Anyone see the latest DirecTV commercial (1 Viewer)

[Michael_Victor]

Did I hear right about 1500!!! HD Channels?

It was the commercial about launching the satellites later in the year.

 

[Elinor]

YES !! THAT'S RIGHT !! 1500 mostly local channels that YOU won't be qualified to receive !!! Woohoo !!!

 

[ScottHH]

That's what you heard. But it's completely misleading:

http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/aboutu...id=09_08_2004A

"The first two of these satellites, Spaceway 1 and Spaceway 2, will launch in 2005 with programming being offered to consumers by the middle of the year. These satellites will have the capacity for more than 500 local HD channels. With these satellites, DIRECTV will have the ability to bring local HD programming to most of the U.S. population, as well as continuing to expand standard-definition local offerings and other enhancements."

If you're lucky, you'll get your handful of locals, as will all the other markets. Add them up and you get 500.

"The next two satellites, DIRECTV 10 and DIRECTV 11, will launch in early 2007. These satellites will have the capacity for more than 1,000 additional local HD channels, more than 150 national HD channels, and other new programming offerings. These satellites will provide DIRECTV the capability to bring local and national HD programming and other advanced services to every U.S. household. Consumers will be able to receive all of these services, as well as existing DIRECTV® programming, with a single small satellite dish."

If you weren't lucky, NOW you'll get your handful of locals, as will all the other markets. Add them up and you get 1000.

CAPACITY for 150 national channels. They're not even promising to deliver ANYTHING.

 

[Michael_Victor]

Would we be able to receive HD Local channels from other areas or just our own? I already get crystal OTA HD for local.

 

[Elinor]

What I understand is, most local channels forbid carriage of their signals to markets served by their own channels.

 

[ScottH]

(Not to be confused with ScottHH)

The best part is none of the equipment you have now will be able to render the signal of these new channels. They will be in MPEG4, which none of the current equipment is able to decode.

 

[Scott L]

Well at least it's good to see we're slowly doing away with blocky, wasteful mpeg-2.

 

[Ray Chuang]

What I find interesting is that with DirecTV launching four satellites in the next 2-3 years we may see the USA take the lead in the availability large numbers of channels of high-definition broadcasting.

Hey, finally the DVI/HDMI connectors on the back of LCD/HD-ILA/DLP projection TV's are useful for a change.

Does anyone know what is the situation in regards to high-definition broadcasting in Europe and Japan? (I'm not even sure what format Europeans use. )

 

[Mike Williams]

[QUOTEWhat I understand is, most local channels forbid carriage of their signals to markets served by their own channels.[/quote]

Actually, it's just the opposite. Most local channels forbid carriage of OTHER signals into their own markets, because they want the local consumer viewing their local advertisements. They want to be able to tell advertisers a certain number of viewers access their channels, so they can set advertising rates.