Bill.Satellite
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They are still showing HD and SD versions of stations on mine. The SD channels are being broadcast from the 101 satellite so dome users would not currently be seeing any issues.
What I post is my 2 cents and nothing more. Please don't read anything into my post that's not there. If you disagree, that's OK.
Can't we all just get along?
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Gdetrailer
PA
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Joined: 01/05/2007
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Bill.Satellite wrote:They are still showing HD and SD versions of stations on mine. The SD channels are being broadcast from the 101 satellite so dome users would not currently be seeing any issues.
Bill,
I suspect that it is nothing more than a unsubstantiated rumor that was posted on this forum just once and absolutely nowhere else on the entire Internet including Directs own website..
Posted HERE
And I am quoting the OP below..
John Wayne wrote:Just spent 45 min on the phone with Tech support. Trying to get directv to let me change a good SD card from a broken SD receiver to a working receiver same model that I have. Would sell me a new card for the working receiver for $20.00. But advised that DirecTV was going to stop SD transmission on Dec. 31. Will have to wait and see if it's true or not.
So, Dec31 2020 has come and gone and as I suspected, absolutely no complaints out on the wobbly web of anyone "loosing" SD Direct channels..
I suspect the OP of that post was merely venting their frustrations of having to pay $20 for a new replacement card for their "working" receiver..
Once again, someone with an "axe to grind"..
Everything I can find talks about Direct dropping the MPEG2 SD support back in 2019.. 2019 has come and gone, 2020 has come and gone but yet, SD stuff is STILL there. Its just that they may have still had some MPEG2 SD support going on and finally has turned out the lights on the MPEG2 support.. If one indeed was using that old of a receiver, I doubt you would have had very many channels to watch from 2019 to 2021 and should have retired such an old box..
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Bill.Satellite
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The fact that DTV is going to end SD transmissions is NOT unsubstantiated. It is only unknown when and what (if anything) will be broadcast from the 101 satellite when they do. Those of us using a Winegard Trav'ler could care less (but I will miss being able to switch to SD in a really bad rain storm!) but dome users are likely in for a very big surprise when it happens.
You likely don't remember 2000 (or 01) when DirecTV initiated their spot-beam broadcasts of local Networks. I DO! One day we were watching NBC from FL while in WY and the next day ALL Network programming was gone. No warning, no previous information. They were just gone. It took some time for us to find out what happened. I believe it's about to happen again but this time we will have had some warning mixed in with a lot of bad information about the drop dead date.
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wa8yxm
Davison Michigan (East of Flint)
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Joined: 07/04/2006
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captpar wrote:Because I rather get a root canal then deal with the people that man the phones at direct tv.
FACT.. Though most folks Dread root canal I walked into the Dentist office in great pain.. Walked out absent the pain. best birthday gift EVER (yes it was my birthday)
Dealing with Cuss-some-more service. Well I had a minor pain when I dialed. but by the time I was done.. See Walking into dentist offce.
What it means is this. the satellite at 101W is decommissioned 99 and 103 are still live but they are in a different frequency band so if you have a dual band antenna. you should not have any issues but if you have a mono-bander (Dome, portable, Cube most any automatic) you are out of luck. I do not know of 101 will be re-tasked to HDTV or not. IF they do. you are may still have joy.
Home was where I park it. but alas the.
2005 Damon Intruder 377 Alas declared a total loss
after a semi "nicked" it. Still have the radios
Kenwood TS-2000, ICOM ID-5100, ID-51A+2, ID-880 REF030C most times
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Retired JSO
North Georgia Mountains
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Joined: 01/28/2009
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I lost my local channels over a year ago using our carry out g3.
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CA Traveler
The Western States
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Retired JSO wrote:I lost my local channels over a year ago using our carry out g3. There are also areas where DTV does not transmit SD. In 2014 I was in the Eugene/Florence OR area with no SD which DTV confirmed. That was my tripping point to upgrade to the RF Mogul antenna. I was using the HR24 receiver which receives SD/HD.
* This post was
edited 01/02/21 07:28pm by CA Traveler *
2009 Holiday Rambler 42' Scepter with ISL 400 Cummins
750 Watts Solar Morningstar MPPT 60 Controller
2014 Grand Cherokee Overland
Bob
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Gdetrailer
PA
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Bill.Satellite wrote:The fact that DTV is going to end SD transmissions is NOT unsubstantiated. It is only unknown when and what (if anything) will be broadcast from the 101 satellite when they do. Those of us using a Winegard Trav'ler could care less (but I will miss being able to switch to SD in a really bad rain storm!) but dome users are likely in for a very big surprise when it happens.
You likely don't remember 2000 (or 01) when DirecTV initiated their spot-beam broadcasts of local Networks. I DO! One day we were watching NBC from FL while in WY and the next day ALL Network programming was gone. No warning, no previous information. They were just gone. It took some time for us to find out what happened. I believe it's about to happen again but this time we will have had some warning mixed in with a lot of bad information about the drop dead date.
The mere fact that CURRENT DTV receivers use MPEG4 encoding and MPEG4 can be encoded as SD or HD means that they can stop "duplicated" SD and HD channels and and absolutely no one will ever know the difference unless you are completely stuck with getting only the 101 sat AND have a receiver that cannot decode MPEG4.
Keep in mind though, they can easily change the 101 to HD with MPEG4 so as long as you have a CURRENT MPEG4 receiver, you will notice absolutely nothing during the change over other than fewer channels.
The sat doesn't care what they send to it, it is nothing more than a "repeater", send SD up, it sends down SD.. Send HD up and it sends HD down..
The main thing is to have a receiver that handles the type of encoding they plan to use..
Direct in some respects may not be able to fully eliminate SD uplinks. The reason is to go 100% HD they WILL have to severely reduce the quantity of channels offered since they can uplink many more SD channels than they can with all HD.. One also need to take into consideration, not EVERY channel offered is offered in "HD", there are many program channels that are SD only and makes zero sense to use up the entire transponder bandwidth on programming that is in SD only..
Think of it like the OTA channels, you have a certain defined bandwidth to transmit on. With OTA the broadcaster can have up to two full HD digital channels in the same band size as the old analog.. Or they can have one main full HD, plus up to 3 additional SD sub channels to broadcast.. Same thing happens on the sat transponders..
Found a article HERE stating 10-13 SD channels per transponder using MPEG2, MPEG4 is more efficient compression which will allow them to TRIPLE SD channels per transponder making it 30-39 channels per transponder..
Space is money and if they can fit that many SD channels on one transponders they may have a very difficult time justifing removal of ALL SD channels because they will now be down to perhaps 8 HD channels per transponder if they are lucky.. which means much less revenue and the only way to offset the loss is to raise prices and offer less channels or leave the current SD crop along and go on in life..
Putting up new additional sats is expensive, adds a lot of expense to the operation, new births are difficult to get and even if they could might not be able to get all the birds with one dish..
Money talks, Direct knows this..
The rumor of Directs SD channels demise has been greatly exaggerated..
Nothing behind the curtain, nothing to see, move along..
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Bill.Satellite
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There are so many duplicate SD channels being broadcast that it would actually make great sense to stop broadcasting these channels from the 101 satellite and use those same transponders to broadcast unique HD channels. This is what DTV is proposing and there's no reason to believe they will not. Why broadcast the Food Network on the 99 satellite in HD and the Food Network on 101 in SD? Better utilization of the 101 satellite makes good financial sense. With AT&T announcing they are selling or have sold DTV this might put an additional monkey wrench in the mix.
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2oldman
NM
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I've had 2 root canals and they were quite painless.
Why not quit worrying about it and just upgrade to HD? You'll like it much better anyway.
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JimR 1
Custer South Dakota
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Joined: 08/29/2003
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Hello all saw this thread and looks like there is a lot of knowledge here; I have a couple of questions.
I have the following receivers from DTV
MDL D-11
MDL D-12
MDL H24-100
MDL HR-44-200 DVR
The D-12 is the official one in use for DTV but the D-11 works as well.
The H24-100 and the HR-44-200 are not in service but were in use at the house that I no longer have.
As stated the D-12 is in service with a Kingdome or an 18 inch dish depending on location.
DTV has been emailing me to get a new access card but will not send one to me where I am at in the RV, but that is another story. The last email that I received did state a date of January 11th. I did call and was informed that my equipment was out of date and I need a new receiver and that at some time in the future I would receive an error message on the TV. The receiver would need to be installed by a service person for $49.00.
So my question is:
Will the HR-24-100 or the HR-44-200 work with the 18 inch satellite dish or the Kingdome?
Thank You
JimR
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