KOMO-HD now on DirecTV

At long least, KOMO (the local ABC affiliate in Seattle) is now in HD on
DirecTV as of May 5, 2007. All four major networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, and
FOX) are now carried. Four other local HD stations remain; DirecTV
carries only the analog version of these.

-- Mark --

http://panda.com/mrc
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what to eat for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.

That may be all the HD you get.
DTV only carries the top four or five stations even in big markets like LA
and NY.


"Mark Crispin" wrote in message
anda.com...
At long least, KOMO (the local ABC affiliate in Seattle) is now in HD on
DirecTV as of May 5, 2007. All four major networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, and
FOX) are now carried. Four other local HD stations remain; DirecTV
carries only the analog version of these.

-- Mark --

http://panda.com/mrc
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what to eat for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.

On Sun, 6 May 2007, truth B told wrote:
That may be all the HD you get.
DTV only carries the top four or five stations even in big markets like LA
and NY.

That's only because of limitations in DirecTV's transponder capability.
Those limitations are being addressed.

Changes are coming in any case. OTA analog is going away in less than two
years, so the feeds for the non-HD service will have to change. How long
DirecTV will want to have two lines of duplicated service, as opposed to
upgrading all the non-HD customer equipment, remains to be seen.

Carriage rules are also different for digital TV, and the jury is still
out on how that will eventually shake out.

-- Mark --

http://panda.com/mrc
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what to eat for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.

On May 6, 8:18 am, Mark Crispin wrote:
On Sun, 6 May 2007, truth B told wrote:
That may be all the HD you get.
DTV only carries the top four or five stations even in big markets like LA
and NY.

That's only because of limitations in DirecTV's transponder capability.
Those limitations are being addressed.

Changes are coming in any case. OTA analog is going away in less than two
years, so the feeds for the non-HD service will have to change. How long
DirecTV will want to have two lines of duplicated service, as opposed to
upgrading all the non-HD customer equipment, remains to be seen.

Carriage rules are also different for digital TV, and the jury is still
out on how that will eventually shake out.


Why would the feeds for the non-HD service have to change? Just
because the OTA service is digital doesn't mean it has to be HD. If I
had to give up my Tivo Directv receiver I would probably cancel
Directv. Their new DVRs are crap.

A Watcher wrote:
On May 6, 8:18 am, Mark Crispin wrote:

On Sun, 6 May 2007, truth B told wrote:

That may be all the HD you get.
DTV only carries the top four or five stations even in big markets like LA
and NY.

That's only because of limitations in DirecTV's transponder capability.
Those limitations are being addressed.

Changes are coming in any case. OTA analog is going away in less than two
years, so the feeds for the non-HD service will have to change. How long
DirecTV will want to have two lines of duplicated service, as opposed to
upgrading all the non-HD customer equipment, remains to be seen.

Carriage rules are also different for digital TV, and the jury is still
out on how that will eventually shake out.



Why would the feeds for the non-HD service have to change? Just
because the OTA service is digital doesn't mean it has to be HD. If I
had to give up my Tivo Directv receiver I would probably cancel
Directv. Their new DVRs are crap.




Neither a satellite or cable provider is required to deliver
High Definition formats of local channels they offer. The broadcaster
also may choose to not provide High Definition programming.

KCSM in San Mateo, CA ended NTSC broadcasting several years ago.
Channel 60 is no longer available via antenna to NTSC receivers.
The NTSC transmitter had reached end of life, and the cost of
a new transmitter that might be used for only a few years was
not justified.

Dish Network carries the digital signal on the same channel previously
used for NTSC. DirecTV uses channel 43 for the digital signal.
Cable companies serving the San Francisco market use channel 17.

http://www.kcsm.org/

Mark Crispin wrote:
Changes are coming in any case. OTA analog is going away in less than two
years, so the feeds for the non-HD service will have to change.

I don't know what the fiber feed from a local station to DirecTV has to do
with the OTA signal that same station might have. There aren't many locals
carried by DirecTV that are received OTA.

How long DirecTV will want to have two lines of duplicated service,
as opposed to upgrading all the non-HD customer equipment, remains to
be seen.

That might be more important, but it will be solely a DirecTV decision,
with no correlation with OTA rules. Even if DirecTV were to go all HD, it
might be to their competitive benefit to include a downconverter to feed SD
sets.

--
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley Lake, CA, USA GPS: 38.8,-122.5

wrote:
Mark Crispin wrote:
Changes are coming in any case. OTA analog is going away in less than two
years, so the feeds for the non-HD service will have to change.

I don't know what the fiber feed from a local station to DirecTV has to do
with the OTA signal that same station might have. There aren't many locals
carried by DirecTV that are received OTA.

How long DirecTV will want to have two lines of duplicated service,
as opposed to upgrading all the non-HD customer equipment, remains to
be seen.

That might be more important, but it will be solely a DirecTV decision,
with no correlation with OTA rules. Even if DirecTV were to go all HD, it
might be to their competitive benefit to include a downconverter to feed SD
sets.


Directv's HD receivers output S-video and composite in 480i.

Once upon a time, said:
I don't know what the fiber feed from a local station to DirecTV has to do
with the OTA signal that same station might have. There aren't many locals
carried by DirecTV that are received OTA.

All the locals here are via OTA except for the one digital-only station.
DirecTV apparently did not at the time (2003) support receiving any
digital OTA signal, so for that station to be on DirecTV, they had to
have a direct fiber connection (which AFAIK the station has to pay for).

I would suspect from that experience that there are quite a few locals
that DirecTV receives via analog OTA broadcast.
--
Chris Adams
Systems and Network Administrator - HiWAAY Internet Services
I don't speak for anybody but myself - that's enough trouble.

Chris Adams wrote:
All the locals here are via OTA except for the one digital-only station.

Where is "here"?

DirecTV apparently did not at the time (2003) support receiving any
digital OTA signal, so for that station to be on DirecTV, they had to
have a direct fiber connection (which AFAIK the station has to pay for).

That was quite a while ago, wasn't it?

I forget when San Francisco came online with locals, maybe 2001?
There were a few stations obviously over the air. They looked exactly as
bad on DTV as they did via OTA antenna.

You could tell when they went to direct feed.

I would suspect from that experience that there are quite a few locals
that DirecTV receives via analog OTA broadcast.

Where? What experience would that be? When?

--
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley Lake, CA, USA GPS: 38.8,-122.5

Once upon a time, said:
Chris Adams wrote:
All the locals here are via OTA except for the one digital-only station.

Where is "here"?

Huntsville, Alabama.

DirecTV apparently did not at the time (2003) support receiving any
digital OTA signal, so for that station to be on DirecTV, they had to
have a direct fiber connection (which AFAIK the station has to pay for).

That was quite a while ago, wasn't it?

Yes, but nothing has changed. The locals still mostly look like garbage
on DirecTV except for the one delivered via fiber and the one delivered
by direct wire (the DirecTV base is at one of the local TV stations).

I forget when San Francisco came online with locals, maybe 2001?
There were a few stations obviously over the air. They looked exactly as
bad on DTV as they did via OTA antenna.

San Francisco is DMA #6 - drawing conclusions from one of the largest
markets in the country is not representative of the 100+ other markets,
mostly smaller (many of them much smaller).

--
Chris Adams
Systems and Network Administrator - HiWAAY Internet Services
I don't speak for anybody but myself - that's enough trouble.