[Stephen J]

How will E*11 be able to provide more HD channels, if E* is planning on putting new HD customers onto the Eastern Arch, that won’t see E*11? Are they gonna have to put whatever channels are on E*11 on to one of the EA birds too? Is E*11 basically going to be used for the western Arch?

 

[Jim5506]

But all content on eastern arc is MPEG-4, all those big fat SD channels now only occupy 1/2 the bandwidth that they did, leaving essentially one full satellite's worth of TP's for new HD. More than 100 HD channels worth of extra room.

 

[rocatman]

How will E*11 be able to provide more HD channels, if E* is planning on putting new HD customers onto the Eastern Arch, that won't see E*11? Are they gonna have to put whatever channels are on E*11 on to one of the EA birds too? Is E*11 basically going to be used for the western Arch?

Yes, all the national channels at the 110/119 W slots will be put onto satellites at 61.5/72.7/77 W although I believe almost all of it will be on 61.5 and 72.7. Dish is not going to put national HD programming on the Eastern Arc that is not available for the rest of their HD customers. I believe if there is a bandwidth shortage for national HD it is on the Western Arc and the E-11 satellite may alleviate this shortage.

 

[JohnH]

EchoStar has filed a request for Special Temporary Authority to operate EchoStar 8 at the 77 west location(an Eastern Arc location). EchoStar 11 will have to replace EchoStar 8 in order for this to happen. Additional HD channels can then be placed at 110 and additional HD channels can then be placed at 77. This seems to provide more HD for both Arcs, all because EchoStar 11 is going to 110.

Maybe rocatman can get the link for the application which was announced in Todays Daily Digest.

 

[rocatman]

EchoStar has filed a request for Special Temporary Authority to operate EchoStar 8 at the 77 west location(an Eastern Arc location). EchoStar 11 will have to replace EchoStar 8 in order for this to happen. Additional HD channels can then be placed at 110 and additional HD channels can then be placed at 77. This seems to provide more HD for both Arcs, all because EchoStar 11 is going to 110.

Maybe rocatman can get the link for the application which was announced in Todays Daily Digest.

Below is the FCC website address that includes the narrative of what Dish want to do with the E-8 satellite at 77W. I still believe that E-8 at 77 W will be used for HD locals at least initially. Dish should have plenty of room near term to add national HD channels at 61.5 W and 72.7 W.

http://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/servlet/ib.page.FetchAttachment?attachment_key=-149780

Dish also has a second FCC filing that only requesting moving E-8 to 77 W. This needs to be approved first but based on what was done for E-6, takes less time to approve since there is a minimum amount of interference issues associated with just moving a satellite as opposed to providing programming from it at a different slot.

http://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/servlet/ib.page.FetchAttachment?attachment_key=-149766

 

[BattleZone]

But all content on eastern arc is MPEG-4, all thise big fat SD channels now only occupy 1/2 the bandwidth that they did, leaving essentially one full satellite's worth of TP's for new HD. More than 100 HD channels worth of extra room.

Where do you get that all of the Eastern Arc channels will be MPEG4? There are millions of MPEG2 receivers that will still need to work to get SD channels, and Dish isn't going to swap all of them out just to be able to change them to a single dish. The *HD* channels are all MPEG4 of course, but the SDs will stay MPEG2 for a long time to come.

 

[JohnH]

Where do you get that all of the Eastern Arc channels will be MPEG4? There are millions of MPEG2 receivers that will still need to work to get SD channels, and Dish isn't going to swap all of them out just to be able to change them to a single dish. The *HD* channels are all MPEG4 of course, but the SDs will stay MPEG2 for a long time to come.

Eastern Arc has no subscribers at the present time, So the MPEG2 only receivers are of no concern. Only new Subscribers will get Eastern Arc and they will get MPEG4 receivers.

 

[homeskillet]

All the Eastern Arc channels have been uplinked in MPEG 4.

 

[spear61]

Where do you get that all of the Eastern Arc channels will be MPEG4? There are millions of MPEG2 receivers that will still need to work to get SD channels, and Dish isn't going to swap all of them out just to be able to change them to a single dish. The *HD* channels are all MPEG4 of course, but the SDs will stay MPEG2 for a long time to come.

72.7 and 77 are/will be 100 percent MPEG4. You will not be able to receive them without a MPEG4 receiver. SD continues as MPEG2 on 61.5, 110, 119, and 129.

They told us in the latest earning conference that they are phasing out the sale of MPEG2 receivers and expect to stop sales by year end 2008. They went on to say that they expect existing customers to gradually chose to switch to new MPEG4 boxes and that the phaseout of MPEG2 will be complete in 3-5 years.

 

[Jim5506]

You cannot get Eastern Arc without all MPEG-4 equipment. That is why it is for new subs only in the beginning.

MPEG-4 is the point of the whole plan, as I understand it.

Noting all the SD channels uplinked on 72.7 a couple of days ago were SD MPEG-4.

Over 400 MPEG-4 SD channels uplinked:
http://www.satelliteguys.us/uplink-...ivity-report-8-6-2008-2-02pm-488-changes.html

 

[BattleZone]

Wow, I didn't realize that they were limiting Eastern Arc to just new customers. That's a good plan, IMO, but I'm sure it's going to upset a lot of existing customers, especially those with LOS issues today. Oh well, can't make an omelette without cracking some eggs!

 

[spear61]

Wow, I didn't realize that they were limiting Eastern Arc to just new customers. That's a good plan, IMO, but I'm sure it's going to upset a lot of existing customers, especially those with LOS issues today. Oh well, can't make an omelette without cracking some eggs!

Estimated Feb 09 for existing customers. Probably having a dish supply problem and lack of technicians for installations for EA and have calculated that they can max income by supplying new customers first.

 

[scooper]

I think EA is a non-starter at my house - trees. It's marginal enough on 119 as it is...

61.5 is possible (I think - I'm going to check LOS before August is done), but I'm not sure about the rest.

 

[jefbal99]

I think EA is a non-starter at my house - trees. It's marginal enough on 119 as it is...

61.5 is possible (I think - I'm going to check LOS before August is done), but I'm not sure about the rest.

119 is way WEST of 61.5

The Eastern Arc is 61.5, 72.7 and 77.x

 

[James Long]

I hope they will at least make the channels available to existing subscribers even if they won't sell the service to existing customers.

 

[BobaBird]

Info from yesterday's Retailer Chat has been added to the EKB Eastern Arc page.

 

[kal915]

Info from yesterday's Retailer Chat has been added to the EKB Eastern Arc page.

If you look at the pictures, you can see that Voom sponsored their lunch

 

[Richard King]

They don't serve lunch at "Retailer Chats" since the retailers are all over the country. What picture are you speaking of?

 

[James Long]

He's probably thinking of Team Summit pictures.

 

[Richard King]

I thought maybe they were doing microwave delivery.