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View Full Version : DirecTV Delivers iTV Goods for March Madness


Nick
02-15-06, 07:25 AM
DirecTV said it will introduce new features with its exclusive March Madness Package,
which supplements CBS Sports' coverage of the 2006 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball
Championship.

The tournament tips off March 16.

The new enhancements, including a Game Mix channel, on-screen stats and interactive
tournament bracket, employ the same advanced technology that powered the DirecTV
NFL Sunday Ticket SuperFan option last year, the company said.

Game Mix features up to three game broadcasts on one screen allowing viewers with
a DirecTV interactive receiver to view and move between the various games during the
tournament's first three rounds. The on demand scores/stats feature, which consists of
an L-wrap application on the TV screen, delivers real-time clocks and scores from live
games and additional scoring summaries from current round games.

There's also the "On Demand Bracket," an interactive on-screen overlay allowing viewers
to not only view the current state of the tournament bracket but also input their own
bracket predictions and track their progress as the tournament unfolds. The feature
provides a running total of games correctly or incorrectly predicted by the viewer.

The package, now in its seventh year with DirecTV and not available through any other
pay-TV service, is $59 for residential customers.

www.SkyRetailer.com - used with permission

matty8199
02-15-06, 09:54 PM
My question is this - do you get to pick which games you want on the MIX channel at any given time? If yes, I'm almost definitely going to get this, if no then I probably won't...

carl6
02-15-06, 10:52 PM
My question is this - do you get to pick which games you want on the MIX channel at any given time? If yes, I'm almost definitely going to get this, if no then I probably won't...

My guess would be no - you would not be able to pick. The mix has to be done before the uplink to the satellite. There is no way that individual users would be able to influence or change that.

Carl

MikeW
02-15-06, 11:00 PM
They ought to do a software upgrade that would allow users to create their own "mix" channel. That would be something...especially with MLB EI coming soon.

CCarncross
02-16-06, 12:20 AM
WIth the way sat works and the mix channel, I dont think that would be technically feasible. The mix channel is no different than just about any other channel, except for teh ability to select the feed and switch to it on the interactive capable recievers. ITs still one channel on a specific transponder....TO pick your own mix, would currently require a reciever to be able to recieve the feed from up to six channels simultaneously, which I'm pretty sure is not doable using thecurrent tuning system....

Do some of you not understand how the technology currently works?

matty8199
02-21-06, 09:11 AM
There was a commercial on for MMM last night during 24, and I could've sworn it showed the user switching what games were on the MIX channel...I'll watch it again when I get home tonight and make sure, but I watched the commercial twice last night to make sure I wasn't seeing things...

Clint Lamor
02-21-06, 01:35 PM
WIth the way sat works and the mix channel, I dont think that would be technically feasible. The mix channel is no different than just about any other channel, except for teh ability to select the feed and switch to it on the interactive capable recievers. ITs still one channel on a specific transponder....TO pick your own mix, would currently require a reciever to be able to recieve the feed from up to six channels simultaneously, which I'm pretty sure is not doable using thecurrent tuning system....

Do some of you not understand how the technology currently works?

In theroy they could stream all of them out and allow you to pick which ones are being shown on the screen at the same time. This would just be a local config thus only stating which portions to show/not show. I am unsure of what type of bandwidth this would require but as I said in theroy it should work.

FenixTX
02-21-06, 03:36 PM
If you think about it, if they have 3 games on one channel, that is usually all the live games being played at one time. I don't think they usually schedule more than 4 games live at one time.

ChrisPC
02-21-06, 04:06 PM
I saw the ad on 24 too. From what I remember, the user didn't change the games, but just went from one game's audio to another.