How do I make DirecTV add National Geographic HD channel?

[kathymoore]

How do I make DirecTV add National Geographic HD channel?

Is there someone I can write to? (or a petition list I can sign?)



Thanks!

[mika911]

Well, there are several channels that people would like to see added.

Unfortunately, DirecTV is maxed out on capacity basically (especially HD). They can't really add anything until new satellites are launched in 2007, and then they will add national cable HD channels in MPEG4.

[Earl Bonovich]

Other then writing to them, and calling.... that is about it.

If you go through the phone system on National Georgraphics website, it will eventually get you to the DirecTV phone number.


But seriously though... there probably won't be any more HD networks till the new sats go up.

[newsposter]

simple..break into the sat. facility, hit add NGC, delete another station you dont like, leave building quietly.

I'm sorta glad they dont have all this good mpeg4 stuff as i dont feel left out with my HDtivos .

[naijai]

Well if a lot of people call in and request it that will be forwarded and i if all you kool DTV on this board call talk to an agent and request it that will get the attention i also want NGC HD

[mjones73]

Well if a lot of people call in and request it that will be forwarded and i if all you kool DTV on this board call talk to an agent and request it that will get the attention i also want NGC HD

We can call all we want, as it's been stated about a billion times, they DON'T have any more bandwidth to add HD channels, the national ones we get now are already running at reduced resolutions as a result also. When the new sats designated to increase national HD capacity go up next year then we should expect to see them catch up and start adding more channels.

[bidger]

Try to get photos of Rupert in a compromising situation.

[BlackHitachi]

How do I make DirecTV add National Geographic HD channel?

Is there someone I can write to? (or a petition list I can sign?)



Thanks!

Well this is what i told my Grand ma . Quit direct and go with dish or cable. If they lose enough customers maybe then they will listen.

[mjones73]

I'm sure they are listening, they don't have room to add more channels and won't til next year...

[kathymoore]

I keep hearing everybody saying that DirecTV has no more bandwidth...

How is that even possible? Is there official confirmation of this lack of capacity?

How many SD channels do they have to get rid of to add one HD channel?
Don't they broadcast that free music channel(101 or something) in HD? It that
channel even necessary?

Thanks!

[DMRI2006]

I'm sure they are listening, they don't have room to add more channels and won't til next year...

How quickly will it take from the time the sat goes up to when the channels are available? Will we be talking about 2008 before there's new HD on Directv??

[newsposter]

since all transponder info is public...someone on this forum certainly has to have done the math

[Earl Bonovich]

I keep hearing everybody saying that DirecTV has no more bandwidth...

How is that even possible? Is there official confirmation of this lack of capacity?

How many SD channels do they have to get rid of to add one HD channel?
Don't they broadcast that free music channel(101 or something) in HD? It that
channel even necessary?

Thanks!

In their last few quarterly webcasts, they have discussed how "full" their fleet of sats are right now... So I guess that would count as "official" communicaton of the capacity, how much they are using, and how much they have to keep for emergency backups.

I seen many people state that it is 6ish SD channels to have one MPEG-2 HD channel.

When CD USA broadcasts in HD, you will see some PPV drop off... Just like when on Sunday's with Sunday Ticket, you will see a LOT of PPV drop off, during game time, so they can broadcast the football games in HD.

[cwt137]

I seen many people state that it is 6ish SD channels to have one MPEG-2 HD channel.



You are right in your estimate. Lets do the math so people don't think you pulled a number out the air:

I will use megapixels as a unit of measurement since everybody is familiar with digital still cameras. The same logic applies to video cameras. My numbers are rounded, but don’t affect the final outcome.

A standard size for an SD channel is 640x480 (480i). So, one frame of video is equivalent to about a .3 megapixel image. Since SD is interlaced, it is really more close to a .15 megapixel image. Lets look at an 720p HD channel. 720p resolution is 1280x720. So, one frame of HD video is equivalent to about a .9 megapixel image.

.9 / .15 = 6

If I'm correct, NGC HD is in 1080i. Lets see how many SD channels we have to drop to add NGC: 1080i resolution is 1920x1080 which comes out to about 2 megapixels per frame of video. Since it is interlaced, let’s cut the figure in half.

1 / .15 = 6.67

So we need to drop 7 channels (you cant have 1/3 of a channel) to add NGC HD.

[kathymoore]

So we need to drop 7 channels (you cant have 1/3 of a channel) to add NGC HD.


Let's start naming 7 channels on DirecTV that we can do without..... :D

[cookpr]

I can probably name 35....then we can get 5 channels :)

In reality, we all know we watch only a handful of channels on a normal basis...I would guess (outside of the networks) 98% of my viewing is on less than 15 channels...probably fewer

[NoMax]

Why can't they get rid of some of the church and shopping channels to add more HD? Most if not all of the church channels are available via FTA anyway, for anyone who really wants them.

NM

[JLucPicard]

Why can't they get rid of some of the church and shopping channels to add more HD? Most if not all of the church channels are available via FTA anyway, for anyone who really wants them.

NM

I think that's somewhere between revenue and regulation. I don't know hard and fast from satellite (since it's national), but years ago when cable was negotiating with my city's "cable board", there were a certain number of channels that were required to be used for community access and such. I think the church channels kind of fall under that type of thing.

As for the shopping channels, I think they pay to be carried, thus representing a more direct revenue stream.

I could be WAYYYY off the wall here, so please be nice? :)

[mjones73]

You're right on the shopping channels, Directv gets a cut of the sales from their customers using the shopping chanels.

As for Directv dropping SD channels to make more room, I'd rather they boost the resolution for the exisiting HD channels to where to should be vs piling more on the MPEG2 system...

[newsposter]

how does a channel know what provider you use? ask?

[Herdfan]

So we need to drop 7 channels (you cant have 1/3 of a channel) to add NGC HD.
Unfortunately its not quite that simple. D* uses a process called stat-muxing to allocate bandwidth in real-time. So if a channel has some fast-moving action or is graphic intensive, the encoders allocate more bandwidth to that channel.

The problem is D* at this point can't combine SD and HD channels on the same transponder and have the stat-muxing work. Which is why there are basically two HD channels per transponder. D* can add some music channels with the HD channels and bypass the stat-mux since they take so little bandwidth anyway.

And with everything eventually moving to MPEG-4, there is little incentive to engineer SD/HD stat-muxing.

So D* would really need to get rid of 14 SD channels which would get us 2 HD channels.

D* could fix the bandwidth issue very easily by converting all HD content to MPEG-4, but keep it on the Ku birds for now. At the very least they could increase the number of channels by 50%. All that would be needed is a MPEG-4 receiver and since it has been repeatedly pointed out that there are so few of us HD subs, a receiver swap should be pretty cheap.

[Adam Richey]

In all honesty, herdfan, I don't think the channel capacity would increase 50% because converting to MPEG4 is only 1 thing. The picture quality on the HD channels right now, at least where I'm at, is pathetic. Some channels look good sometimes, but the HD package is HARDLY worth $10 a month from the way it looks right now.

[Herdfan]

In all honesty, herdfan, I don't think the channel capacity would increase 50% because converting to MPEG4 is only 1 thing.
MPEG-4 in theory is about twice as efficient as MPEG-2. So keeping the same quality D* should be able to put 4 channels per transponder. if they were only to put 3 on a transponder, then quality should increase as well.

But I don't see D* doing this anytime soon. We will have to wait for the new sats.:(

[untouchable]

Let's start naming 7 channels on DirecTV that we can do without..... :D

Man...I can name off a lot more than 7 channels we don't need...

all the shopping networks...that frees up about a crap load of channels...then all of the church channels...specifically channels 362-378...lets see here...most of the channels in the 580's...no need for more porn...that's what all the 590's channels are for...then pull all the XM (560-574) and (801-879)channels...if I wanna listen to radio, I'll turn one on...that would free up a TON of space... so we are looking at quite a few channels if you got rid of all the shopping networks, some of the porn channels, and the religious networks too...that would give us what, 10-20 more channels if you spent the time to count it up...they could put HD channels on the 101 sat anyways...it's just a choice not to do so.

[deraz]

untouch,

That would make engineering sense, but not $ sense for D*.

The music channels take up very little room.....

[pappys]

Man...I can name off a lot more than 7 channels we don't need...

all the shopping networks...that frees up about a crap load of channels...then all of the church channels...specifically channels 362-378...lets see here...most of the channels in the 580's...no need for more porn...that's what all the 590's channels are for...then pull all the XM (560-574) and (801-879)channels...if I wanna listen to radio, I'll turn one on...that would free up a TON of space... so we are looking at quite a few channels if you got rid of all the shopping networks, some of the porn channels, and the religious networks too...that would give us what, 10-20 more channels if you spent the time to count it up...they could put HD channels on the 101 sat anyways...it's just a choice not to do so.

Just because you don't use them, doesn't mean other people do not. Still need to have an open mind.;)