Standard definition tv

[captpar]

Well it’s after the first now does anybody out there know if the standard tv signal has been turned off from direct tv? My Rv is presently in the storage lot under a canopy so I can’t access direct tv to check.

[2oldman]

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.

[Bill_Satellite]

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.

[Gdetrailer]

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..

[CA_Traveler]

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.

[Retired_JSO]

I lost my local channels over a year ago using our carry out g3.

[wa8yxm]

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.

[Bill_Satellite]

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.

[Gdetrailer]

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..

[Bill_Satellite]

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.

[Gdetrailer]

Carl n Susan wrote:
I am still getting SD channels albeit on my Genie with SL3 antenna.

Genie is capable of receiving MPEG4 SD and HD content.

Even IF Direct were to stop SD MPEG4 content, the Genie is capable of downsampling any HD content to SD quality..

As far as I have been able to find with quite a few different Internet searches, it is only on THIS forum that someone has mentioned Jan 2021 as being some sort of drop dead date for Direct SD content going away.

All searches I have made seem to point back to 2019 that Direct was transitioning from sending MPEG2 SD encoded material to using MPEG4 SD and HD encoding..

SEARCH LINK

In reality, Direct would be shooting themselves in their own foot by removing any SD only content. By using SD quality, they can fit many more channels onto each sat.. So in reality they would have far less channels to "sell" which means prices must go up or you have to remove MORE content to make the same profits.

I can sort of understand that it would be wise to drop DUPLICATE SD and HD channels since there is no real good reason to waste bandwidth with having a channel duplicated in SD and HD.

I suspect, as long as you have a newer more modern receiver that is capable of decoding MPEG4 you are good to go.. Older MPEG2 only receivers may however been "grandfathered" past the original 2019 drop dead date.. Those would most likely be the issue at hand..

[gbopp]

RoyF wrote:
Not having Direct TV, I can't help the OP with the question.

But I want to put in a word about Dish: I have always had a good result with Dish customer service. They have been competent, and have stayed on the line with me for as long as it took.

I think you are right and I stand corrected. I had a bundle with Dish for TV and Frontier for Internet.
I really had very few problems with Dish. Frontier is another story, their 'tech' people on the phone were horrible. More times than I wish to remember I would call with a question about my internet. They would always turn the internet off, say there was a short in the line and they would have to send a technician to my house to reconnect. They could not do it over the phone.
The techs who came to my house were very professional and competent.
They were aware of what the 'phone techs' did but could do nothing about it.
Sorry about bashing the wrong company.

[Carl_n_Susan]

I am still getting SD channels albeit on my Genie with SL3 antenna.

[K_Charles]

RoyF wrote:


But I want to put in a word about Dish: I have always had a good result with Dish customer service. They have been competent, and have stayed on the line with me for as long as it took.

This. We had direct for many years and now dish for about 6 years. No complaints with dish customer service.

[RoyF]

Not having Direct TV, I can't help the OP with the question.

But I want to put in a word about Dish: I have always had a good result with Dish customer service. They have been competent, and have stayed on the line with me for as long as it took.

[gbopp]

captpar wrote:
Because I rather get a root canal then deal with the people that man the phones at direct tv.

I never tried Direct TV. I did have Dish TV, it sounds like they have the same quality of Customer Service.