PBS - HD Locals
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The announcement was in December of 2007. Like a lot of the BS we hear from Directv it was "coming soon". I have learned that the Directv idea of "SOON" is whenever they feel like it. Which in this case appears to be when Hell freezes over.Radar103 said:
Unless you live in Alaska, you can't get PBS in HD. But you can get all sorts of mindless TV like professional wrestling and ultimate fighting in HD!
I'm confident that Directv knows that they won't lose many customers by not having it available. In the mean time they will just string us along with their usual vague promises.
I woulda had an HD antenna along time ago but alas there are still some of us in the US that have no access to ANY OTA signals. I live in the Sierra foothills and will never have OTA reception for any channel.turls said:
My local Sacramento PBS station KVIE has been ready to transmit the main single PBS HD channel to us via DirecTV since Feb 2008. It is totally DirecTV's decision not to re-transmit this HD PBS signal to me.
IMO, DirecTV has chosen to supply a lot of HD PFV channels to us because those produce more revenue to them in addition to the monthly fees we already pay. PBS HD will not do this for them. If they are just channel slots waiting to switch to more National HD for all of us then I withdraw that comment. Time will tell.
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Ditto - no OTA signals here either. So no PBS HD. Agree they keep adding PPV (with 24 hour limit so I won't use it) but no PBS even though they said last year it was planned. Would have loved to have got the Who Live at Kilburn in HD this week.kenmoo said:
I have no clue what D* is doing with the space on D11. All they have done is the converting of the old MPEG 2 to MPEG 4 ( which I am very happy about that) But besides that nothing really. Last time I checked PBS is a local channel, and since there focus is in LIL's doesn't that mean we should get PBS like now.
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PPV HD channels and PBS LIL channels don't interfere with each other. They are to be broadcast on completely different kinds of transponders from the sats, so carrying one has no affect on carrying the other, in that regard. If you get LIL HD channels of any kind now, I can assure you you will definitely have the PBS HD feeds in your area by 2012... Sorry I can't guarantee any earlier...
As for subchannels... Do not forget that Directv and PBS made an agreement that included VOD, which I have a feeling will cover all the subchannel programing... I wouldn't be surprised if we start seeing PBS channels light up between now and December...
As for subchannels... Do not forget that Directv and PBS made an agreement that included VOD, which I have a feeling will cover all the subchannel programing... I wouldn't be surprised if we start seeing PBS channels light up between now and December...
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Yeah, I emailed D* about it this week; the emails were as comical as expected, the highlight was:n3ntj said:
The details of this upcoming HD feeds for PBS local stations are still being determined so we can't provide you with the exact date at this time.
They're still trying to figure out how to do something they announced they were going to do 8 months ago! Wouldn't you have the plan in place before you announced it?!?!
At any rate I'm guessing this is gonna happen in that part of 2008 that occurs in 2010.
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Directv doesn't make any announcements while negotiations are underway. What was announced earlier was that there had been an agreement made at the national level. Now they are working things out with the individual channels, but won't say anything until is is a done deal (and I doubt it will be all of them at the same time).
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I think it's more then reasonable to say that if you announce you're going to do something in 2008 you shouldn't still be trying to figure out how in September of said year. It kind of like me saying last December I'm going to cure cancer in 2008 and then waiting until now to go "hey, I should probably go to med school".bobnielsen said:
You shouldn't make announcements you aren't prepared to implement; and it's fairly clear D* isn't prepared to implement this one, they admitted as much.
Hank's 100% correct. They should have started working on this before the announcement was made. It appears they are just now realizing they should start working on this. My local station acts like they know nothing about this joint announcement from 2007.
OK, what exactly did the DirecTV press release about carrying PBS stations in HD say? Here's an excerpt from the release posted on D* website:
1. The only timeline mentioned is "soon" and "beginning in 2008". I think we are beyond any reasonable definition of soon, however, there is still time left in 2008 to make this happen.
2. The agreement was reached between D* and PBS and the public TV affiliates association. No agreement was announced between D* and the individual affiliates. Later in this release, mention is made that the agreement would have to be ratified by the individual member stations. I don't know if that happened or not.
You can argue all you want that D* should have had its ducks in a row before making this announcement, but, from D*'s point of view, all they announced was that they had reached an agreement with PBS and the affiliates association. Anything else is just speculation.
I can glean a couple of key points from this text:
1. The only timeline mentioned is "soon" and "beginning in 2008". I think we are beyond any reasonable definition of soon, however, there is still time left in 2008 to make this happen.
2. The agreement was reached between D* and PBS and the public TV affiliates association. No agreement was announced between D* and the individual affiliates. Later in this release, mention is made that the agreement would have to be ratified by the individual member stations. I don't know if that happened or not.
You can argue all you want that D* should have had its ducks in a row before making this announcement, but, from D*'s point of view, all they announced was that they had reached an agreement with PBS and the affiliates association. Anything else is just speculation.
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Let's face some facts:bb37 said:
1. My local PBS says that they have been trying to contact Directv since the announcement last year. They say they have not been able to speak to a decision maker at Directv.
2. Directv doesn't care about the truth in the announcements. Look at their "official" hd listing. to get the "Over 130 channels" they list "over 30 PPV"! Plus to get over 100 channels they list both the east and west feeds for CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox. I used to get the national feeds. You can only get 1 for each network not 2, so you subtract 4 and you're down to 97. Then they list several RSN's - ever notice that most show the exact same program. Only the regional commercials are different.
3. Reality: we get about 70 HD channels - if you have premium + HD + HD Plus.
Don't get me wrong, I like what I get but I hate all of the lies that Directv always has in their "press releases". PBS in HD is just another example.
Oh yeah, if you live in Alaska you can get PBS in HD (so they met their 2008 goal). Live anywhere else - expect SD only for a long, long time.
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They do have PBS in HD. Unfortunately you have to live in Alaska to get it.n3ntj said:
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Yeah, if I lived somewhere that had over the air broadcast I would. Thanks for the worthless suggestion.turls said:
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You really can't argue that all D* was doing was announcing they had reach an agreement with PBS when the first sentence of the press release is:bb37 said:
Public Television stations across the country will soon be available in high-definition (HD) to DIRECTV customers.
PPV channels can simply be thought of as "placeholder" channels. If you don't have plans to immediately turn on new national HD (FoxNews, ESPN-U, etc) at least fill up all the transponders with PPV-HD for now. In doing so you make sure everything works and you make money while the HD expansion is on hold.
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