[lokar]

I am watching the coverage of the Curiosity landing on Mars now on NASA's website in HD since D* only shows NASA in SD. If they are giving away the HD channel to everyone, why doesn't D* show it? Being a government channel, I would guess it's free to everyone all the time.

 

[fleckrj]

I am watching the coverage of the Curiosity landing on Mars now on NASA's website in HD since D* only shows NASA in SD. If they are giving away the HD channel to everyone, why doesn't D* show it? Being a government channel, I would guess it's free to everyone all the time.

While there is no carriage fee, it is not entirely free. DirecTV still needs to bear the cost to upload the signal to the satellite, and they need the bandwidth on the satellite to transmit the signal back to earth. The government only provides the signal to DirecTV for free. Everything that it takes to get the signal from DirecTV to you does cost money and takes away resourses that DirecTV could be using to provide another HD channel.

 

[wilbur_the_goose]

I don't see it that way - those are fixed costs, IMHO.

 

[maartena]

Just go to NASA.gov, the HD stream can be found there and is indeed of better quality than the NASA SD feed on DirecTV.

Not that it was that more exciting in HD..... they were the same coffee-loaded, bearded, tired-looking scientist waiting for a word from the rover.

 

[JoeTheDragon]

I am watching the coverage of the Curiosity landing on Mars now on NASA's website in HD since D* only shows NASA in SD. If they are giving away the HD channel to everyone, why doesn't D* show it? Being a government channel, I would guess it's free to everyone all the time.

at least it's a free channel AT&T U-verse forces you to get U-300 with stars and showtime to get it.

and some cable systems have it in a sports pack.

 

[fleckrj]

I don't see it that way - those are fixed costs, IMHO.

Sure they are fixed costs, but they are costs nonetheless. Even DirecTV has limited resources. They could use those resourses for NASA or for some other channel. Bandwidth is not infinite.

 

[alnielsen]

NASA in HD would be nice, but D* has limited bandwidth at the moment. A present HD network (like Shorts) would have to be removed or planned additions would have to be delayed to add it.

 

[maartena]

A present HD network (like Shorts) would have to be removed

That is not happening. Shorts HD is HD only, and it has a carriage agreement, probably for several years. Removing it would be a breach of contract. I know plenty of people seem to hate this channel, but it isn't going to be removed. Not until it's contract expires, and I don't know when that is. Usually, contracts are signed from anywhere between 3 to 10 years, it really depends. 5 years seems to be an average.

As a matter of fact, once HD is added, it probably will not be removed again, unless the channel itself (like G4 or Versus back when) is removed completely.

 

[pfueri]

I am watching the coverage of the Curiosity landing on Mars now on NASA's website in HD since D* only shows NASA in SD. If they are giving away the HD channel to everyone, why doesn't D* show it? Being a government channel, I would guess it's free to everyone all the time.

Just another slap in the face to DirecTv subscribers . DirecTv sucks ! No HD Nasa channel . What a joke !

 

[pfueri]

That is not happening. Shorts HD is HD only, and it has a carriage agreement, probably for several years. Removing it would be a breach of contract. I know plenty of people seem to hate this channel, but it isn't going to be removed. Not until it's contract expires, and I don't know when that is. Usually, contracts are signed from anywhere between 3 to 10 years, it really depends. 5 years seems to be an average.

As a matter of fact, once HD is added, it probably will not be removed again, unless the channel itself (like G4 or Versus back when) is removed completely.

Shorts what a waste of a channel in HD ! This channel sucks !

 

[maartena]

DirecTv sucks !

This channel sucks !

Somehow I got "Beavis" in my head now from the old style Beavis and Butthead on MTV.

 

[harsh]

I don't see it that way - those are fixed costs, IMHO.

The costs are only fixed if they have the bandwidth to burn. If they don't, much capex is involved. DIRECTV discovered the high cost of taking channels down temporarily the hard way.

 

[Satelliteracer]

I could be wrong, but I'm not aware of any major television provider carrying NASA in HD. I believe UStream carries it in HD online, but maybe someone can point me to where NASA is carried in HD by a television provider. Maybe there is one out there, but not sure who.

 

[maartena]

I could be wrong, but I'm not aware of any major television provider carrying NASA in HD. I believe UStream carries it in HD online, but maybe someone can point me to where NASA is carried in HD by a television provider. Maybe there is one out there, but not sure who.

TWC only carries in SD.

Understandable as well, even though they don't have to pay a retransmission fee, they can't make money off the channel either by inserting local commercials, which they can with other channels.

 

[Laxguy]

Somehow I got "Beavis" in my head now from the old style Beavis and Butthead on MTV.

Well, he at least didn't spell it "sux"..... heh-heh-heh-heh-heh heh-heh-heh-heh-heh heh-heh-heh-heh-heh heh-heh-heh-heh-heh heh-heh-heh-heh-heh.

 

[Alan Gordon]

I could be wrong, but I'm not aware of any major television provider carrying NASA in HD. I believe UStream carries it in HD online, but maybe someone can point me to where NASA is carried in HD by a television provider. Maybe there is one out there, but not sure who.

Not exactly major, but to my knowledge, only Brighthouse carries it, and it's not on all their systems.

~Alan

 

[lokar]

While there is no carriage fee, it is not entirely free. DirecTV still needs to bear the cost to upload the signal to the satellite, and they need the bandwidth on the satellite to transmit the signal back to earth. The government only provides the signal to DirecTV for free. Everything that it takes to get the signal from DirecTV to you does cost money and takes away resourses that DirecTV could be using to provide another HD channel.

I forgot about the bandwidth argument, but that would only be an excuse if D* is maxed out right now, which I don't know if they are or not.
In the meantime, if D* would at least letterbox the channel for SD instead of center cutting it, it would look a lot better. A lot of the graphics and computer readouts had stuff cut off on the left and right sides of the screen due to the center cut.

 

[zimm7778]

Not exactly major, but to my knowledge, only Brighthouse carries it, and it's not on all their systems.

~Alan

Kind of understandable though as they are the cable provider or the space coast.

 

[Alan Gordon]

Kind of understandable though as they are the cable provider or the space coast.

Very good point... I didn't even think of that when I posted about it.

~Alan

 

[carlsbad_bolt_fan]

The costs are only fixed if they have the bandwidth to burn. If they don't, much capex is involved. DIRECTV discovered the high cost of taking channels down temporarily the hard way.

Actually, Viacom did.