Direct TV revisited

JimR 1 wrote:
I thought an update may clear up some things.

I have a King Dome satellite antenna on the roof of the RV I am using a DTV D-12 receiver and this situation applies to me, that why I asked the question about SD reception.

I have spent a lot of time with many representatives of DTV to no avail with two exceptions, yesterday and today. All the reps have stated that the DNS is dead and that SD is on its way out. Yesterday the rep was able to activate the H24, I had on hand, but it did not receive many channels and there were issues with the guide. Today after posting my question here I did call back to DTV and had the H24 disconnected and the D12 reactivated. Well I got back my channels but no DNS or any networks; I am not sure why the other reps were unable to reactivate the receiver.
Funny that after being told that SD was gone on the 1st of Feb I am getting SD again. ??? Just an FYI the last two reps were more helpful than all the others prior, I guess 13 to 15 reps and about 4 hours of chat and phone. The last two sounded like they were on the farm in Kansas.

I made a call to WInegard and asked if there portable sat dishes that worked with DTV were still working and they said as far as they know. missnmountains post about his KVH M3 still working confirms Winegards statement albeit the KVH is a different brand. All this said I assume that the Portable Dishes that work with DTV still work but differently than what I have, a King Dome or an 18 inch dish and an old receiver (12 years).
As stated above the DTV reps statement that SD was going, I am wondering how that will work with the portable antenna makers that are still selling the dishes to work with DTV SD in the future.

Answer is clear, you have old equipment.

DTV is trying to pull the life support plug on old equipment.

DTV has been threatening to turn off the old equipment support for quite some time, many deadlines have come and gone and yet it is still working, BUT..

Eventually ALL of the old equipment will go dark and become doorstops.

As far as portable dishes, well they too will become unusable unless the manufacturer of those dishes offer an upgrade to that old portable dish.. Some may, some may not, cost of research, development to retrofit the old portables just may not be cost effective solution.

Much of this has to do with older SD only equipment not being able to decode the newer video compression versions. The newer versions are more compact and efficient allowing DTV to pack more channels OR find other uses that may make more money for the extra bandwidth available.

Newer receivers and compatible portable dishes that are HD and SD compatible with the newer video compression will be in your future..

Eventually..

You simply cannot expect someone to support old legacy equipment forever, many custom parts go obsolete making old stuff impossible to keep building or supporting..