TNTHD taken down for sports?

[l8er]

I searched the forum but couldn't find anything relevant.

I've only been with D* for about a month - but I didn't know that some channels were taken down to provide bandwidth for sports. Today TNTH (TNTHD) at channel 75 says "Programming will return at 5:00 PM ET". TNTHD at channel 245 says Tombstone but just has a black screen.

Is that a routine thing for D* to take down a channel to use the bandwidth for sports programming?

While I don't care about Tombstone or anything else on TNT today, how do they decide what channel or channels they'll shut down to use for sports? Just curious. Thanks.

[CJTE]

I searched the forum but couldn't find anything relevant.

I've only been with D* for about a month - but I didn't know that some channels were taken down to provide bandwidth for sports. Today TNTH (TNTHD) at channel 75 says "Programming will return at 5:00 PM ET". TNTHD at channel 245 says Tombstone but just has a black screen.

Is that a routine thing for D* to take down a channel to use the bandwidth for sports programming?

While I don't care about Tombstone or anything else on TNT today, how do they decide what channel or channels they'll shut down to use for sports? Just curious. Thanks.

Yup, PPVs too!

[LOCODUDE]

I am presently watching TNT at this moment.....Maybe you should check again.

[jtn]

I searched the forum but couldn't find anything relevant.

I've only been with D* for about a month - but I didn't know that some channels were taken down to provide bandwidth for sports. Today TNTH (TNTHD) at channel 75 says "Programming will return at 5:00 PM ET". TNTHD at channel 245 says Tombstone but just has a black screen.

Is that a routine thing for D* to take down a channel to use the bandwidth for sports programming?

While I don't care about Tombstone or anything else on TNT today, how do they decide what channel or channels they'll shut down to use for sports? Just curious. Thanks.

TNT stretches all their HD and I don't consider them a true HD network yet. Sorry but I don't mean to offend anyone. But 99% of their so called HD isn't. :eek2:

[l8er]

I am presently watching TNT at this moment.....Maybe you should check again. I'm guessing you are not watching TNTHD on channel 75 or 245. Perhaps you should check again.

[Greg Alsobrook]

TNT stretches all their HD and I don't consider them a true HD network yet. Sorry but I don't mean to offend anyone. But 99% of their so called HD isn't. :eek2:

amen

[wildbill129]

I'm guessing you are not watching TNTHD on channel 75 or 245. Perhaps you should check again.

Just a blank screen for me here in Nor Cal on 245.....nothing on 75 either....

[Tom Robertson]

Silly thing is, I'm watching it on channel 726, having been on that channel to watch the Vikings Game. :)

Cheers,
Tom

[cwbuckley]

I am having the same problem with TNTHD. All I get is a blank screen on channels 245 and 75. I was going to watch Castaway at 3.

[SamC]

DirecTV has two types of HD capacity. MPEG 2, which is receivable by any DirecTV HD receiver and the 3 headed dishes, and MPEG 4, which requires the new H20 (or even newer H21) model receivers and the 5 headed dishes.

NFL Sunday Ticket is MPEG 2. There is only so much capacity. So DirecTV takes down TNTHD every Sunday during the regular season to make room. It returns, generally a 8PM, but some weeks at 5PM, depending on how many late games are played.

However TNT regular is there on the other 245. Just add it back in in your channel line up.

This issue will probably be gone next year, when all HD owners have been switched to new receivers and dishes, and DirecTV can use the larger MPEG 4 capacity.

[cwbuckley]

Just thought that I would report that 245 and 75 are up and working. They are showing Castaway.

[Tom Robertson]

I have it too. And on 726 still. :)

Cheers,
Tom

[Steve615]

Cast Away is currently showing on channels 75 and 245 over here.

[bobnielsen]

I'm surprised they haven't switched TNTHD to Directv 10 by now (or at least mirrored it).

[kevinwmsn]

I would have thought they would have it done by now too, but problem will fix itself soon enough in 2 months the regular season will be over. Next year Sunday Ticket Superfan channels will very likely be all mpeg4 and also by then the existing mpeg2 hd will likely be mpeg4. This won't be a problem next year and we'll have another satellite up in there too. We should also have the start of Thursday night games in about 3 weeks and that should be less channel(s) that D* has to shut down temporary.

[Tom Robertson]

I would have thought they would have it done by now too, but problem will fix itself soon enough in 2 months the regular season will be over. Next year Sunday Ticket Superfan channels will very likely be all mpeg4 and also by then the existing mpeg2 hd will likely be mpeg4. This won't be a problem next year and we'll have another satellite up in there too. We should also have the start of Thursday night games in about 3 weeks and that should be less channel(s) that D* has to shut down temporary.
I am with you 100%, except that last line. About the same time the NFL network broadcasts Thursday and Saturday games, no more teams go on bye. So we'll still have issues with capacity.

DIRECTV has made it clear, NFL ST will be MPEG4 next year.

I am rather surprised TNT hasn't been mirrored. My expectation is that if the 101 can be invisibly mirrored as SD/HD, TNT could be mirrored as MPEG2/MPEG4.

Obviously DIRECTV has been focusing on the new HD (woohoo!), so now that they are waiting on providers, perhaps they could sneak a mirrored TNT in?

All that said, perhaps the issue is a MPEG2 to MPEG4 transcoder shortage? While I would have thought the same unit that does OTA to MPEG4 could be used, maybe I'm mistaken?

Cheers,
Tom

[narcolept]

All that said, perhaps the issue is a MPEG2 to MPEG4 transcoder shortage? While I would have thought the same unit that does OTA to MPEG4 could be used, maybe I'm mistaken?

Cheers,
Tom

I would think that is the case too, hopefully someone can set us both straight if that isn't the case.

On another note... Is there that much of a week to week influx of new subs here? It seems that would be the case, as these threads are a Sunday ritual -- People looking for TNTHD sometime after 1PM EST. It makes be wonder how many new subs are showing up here every Saturday after their 8-12 installs and itching to watch something scheduled for TNTHD at 2pm EST Sunday.

[Herdfan]

I'm surprised they haven't switched TNTHD to Directv 10 by now (or at least mirrored it).

I thought they had. This morning I noticed that 75 had the "Programming returns at 5:00pm message, but 245-HD had the regular guide. But no, both were blacked out.

[Tom Robertson]

I would think that is the case too, hopefully someone can set us both straight if that isn't the case.

On another note... Is there that much of a week to week influx of new subs here? It seems that would be the case, as these threads are a Sunday ritual -- People looking for TNTHD sometime after 1PM EST. It makes be wonder how many new subs are showing up here every Saturday after their 8-12 installs and itching to watch something scheduled for TNTHD at 2pm EST Sunday.We're averaging roughly 1,000 new registrations a week! :)

Cheers,
Tom

[CJTE]

We're averaging roughly 1,000 new registrations a week! :)

Cheers,
Tom

D* or DBSTalk :D :D :lol:

//

What do you mean we ;)

[Tom Robertson]

I meant DBStalk, I suppose the OP could be asking about DIRECTV, now that you mention it. :D

[CJTE]

OMG R U SRS!?!
Sorry, I had to. its getting late so my mind is reverting.

Anyway... 1,000 users per week thats NUTS.
How many of those are spam?

[Tom Robertson]

Actually very few new registrants are spammers or otherwise not allowed by our rules. Mostly we get a lot of very good people who want to learn or help or both. :)

[captain_video]

I searched the forum but couldn't find anything relevant.

I've only been with D* for about a month - but I didn't know that some channels were taken down to provide bandwidth for sports. Today TNTH (TNTHD) at channel 75 says "Programming will return at 5:00 PM ET". TNTHD at channel 245 says Tombstone but just has a black screen.

Is that a routine thing for D* to take down a channel to use the bandwidth for sports programming?

While I don't care about Tombstone or anything else on TNT today, how do they decide what channel or channels they'll shut down to use for sports? Just curious. Thanks.

This is old news and I'm surprised a search didn't uncover numerous rants on the subject. DirecTV has been doing this for quite some time now. I guess they don't feel any customer not signed up for Sunday Ticket has any say in what they pay for. It's one of the reasons I switched to FIOS.

[Earl Bonovich]

How many of those are spam?

On average... about 5 spam accounts a week are deleted.

[Earl Bonovich]

This is old news and I'm surprised a search didn't uncover numerous rants on the subject. DirecTV has been doing this for quite some time now. I guess they don't feel any customer not signed up for Sunday Ticket has any say in what they pay for. It's one of the reasons I switched to FIOS.

Yawn...

Seriously... this happened last year... this was known to happen again this year...

And there is no reason to believe that it won't be corrected for next year.

Umm... Yes... they do think other customers have a say in what they pay for.
But last time I checked... There are abotu 1.5 million coustomers that are sending them an average of $300 more on their subscription for an 8-12 hour window on 19 Sundays out of the year....

TNT agreed to this in their contract negotiations with DirecTV.... And I am sure all the other PPV's and other channels that have to be shutdown also have had to agree to it as well.

But if the "few" that got so bent... and left to FIOS... there was probable 100 more that joined to have Sunday Ticket.

[Herdfan]

And don't forget that last year D* did listen to their customers and did not shut down TNT-HD for the two Race for the Chase (NASCAR for the northerners;) ) races that TNT carried.

[l8er]

Since I'm the OP on this particularly thread let me say that I believe it's not a big deal that some channels get shut down for a few hours to accommodate NFL ST. Being new to D* I just didn't know that it happened and searching on TNT, TNT-HD, TNTHD, bandwidth, shutting down, shut down, channels, sports and combinations thereof didn't turn up anything relevant. (At least not the combinations I tried).

[captain_video]

Yawn...
TNT agreed to this in their contract negotiations with DirecTV.... And I am sure all the other PPV's and other channels that have to be shutdown also have had to agree to it as well.

But if the "few" that got so bent... and left to FIOS... there was probable 100 more that joined to have Sunday Ticket.
That may be, but did DirecTV pass this little tidbit of information along to its non-Sunday Ticket customers? I'd like to see the press release or memo that was sent to all their subscribers to let them know TNT-HD would not be available on Sundays because the Sunday Ticket subscribers outbid them for the bandwidth. TNT-HD is not high on my priority list of channels to watch but occasionally they do broadcast something of interest. Believe me, pre-empting TNT-HD was only one of the minor reasons I switched to FIOS. There were far greater issues that caused me to switch. Verizon has already announced the addition of new HD channels that will start rolling out in 2008 so they'll be giving DirecTV a run for their money as the leader in HD programming.

I was a DirecTV subscriber for over ten years and was disappointed to see the quality of their broadcasts steadily decline over that period, mostly due to overcompression as a result of cramming more channels into a limited amount of bandwidth. The TNT-HD issue is a direct result of trying to pack 10 pounds of $hit into a 2-pound sack. When I switched to FIOS back in February, DirecTV was announcing all kinds of new HD channels in mpeg4. Unfortunately for them, they have a track record of broken promises and delays when offering new services. We now know that they made good on their promise but at the time it seemed like a crapshoot and I just wasn't willing to take the risk.

When FIOS became available it was a no-brainer to make the switch under the circumstances and I must say I have no regrets. I could have stayed with DirecTV, replaced all my mpeg2 hardware with mpeg4 receivers and DVRs (that I would likely have had to pay for because this was before DTV started offering the free upgrade deals), and get locked into another 2-year commitment, not knowing what the future would bring. The HR20 was still going through some serious growing pains back then so I was leary about making the switch from my HDTivos. DirecTV only offers four mpeg4 HD locals in my area, which is not only a joke but an insult, whereas FIOS offers twelve (I actually get 14 with my OTA antenna and HTPC). I get all the same HD channels DTV was offering at the time, plus I don't have to pay extra for HDNet. Right now DirecTV has the edge in the total number of HD channels, but that should change within the next year.

Since I'm the OP on this particularly thread let me say that I believe it's not a big deal that some channels get shut down for a few hours to accommodate NFL ST. Being new to D* I just didn't know that it happened and searching on TNT, TNT-HD, TNTHD, bandwidth, shutting down, shut down, channels, sports and combinations thereof didn't turn up anything relevant. (At least not the combinations I tried).
Not a big deal for you, perhaps, but obviously a big deal for others. The poster above you indicated that they kept TNT-HD alive for the NASCAR races. Now that would not have been important to me but it was obviously important to him. Every customer has different viewing tastes and habits and should be given the same level of treatment. I respect the rights of Sunday Ticket holders to watch their football but not at the expense of channels that I pay for. If DirecTV is so gung-ho about getting everyone to switch to mpeg4 then they should have moved Sunday Ticket broadcasts to mpeg4 and upgraded all their subscribers with new hardware. They could have easily offered the ST holders a good deal if they signed up for two years of ST as part of the switch since they'd already be locked into a 2-year extension.

[JLucPicard]

Not a big deal for you, perhaps, but obviously a big deal for others. The poster above you indicated that they kept TNT-HD alive for the NASCAR races. Now that would not have been important to me but it was obviously important to him. Every customer has different viewing tastes and habits and should be given the same level of treatment. I respect the rights of Sunday Ticket holders to watch their football but not at the expense of channels that I pay for.
And there is much more ad revenue involved in a NASCAR race than a Stretch-O-Vision repeat of "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" or "War Games".

And from reading most of the threads decrying D*s deplorable action of taking TNT-HD off line during the football season convinces me those threads are driven much more by people that are morally outraged that D* would do such a thing without clearing it with THEM first than people who are really upset that they missed something they would have been watching.

It is how it is, it will be different next year. Next year those same people will probably be decrying the deplorable action D* took by switching TNT-HD to MPEG4 and making all those people buy new equipment.

:beatdeadhorse: :beatdeadhorse: :beatdeadhorse: :beatdeadhorse: