DirecTV to carry 100 National HD Channels in 2007
By Ben Drawbaugh 
posted January 9th 2007 6:15AM
posted January 9th 2007 6:15AM
We sure hope this means that the HD programming race is heating up and it's not just vapor ware. After all 2006 was a slow year for new HD channels. DirecTV has been boasting for some time about the number of HD channels they would have and today they have announced specific channels. The interesting part is that - A&E
- National Geographic
- Bravo
- NFL Network
- Cartoon Network
- SciFi Channel
- CNN
- Speed
- Food Network
- TBS
- FX
- The History Channel
- HGTV
- The Weather Channel
- MTV
- USA Network
I really hope SciFi, FX and USA add HD channels this year... AND Time Warner carries them in Dallas.
I don't see any reason why cable companies and Dish can't add the same national HD channels that DirecTV is announcing. Of course cable will still have INHD since it's cable-owned, but the non-DTV carriers would have to be completely stupid not to pick up new HD channels, especially on well-known networks like CNN, A&E, SciFi, FX, etc.
All in all, an awesome announcement for HD fans, since this just means more and more content for everyone! Hooray!
even if the list were only a hair longer then this, if it was offered at a competitive rate, and I could get a good sized DVR w/ the package, I would totally drop my Comcast service for these channels, assuming that Comcast doesn't start carrying these stations themselves.
What I would like to see is a package that has all of these channels in HD and NO STANDARD DEF channels at all. Save the bandwidth.
I would rather have 50 or 60 HD channels then 400 channels of SD, most of which I never watch..
Burn you have it 100% correct, I have yet to understand why we need 400+ channels of SD programming, who on this earth has time to watch all of that crap. With ratings dwindling over the board I am really surprised the networks aren't consolidating to increase ratings.
A giant consolidation movement would allow for less programing costs and higher ratings. I understand that they want niche programing for certain markets, but with DVRs becoming more and more prevalent couldn't they segment one channel into niche markets with the lower rated shows on in the middle of the night. I know I would still find it if I liked to watch it. I see this as being beneficial to both the cable/satellite providers as well as the networks.
I know I only record from the few HD channels I have, and I seem to still not have enough time to watch it all. I can't imagine having the lineup above all in HD, I would have to do some serious trimming to what I watch. Also, people need to educate their friends and family watching crappy looking SD on their HDTVs, it took over a year for me to convince a friend of mine just to upgrade his cable box for free, now he can't stop watching HD!!! BOYCOTT SD!!
amen all the way. Wht good is SD in this day and age, who are they fooling????
amen all the way. Wht good is SD in this day and age, who are they fooling????
I would love to see The Shield and current episodes of BSG in HD. Let's hope this happens before the year 2078.
SciFi in HD would give me all the reason I need to switch to DirecTV if Comcast doesn't offer it. After getting to see BSG reruns and Stargate Atlantis in HD, there's no going back.
I just hope this merge doesnt mean i have to upgrade my 5 LNB dish again.
If they have all this bandwidth, why not just provide full HD instead of HD-lite. Provide 45-50 National HD channels instead of 70 and use the rest of the bandwidth to increase the quality.
IF these providers go HD, this is going to put enormous pressure on cable (and phone) companies to roll out fiber. But once they do, DirecTV has a problem....especially if they still overcompress.
To Burn (and Will),
Your suggestion was tried a few years ag by VOOM (which has since been absorbed by Dish Network). They were going to be the first HD-centric (still a few SD channels) provider. Unfortunately, I think they were a little too ahead of their time and people just weren't ready for them.
John
So does the extra bandwidth needed for these additional HD channels mean that DirectTV's HD is going to get even more compressed -- or are they going to make more extensive use of MPEG4 to avoid this problem?
>>So does the extra bandwidth needed for these additional HD channels mean that DirectTV's HD is going to get even more compressed -- or are they going to make more extensive use of MPEG4 to avoid this problem?
So does the extra bandwidth needed for these additional HD channels mean that DirectTV's HD is going to get even more compressed -- or are they going to make more extensive use of MPEG4 to avoid this problem?
Umm...MPEG4 *is* compresison. Just better than MPEG2. The new sats will be exclusively MPEG4 (so the MPEG2-only HR10-250 will be obsolete), providing these national feeds as well as local spot beams.
This is just what I was afraid of!
I have a pair of the HD DirecTiVo HR 10-250 units and I just do not want to give up TiVo! all the problems that I have heard about the HD DVR that the sell to replace it just add to that conviction.
Also these receivers were EXPENSIVE when DirecTV sold them to me just a few years ago...
If they are going to render them obsolete less than 5 or 6 years after selling them for $1000 each (I know they ended up dumping them for almost nothing but we at the Bleeding edge spent big bucks for them) then I sure hope they have some plans for folks like me!
I was one of the first 100 users of DirecTV in New England when they launched the service and it would be nice to see them treat the charter users fairly!
A friend tolk me that Direct Tv will have to offer everyone a free upgrade to HD this year-2007. Anyone else heard this?
Just bought a hi-def tv. I have directv and they informed me that it will cost me $299 for the hi-def-dvr box plus $10 a month.How can they charge so much for a lease and still charge us $10 a month? They told us they don't have any channels in area yet even local ones. I am shocked! Directv is not satisfying their customers.
Hi all,
I finally decided to upgrade my HR10-250 for the HR20-700 so I called DTV and asked what they were offering current customers in regards to equipment upgrades. I had seen chatter on the net about current customers being eligible for a $99 upgrade but DTV said that offer has expired so I would have to pay the full retail price of $299 plus $19 shipping and handling. Knowing that all things @ DTV are negotiable I told them that was too expensive and to forget it. Then the haggling began. In the end, they offered a new HR20 and the 5LNB dish for $199 (spread out over 3 months) and to make up for the $199 they offered to discount my monthly service charge by $16 per month for 12 months. Considering they aren't offering any standard discounts for equipment upgrades, this didn't sound like a bad deal. The new hardware is showing up on 3/24 so we'll see how it goes.
The moral of the story is you shouldn't have to pay ridiculous retail prices if you've been a customer for a while and just want to utilize new services/features DTV has to offer. One important note: I spoke to two reps throughout this process and both of them looked up payment history so I'm willing to bet that if payment hasn't been made on-time, they won't extend any discounts.
Anyway, that's my two cents. Good luck to all.