Ever since
DirecTV 10 went operational and
started broadcasting MPEG-4 HD to fans everywhere, many have wondered, "what about the older HD channels?" DirecTV was one of the first to broadcast some of our favorite HD channels, like HD.net and ESPN HD, but
HD Lite has taken most of the fun out of 'em. So while DirecTV would love to just move everything to MPEG-4, all the existing MPEG-2 customers wouldn't be that happy -- specifically all those DirecTiVo HD holdouts. Starting today DirecTV started broadcasting a simulcast of the most popular MPEG-2 HD channels in MPEG-4 using
DirecTV 11. So far the response has been great, and many are wondering how they ever got by watching all that HD lite for this long. So while this is a step in the right direction, we'll be a bit more excited when DirecTV starts making good on their recent promises and launches the rest of the HD channels needed to
get to the promised 130.
