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Game On - Satellite TV is getting EXCITING again!
July 29, 2008
I was one of the first people I know to own a HDTV. I remember when I first got my HDTV I was so happy to watch anything in HD that I would often just keep my television tuned to Dish Networks HD Demo channel or the local PBS station just so I could see some HD. Now the number of HD choices overwhelms me, yet like all other folks who have jumped on the HD bandwagon I still want more!
The satellite industry is starting to get exciting again, with new technologies and new satellites customers of both satellite companies are going to be seeing a lot of new HD this year!
Onw way for the satellite companies to bring us more HD channels they have had to upgrade their technology so that they can fit in all the new HD in the spectrum. One of the major improvements in satellite HD delivery has been the move from MPEG2 HD to MPEG4 HD. This move in technology lets a satellite company to take MPEG2 that used one transponder to bring a customers 3 HD station to move to MPEG4 where the provider can server 6 (or more) HD channels from the same single transponder. These advances in compression not only give satellite providers more space for more HD, but the picture quality of these MPEG4 channels will be as good is not better then what customers had before.
On Thursday DirecTV will be moving all of its remaining national MPEG2 HD channels and will be converting them to MPEG4. This change is scheduled to happen by 6 AM Eastern Time on Thursday.
The channels moving from MPEG2 to MPEG4 are as follows:
ESPN HD – ESPN2 HD – TNT HD – HD Theater – HBO HD – Showtime HD – Universal HD – HDNet – HDNet Movies – NY ABC – NY CBS – NY FOX – NY NBC
In order to receive these channels in the future DirecTV customers will need MPEG4 compatible receivers plus a DirecTV KU/KA Dish. DirecTV understand that not everyone has upgraded their equipment yet and for the time being will keep a number of the HD channels in MPEG2 format on channels 70-99. Those folks will be given a last warning that now is the time to upgrade and DirecTV will try contacting those customers to get them to upgrade.
Earlier this week DirecTV announced that they would soon be offering over 120 national HD channels. All of these new channels will be coming from DirecTV’s new DirecTV 11 satellite which will be going into full operation on August 14th. Since the big announcement came out from DirecTV things have been quiet from Dish Network, however knowing the folks at Dish it would not surprise me to see a huge announcement from them in the next few days.
It’s and exciting game of leapfrog being played by the satellite companies and in the end this is great for the consumer. So now I sit and wait to see what Dish Network comes back with and I know no matter what it is it will mean more HD for all satellite customers.
Game on!
Posted by Scott Greczkowski on July 29, 2008 | Comments (1)
