Hope not. I'd hate to give up my HR20-700 w/ built in OTA.
Speed is the thing... If they want to keep up they'll need to use the satellite link to supply content rather than the users Internet connection. That will lead to yet another bandwidth crunch and the necessary evil coming home again....RAD said:What is better about cables OnDemand that would be made better on DIRECTV by reducing PQ? Yes, cable OnDemand may have more content and HD content then DIRECTV but I don't see how reducing PQ on DIRECTV would help that? When I had cable a few years ago (Comcast) I didn't think it was that great since every now and then when I selected a program to view I couldn't because all the channels on my node for OnDemand were in use. DIRECTV's on Demand service isn't as instant as cable but with the new "Watch Now" feature HD program start playing within 10 seconds.
Sounds like an issue on your end. On Demand with DirecTV allows you to watch immediately as well.Mike Greer;3173285 said:I'm basing it on the embarrassment that DirecTV calls On-Demand. Obviously I don't have any inside information.... I feel their pain - it's not like it is easy when you're dealing with a national distribution system rather than locally like cable... But they will have to change something if they want to keep calling it OnDemand and want to go head-to-head with cable OnDemand.
DirecTV can increase content - although they have a long way to go but the killer is how instant cable is.
DirecTV has more of a Demand Now-Watch Later system that requires a decent Internet connection to be usable at all.
With cable - at least around here - changing between OnDemand content is darn near as fast as changing channels. With Comcast I could take a quick look at 10 different OnDemand shows before I can get one OnDemand from DirecTV to start playing.... And that's with 50/5meg Internet speed.
...yet you haven't offered a valid reason why there would be a bandwidth or capacity issue.Mike Greer;3173298 said:I'm not saying DirecTV is evil if they lower the picture quality.... They are not a charity and they'll do what make sense for them financially. It is just my opinion that they will, in the future, lower quality again to save bandwidth - bandwidth=money.
There is a storm brewing for all the providers - more and more people - especially young people are not subscribing to any of them. That is going to hurt the bottom line and DirecTV will need to adjust to survive.
Obviously it is a problem on my end...:nono2:Hoosier205 said:Sounds like an issue on your end. On Demand with DirecTV allows you to watch immediately as well.
Really? Must be a problem on your end!Hoosier205 said:...yet you haven't offered a valid reason why there would be a bandwidth or capacity issue.
Capacity won't be an issue and On Demand content isn't going to move to a satellite delivery method. So what else ya got?Mike Greer;3173302 said:Really? Must be a problem on your end!
You must be bored again!:lol:Hoosier205 said:Capacity won't be an issue and On Demand content isn't going to move to a satellite delivery method. So what else ya got?
I don't think it will happen 'soon' but if DirecTV is serious about OnDemand they'll have to do something other than require subscribers to also subscribe to DirecTVs competition to make it 'sort of' work!RAD said:Agree with DoD not going to satellite, beyond what they do now with the push of PPV content to HD DVR's. Everything I've seen is DIRECTV is pushing their techs to hook up as many customers that they can to a broadband internet connection for new installs and service calls. This is not only for On Demand content but other services like nomad which requires an internet connection or RVU on Samsung TV's which require an internet connection to download DTCP keys before connecting to a Genie.
Actually, with latest developments (some which may not be in national release yet, I am unsure of that), it is working quite well. I can routinely watch programming in seconds and the resulting picture/sounds are more reliable than anything I've ever seen on Comcast or fios which always have drop outs, jitters, etc. so, it is more than 'sort of' working.Mike Greer;3173336 said:I don't think it will happen 'soon' but if DirecTV is serious about OnDemand they'll have to do something other than require subscribers to also subscribe to DirecTVs competition to make it 'sort of' work!
I don't. Logic will get you a long way however. There are not enough existing or potential HD channels to cause them capacity issues after the launch next year. On Demand is delivered the way it is because satellite delivery is not viable for that type of content and nothing about that will change.Mike Greer;3173330 said:I didn't realize that you had that kind of control over DirecTV and could make those types of decisions.
Lossless audio? I hope you realize that there are no content owners even discussing the distribution of lossless audio for broadcast purposes. Name a single content owner who has mentioned the use of 8K for broadcast. You're imagining things you don't even understand.Mike Greer;3173330 said:When will they have lossless compression at least on audio? Bandwidth is not important so why not do 8k this year?
They very nearly are already.Mike Greer;3173330 said:Why don't they eliminate all those pesky encoders and just pass along what they receive from the content providers untouched? They have plenty of bandwidth after all.
I must not be in an area that has the latest developments.tonyd79 said:Actually, with latest developments (some which may not be in national release yet, I am unsure of that), it is working quite well. I can routinely watch programming in seconds and the resulting picture/sounds are more reliable than anything I've ever seen on Comcast or fios which always have drop outs, jitters, etc. so, it is more than 'sort of' working.
As for using a competitor, not all Internet providers are competitors.
Easy? Nothing on TV today I guess - I'm happy to entertain you!Hoosier205 said:You are making this incredibly easy.
I don't. Logic will get you a long way however. There are not enough existing or potential HD channels to cause them capacity issues after the launch next year. On Demand is delivered the way it is because satellite delivery is not viable for that type of content and nothing about that will change.
Lossless audio? I hope you realize that there are no content owners even discussing the distribution of lossless audio for broadcast purposes. Name a single content owner who has mentioned the use of 8K for broadcast. You're imagining things you don't even understand.
They very nearly are already.
I'll try it that way rather than going to 'On Demand' from the menu. Maybe part of my trouble is the I'm looking at ALL HD - not just Showtime.RAD said:I just tried it.
On a HR34-700 entered ch 1501, selected all, took 7 seconds to populate the list, selected a program, took 15 seconds until it started playing in HD.
Did the same thing on a HR24-500, 14 seconds to populate the list, 13 seconds to start playing the recording.
Internet connection is Time Warner with 15Mbs/2Mbps service. Wife is also streaming HGTV at the same time on her iPad via the DIRECTV iPad application. Both HD DVR's using DECA and connect to my network via a DECA-BB.
Sorry you're not seeing the same thing, but I can live with times like what I'm seeing.
I tried the HD all option from ch 1000 and agree with you, performance is horrible. Looks like it downloads the entire list before displaying a page and then if you select a program and go back it downloads the entire list again, not a user friendly way to do it. Guess I never noticed that since I always go to a channel and then list from there.Mike Greer said:I'll try it that way rather than going to 'On Demand' from the menu. Maybe part of my trouble is the I'm looking at ALL HD - not just Showtime.
I typically search or go to the channel looking for what I want.RAD said:I tried the HD all option from ch 1000 and agree with you, performance is horrible. Looks like it downloads the entire list before displaying a page and then if you select a program and go back it downloads the entire list again, not a user friendly way to do it. Guess I never noticed that since I always go to a channel and then list from there.
I have Comcast's 25 Mb/s and I've never had to wait more than 2 minutes to start something I got from DoD and never reach the buffer. You may also want to check your network setup as something seems off.Mike Greer said:I went back to the play list and it was about 2 minutes before I could get more than a few seconds.
I left it running for a bit to see how fast the download was... After about 10 minutes of 'downloading' I could watch about 7 minutes of it... So not quite real time.
RAD said:I tried the HD all option from ch 1000 and agree with you, performance is horrible. Looks like it downloads the entire list before displaying a page and then if you select a program and go back it downloads the entire list again, not a user friendly way to do it. Guess I never noticed that since I always go to a channel and then list from there.
It is faster if I go to a specific channel but still clunky and I still have to start a recording, go back to the list and wait.... Better but still not even close to the speed of watching something OnDmand with Comcast. I'm no fan of Comcast but I can see why many Comcast subs don't see the need for a DVR at all.tonyd79 said:I typically search or go to the channel looking for what I want.
While fios and Comcast menus are snappier, neither (to my knowledge) has a complete list like channel 1000 on DirecTV. Finding stuff on their systems is just as painful because the organization for all of them suck.
Try it at next NR, I guess.Mike Greer;3173785 said:It is faster if I go to a specific channel but still clunky and I still have to start a recording, go back to the list and wait.... Better but still not even close to the speed of watching something OnDmand with Comcast. I'm no fan of Comcast but I can see why many Comcast subs don't see the need for a DVR at all.
I guess it just isn't for me.
So when you select a show to view is there a 'watch now' option besides record? If there is and you select watch now what happens?Mike Greer said:It is faster if I go to a specific channel but still clunky and I still have to start a recording, go back to the list and wait.... Better but still not even close to the speed of watching something OnDmand with Comcast. I'm no fan of Comcast but I can see why many Comcast subs don't see the need for a DVR at all.
I guess it just isn't for me.
My Comcast is double that speed. I've been through the network tests... I even used a DECA adapter to connect my laptop directly to the DECA network with the receivers. No problems with my laptop running full speed over the DECA network. Same performance as I get connected to my wired Ethernet network....goinsleeper said:I have Comcast's 25 Mb/s and I've never had to wait more than 2 minutes to start something I got from DoD and never reach the buffer. You may also want to check your network setup as something seems off.
Just like others have said, I avoid channel 1000 and either Smart Search or just go straight to the On Demand channel I'm looking for. With Comcast's On Demand, I constantly had issues with freeze frame, pixelation, just stopping halfway through and audio sync being over a second off. I felt rewarded when I finally found something that didn't have an issue.
Wow - just verified that I don't have what it takes to subject myself to OnDemand! I saw your post and just went looking for anything that may say "Watch now" to try it. I couldn't find anything that gave me the option to watch now. Maybe the receiver verifies the connection is fast enough to do Watch Now and if not it doesn't give you that option? I looked through Showtime, HBO, just the general Comedy section and the Series TV sections - I couldn't find anything at all for 'Watch Now'.RAD said:So when you select a show to view is there a 'watch now' option besides record? If there is and you select watch now what happens?
Again, sounds like a problem on your end..Mike Greer;3173811 said:Wow - just verified that I don't have what it takes to subject myself to OnDemand! I saw your post and just went looking for anything that may say "Watch now" to try it. I couldn't find anything that gave me the option to watch now. Maybe the receiver verifies the connection is fast enough to do Watch Now and if not it doesn't give you that option? I looked through Showtime, HBO, just the general Comedy section and the Series TV sections - I couldn't find anything at all for 'Watch Now'.
I checked a few previews - those play without recording but it still takes 10-15 seconds for a low resolutions double boxed preview to start
Looking for something to watch is just painful - I'd have to have a specific show in mind before I ever tried again. Browsing isn't really an option because it takes sooo long. You spend a lot of time with just the DirecTV logo in the center of the screen waiting for something to happen.
Sorry to turn this into an OnDemand thread.... I figured new codecs could improve DirecTV's OnDemand but it looks like they need more than new codecs - it shouldn't be so hard to find something!