry but it's a great show), some NASCAR, as well as other programming. I watch TNT quite a bit and would love to have it in HD. Why we don't get it, I'm pretty sure, is a contract negotiaton that is going slowly.
> 
> Also, will they be offering USA-HD anytime? Just curious, they show a lot of movies and etc.
> Thanks,


I have TNT-HD with Dish. Most of the shows & movies are upconverted & stretched. However, they look great compared to the SD TNT channel. It seems that more movies might be HD. Example: The show Angel that was run on WB. The TNT-HD version is great to watch. Clearer PQ, you can actually see details in the constantly dark environments that were all a blur on SD locals via sat.


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## n8dagr8 (Aug 14, 2004)

tahoerob said:


> I have TNT-HD with Dish. Most of the shows & movies are upconverted & stretched. However, they look great compared to the SD TNT channel. It seems that more movies might be HD. Example: The show Angel that was run on WB. The TNT-HD version is great to watch. Clearer PQ, you can actually see details in the constantly dark environments that were all a blur on SD locals via sat.


Isn't Law and Order in HD? Seems like everytime I watch it in on DirecTV it says "presented in HighDefinition by ..." Also, is ESPN-HD not broadcasting in surround sound? All the other HD channels work on my surround sound but ESPN. Thanks,


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## simon (Apr 11, 2004)

Bravo HD is fine but what about TNT HD ?


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## Guest (Aug 15, 2004)

does anyone know the approx number of people who subscribe to D*'s HD package? How does it compare to Vooms subscriber base?


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## bonscott87 (Jan 21, 2003)

n8dagr8 said:


> All the other HD channels work on my surround sound but ESPN. Thanks,


ESPN does their own "circle surround" which almost no A/V receivers support. So unless your receiver doesn, it will come across most likely as just plain old regular stereo.


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## bonscott87 (Jan 21, 2003)

jjj said:


> does anyone know the approx number of people who subscribe to D*'s HD package? How does it compare to Vooms subscriber base?


VOOM's total subscriber base is 38,000 last number I saw. DirecTV was well into the hundreds of thousands, same for Dish.


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## jdspencer (Nov 8, 2003)

But, how many subscribe to the HD package was the question. Or possibly just HBOHD or SHOHD?


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## hongcho (Mar 25, 2004)

With the recent 6-month free HD Package, I am sure that will increase by quite a lot...

Hong.


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## Shappyss (Jun 26, 2004)

Does anyone think that the NY and LA feeds of the WB and UPN will ever be in HD through D*? Is there such a thing as the National Feed of these two networks?


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## jdspencer (Nov 8, 2003)

Currently, there's no such thing, although they might be able to use those that Dish uses. I have read somewhere that DirecTV is at least looking into a WB feed similar to the cable only versions. If they do, they should also carry the HD version.


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## n8dagr8 (Aug 14, 2004)

Quick question, if I'm getting the Olympic HD feed on channel 84 does that mean I'm going to get the NBC-HD feed over the satellite (I am correct that they are doing that - like CBS)? Also, what about ABC-HD over the satellite? I don't ever see anyone really mention that. I would prefer that over the WB and UPN (sorry guys). I don't even thing we have an OTA digital signal here anyway. Thanks,


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## hongcho (Mar 25, 2004)

I believe the Olympics HD is a bit different since it includes O&O (there are 14 NBC O&Os) and some non-O&O affiliates that agreed to the HD broadcast.

Hong.


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## THancock (Aug 13, 2004)

n8dagr8 said:


> Quick question, if I'm getting the Olympic HD feed on channel 84 does that mean I'm going to get the NBC-HD feed over the satellite (I am correct that they are doing that - like CBS)? Also, what about ABC-HD over the satellite? I don't ever see anyone really mention that. I would prefer that over the WB and UPN (sorry guys). I don't even thing we have an OTA digital signal here anyway. Thanks,


You will get both NBC HD and Fox HD from D*, since both the B'ham local Fox and NBC stations are O&O stations.

And we do have WB and UPN digital (480i) stations here in B'ham. The engineer at WB has stated they're going HD some time around the end of the year or first of next year. No word on our UPN's HD status.

Tom


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## n8dagr8 (Aug 14, 2004)

THancock said:


> You will get both NBC HD and Fox HD from D*, since both the B'ham local Fox and NBC stations are O&O stations.
> 
> And we do have WB and UPN digital (480i) stations here in B'ham. The engineer at WB has stated they're going HD some time around the end of the year or first of next year. No word on our UPN's HD status.
> 
> Tom


That makes me very happy. Thanks for the info, Tom.


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## DNewton (Aug 19, 2004)

Thanks to this board, I realized yesterday that I was getting the NBC Olympic HD feed here in Birmingham (Thanks for letting me know D*) and my wife is thrilled. I welcome any more network HD feeds from D* since local reception (mine at least) is pretty crappy. DirecTV had better get some more HD in a hurry because I am close to leaving them for Voom. If my wife (and myself as well) weren't so pleased with out DirecTiVo service now, we would have already left. TiVo saved a long time D* subscriber (since 96) from leaving...so far. My wife wants to buy the HD DirecTiVo, but I won't do it until I see more HD coming in on my mini-dish.


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## hongcho (Mar 25, 2004)

Trying Voom is an "educational" experience. Well, at least for me.  Alabama might be a better location to receive their signals, though...

Hong.


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## Guest (Aug 21, 2004)

unless you want your ass kicked by your wife......don't bother with Voom


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## jdspencer (Nov 8, 2003)

And the guest makes a silent remark referencing what?

For those interested in HDTV head on over to the AVS HDTV forums.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=6


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

rkr0923 said:


> unless you want your ass kicked by your wife...


:thats: To see that, I would pay money, which is the same as cash :sure:



> ...don't bother with Voom


...and the troll speaks, yet, says nothing.


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## vstone (Jun 23, 2004)

I think the last of the locals are being moved this week and may have been moved last week. Roanoke was moved last Tuesday.

I theorize that they are setting something up for HD coverage, but its probably just NFL HD coverage.


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