Digital TV Channels

[jwjensen356]

I was helping a neighbor set up his new TV (a Sony Bravia). His present service is Comsat. No HD, at least not yet. I noted that he is getting the additional DTV channels such as 5.1 and 5.2. And 9.1 and 9.2 (I get 9.1 through 9.6 OTA) and a variety of others.

My question is what might happen with Dish Network and DirecTV post February 2009. Will they have them all or just a few. Any ideas?

[miketorse]

They would have none. The bandwidth required to carry all those "sub" channels would be too much, with very little viewership on those sub-channels anyway. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your perspective) this won't happen.

[FTA Michael]

But the good news is that the satellite services' HD receivers can decode these over-the-air subchannels if you hook up an over-the-air antenna to them.

[lee635]

But the rub to me is when pundits say, "If you have cable or satellite, then you are all set." Cable and satellite are for the most part only going to convert the primary channel, not the many subchannels. So you really are missing a lot if you don't have an old fashioned over-the-air antenna. :(

[James Long]

Conversion is getting what you get today ... expansion is getting more. Cable/satellite viewers are "set" to get what they get today (other than the usual contract squabbles).

The OTA tuners in satellite receivers help ... and as technology improves I expect we will see more subchannels carried. But that is expansion, not conversion. :)

[brant]

a couple of my local stations are running ads asking viewers to call their satellite provider and ask them to provide the sub-channels. Dish does carry the local fox sub-channel, but I assume only because their sub-channel is the CW network.

[davidjplatt]

I was helping a neighbor set up his new TV (a Sony Bravia). His present service is Comsat. No HD, at least not yet. I noted that he is getting the additional DTV channels such as 5.1 and 5.2. And 9.1 and 9.2 (I get 9.1 through 9.6 OTA) and a variety of others.

My question is what might happen with Dish Network and DirecTV post February 2009. Will they have them all or just a few. Any ideas?

I think you meant Comcast not Comsat:)

[davidjplatt]

Conversion is getting what you get today ... expansion is getting more. Cable/satellite viewers are "set" to get what they get today (other than the usual contract squabbles).

The OTA tuners in satellite receivers help ... and as technology improves I expect we will see more subchannels carried. But that is expansion, not conversion. :)

The OTA tuners in satellite receivers help some. The OTA tuners in the DirecTV HD DVR only can tune the channels that DirecTV sends in the guide data - they have no off air channel scan functionality.

The only way I can get all of the subchannels in my area on the two TVs that I have the HD DVR on is to use the built in ATSC tuner in the TV.

[lee635]

But my point is that folks aren't being told that they will be missing some new channels. "All set" to me means that there is NO reason to bother with an off-air antenna if you have cable or satellite TV. That's simply not the case, there may be a compelling reason to get an off air antenna, depending on your local market offerings.

I hate it when folks want to "make the decision for us" and not "burden us little people with all the details because they know what's best for us" instead of giving the complete story and letting each person decide what to do.

I think that there will be many price sensitive cable/sat customers who might choose to drop pay tv if they find out that they can get a dozen or more digital channels, crystal clear with no snow, off air for free (in larger markets). I think that has more to do with why they don't want to "confuse us" with all those little details.



Conversion is getting what you get today ... expansion is getting more. Cable/satellite viewers are "set" to get what they get today (other than the usual contract squabbles).

The OTA tuners in satellite receivers help ... and as technology improves I expect we will see more subchannels carried. But that is expansion, not conversion. :)