Future of satellite in 119 slot?

[MetroNY]

Does anyone know the future of the satellite in the 119 spot? Will it still be as highly used as it is at present once the proposed new satellites go into orbit?

This is the only satellite I have difficulty receiving due some neighbor's huge trees.

[quizzer]

Can anybody confirm this:

Will national and local hd channels move into 99 and 103 satellites after the new one is sent to orbit?

Thanks

[CCarncross]

The locals may move quickly, since D* made it clear that new equipment would be necessary in most cases to receive them, but the national channels may take awhile due to the fact of all the non-mpeg4 capable recievers and lack of 5LNB dishes that current subscribers have. Many will kick and scream to fight the upgrade, look at some of the users now.

"the new dish is unacceptable due to its size", blah, blah, blah

People are always going to fight change.

Then theres that whole group of people that refuse to give up the Tivo interface...blah, blah, blah

[texasbrit]

Can anybody confirm this:

Will national and local hd channels move into 99 and 103 satellites after the new one is sent to orbit?

Thanks


The expectation is that all the existing HD channels will move to the new DirecTV 10 and 11 satellites in the 99 and 103 slots at some time in the future. The end of 2008 has been suggested but I don't think anyone knows.

[RobertE]

The locals may move quickly, since D* made it clear that new equipment would be necessary in most cases to receive them, but the national channels may take awhile due to the fact of all the non-mpeg4 capable recievers and lack of 5LNB dishes that current subscribers have. Many will kick and scream to fight the upgrade, look at some of the users now.

"the new dish is unacceptable due to its size", blah, blah, blah

People are always going to fight change.

Then theres that whole group of people that refuse to give up the Tivo interface...blah, blah, blah


I feel no pain for those that don't wan to switch. No TV for You.

[CCarncross]

Obviously I dont either. I suggest they just get over it...

[Mertzen]

Seeing that so few people have MPEG4 capable receivers I doubt the 119 will go anywhere soon.

[harsh]

Seeing that so few people have MPEG4 capable receivers I doubt the 119 will go anywhere soon.It is unreasonable to think that DirecTV will give up any bandwidth that they have. As the HD leaves, it stands a good chance of being replaced by new or improved SD content. My hope is that they will spread out the channels and work on improving the PQ.

[RAD]

It is unreasonable to think that DirecTV will give up any bandwidth that they have. As the HD leaves, it stands a good chance of being replaced by new or improved SD content. My hope is that they will spread out the channels and work on improving the PQ.

Agreeded, they had 11 transponders at 119, that's a lot of capacity to give up.

[RobertE]

I would expect that the markets that are on the 72.5 will get moved over to the 119 or the international lineups.

[bwaldron]

It is unreasonable to think that DirecTV will give up any bandwidth that they have. As the HD leaves, it stands a good chance of being replaced by new or improved SD content. My hope is that they will spread out the channels and work on improving the PQ.

I agree; I am also hoping that freed-up capacity will be used to provide more bandwidth for SD channels and restore PQ to the levels we have had in past years.

[Radio Enginerd]

My hope is that they will spread out the channels and work on improving the PQ.

Ditto.

[Mertzen]

I would expect that the markets that are on the 72.5 will get moved over to the 119 or the international lineups.

If the 72.5s go anywhere it will be on the 101 since not all people have 3LNB but they do have basic dishes.

[veryoldschool]

If the 72.5s go anywhere it will be on the 101 since not all people have 3LNB but they do have basic dishes.
:confused: since "they" have something other than a "basic dish", why would it mean the 101 slot?

[Mertzen]

:confused: since "they" have something other than a "basic dish", why would it mean the 101 slot?

People who have their locals on the 72.5 still have a basic dish for the 101 content. And thus the 101 really is the only place where the 72.5 content can go. Unless they upgrade all these people to a 3LNB.

[veryoldschool]

People who have their locals on the 72.5 still have a basic dish for the 101 content. And thus the 101 really is the only place where the 72.5 content can go. Unless they upgrade all these people to a 3LNB.
I guess this would come down to a "numbers game", where it would be how many of one verses how many of the other [not using 72.5], like so many business decisions.
What would the upside be to move them to the 101 & what would be lost on the 101 for those only using the 101 now.

[Teronzhul]

My original thought when the at9 dishes came out with the "modular" arm was that they would eventually try to move everything into the 99-101-103 slots, and build a smaller 3lnb dish to take advantage of that, reducing installation costs and confining their signal to a 5 degree swath of the sky.

Then if they chose they could move international channels etc to 110/119 and continue using the larger dish to collect all 5 sats, but eliminate the need for the separate International dish altogether. Of course with the installed base of 95 dishes, that would probably be more cost prohibitive short term than it would provide for savings long term.

Of course when the slimlines came out with integrated lnbs, it became obvious that they would just find alternate uses for 110/119. Given the talks of potential bandwidth sharing between D* and E* 110/119 could become very important somewhere along the way.

[cavihitts]

One goal is probably getting 100% of the local markets going in standard def. Laredo, TX is planned to receive SD locals this month (subject to change)

[lwilli201]

Directv 7S at 119 is only 3 years old. Most sats have a 15 year life. It was launched by Sea Launch in May 2004. At the time it was the largest commercial satellite to be launched. The local channels are on spot beam. It also has some national transponders which carry some of the HD MPEG2 channels, some international channels and XM channels. It will be used for something for a long time.

[Tom Robertson]

Couple of things:

DIRECTV is not going to give up any bandwidth. They are actually trying to acquire more.
That said, 72.5 is a temporary authorization using Canadian licenses (and older DIRECTV satellites, btw.)
As lwilli201 says, Directv 7S is too new to give up. And D8 and D9s where built with usage in 110 or 119 as redundancy/long-term plans evolve. (They are only 2 years old.)

Now, perhaps the bandwidth at 119 could become an uplink/downlink for backhauling? Or for the locals on 72.5? Or something else? Who knows. But 119 will not likely be going away anytime soon.

Cheers,
Tom

[quizzer]

Why is directv not thinking of having a single dish for both internationals and HD's...which will receive all 95,99,101 and 103..if not now atleast in the future when hd's move into 99 and 103.

Thanks

[veryoldschool]

Why is directv not thinking of having a single dish for both internationals and HD's...which will receive all 95,99,101 and 103..if not now at least in the future when hd's move into 99 and 103.

Thanks
The slimline has a "blank" mounting place for another LNB in the correct place for the 95 SAT. Maybe someday there will be what you want.

[Tom Robertson]

A toroidal dish could be made to support all the satellites from 95-119, but it would have a couple very major problems:
It would be fairly expensive
Percentage-wise, few customers receive programming from that whole range
and most importantly, it would be a BIG dish and would exceed the magic 1m dish size for FCC protection from HOAs.
So, DIRECTV did a very good engineering job getting the most common satellites in a package that the FCC protection covers.

Cheers,
Tom

Edit: based on VOS's reminding comment, perhaps the slimline could fit the bill. Or is the blank for a future frequency range? Hmmm... now I'm curious. :)

[quizzer]

The slimline has a "blank" mounting place for another LNB in the correct place for the 95 SAT. Maybe someday there will be what you want.


It would be good if it comes by that time directv moves its HD content to 99,103---2008????

[harsh]

My original thought when the at9 dishes came out with the "modular" arm was that they would eventually try to move everything into the 99-101-103 slots, and build a smaller 3lnb dish to take advantage of that, reducing installation costs and confining their signal to a 5 degree swath of the sky.The problem being that the reason that the dish is so gigantic is precisely because that is what is required for 99 and 103. Ka is pretty weak by the time it travels through the atmosphere.

[harsh]

A toroidal dish could be made to support all the satellites from 95-119, but it would have a couple very major problems:A toroidal probably wouldn't work for Ka band unless the dish was really huge.

[Tom Robertson]

A toroidal probably wouldn't work for Ka band unless the dish was really huge.

I did not know that. Frequency related I presume?

Thanks,
Tom

[harsh]

Why is directv not thinking of having a single dish for both internationals and HD's...which will receive all 95,99,101 and 103..if not now atleast in the future when hd's move into 99 and 103.The problem with this theory is that getting much left of 101 starts screwing things up for those in AK and HI. As it is, it looks like they're going to have to spotbeam everything to Hawaii.

[harsh]

I did not know that. Frequency related I presume?Yep. While the Ka signal leaves the satellite packing a lot of heat, by the time it gets to the rooftop, it is attenuated to a signal on a par with FSS. That's why the combo feed horn is right at the "focus" of the dish.

[brewer4]

I've been using sat TV for the past 10 years and I've gone from Primestar dish all the way through each D* dish of 1 LNB to now 5 LNB. All I ask is that the current AT9 or 5 LNB configuration is going to carry for the next 10 years. I love change but damn, tired of putting new holes in the house!

[jimmyv2000]

Maybe the can use the extra space for the SIRIUS music channels if that merger ever goes through.
NOTE: NOT a HOWARD FAN
:D