Echostar 14 update

[nelson61]

Starting to see the movement into geo orbit.


Perigee increased today from 7600+ to 18200+ KM

 

[nelson61]

Starting to see the movement into geo orbit.

3/24 Epoch
Perigee increased today from 7600+ to 18200+ KM

3/25 Epoch
Perigee increased to 25109km and inclination is down to 2.8 degrees.

 

[cj9788]

How long before E14 is fully functional at 119w?

 

[apollog]

Late May 2010

 

[digiblur]

Didnt we answer this in this thread about 10 times already.

And technically it will be quite a while before it is fully functionally since Dish has some 8psk and mpeg4 conversions to do first before they can fully use all the spotbeams.

 

[whatchel1]

SOON

 

[rocatman]

Didnt we answer this in this thread about 10 times already.

And technically it will be quite a while before it is fully functionally since Dish has some 8psk and mpeg4 conversions to do first before they can fully use all the spotbeams.

Although it probably won't be a big problem, Dish also needs to submit an application to the FCC to use the additional 7 TP frequencies for spotbeams on E-14.

 

[HDRoberts]

Although it probably won't be a big problem, Dish also needs to submit an application to the FCC to use the additional 7 TP frequencies for spotbeams on E-14.

I think from a prior application, they are only planning on using TPs 1-5 for spots. The rest are just backup for now.

 

[mike123abc]

I believe they do not plan on using the extra spot TPs on 119, they are more of a backup in case something happened to E10 at 110.

 

[rocatman]

I believe they do not plan on using the extra spot TPs on 119, they are more of a backup in case something happened to E10 at 110.

I think eventually after the WA is converted to MPEG-4 or even when it is just converted to 8PSK, Dish will use those other 7 TP frequencies for spotbeams. Dish has license for 82 TPs in the WA at 110, 119 and 129 W. They currently use 31 TPs fpr spotbeams i.e., 10 at 110 W, 5 at 119 W and 16 at 129 W. This leaves 51 TPs for CONUS programming which I believe would be way more than needed for WA CONUS programming especially after conversion to MPEG-4. Using the additional 7 TP frequencies on E-14 at 119 W would leave 44 TPs for CONUS programming which should still be enough after MPEG-4 conversion. For example if 35 TPs were dedicated to HD programming, Dish could put 245 HD channels on them at 7 HD channels/TP. This would leave 9 TPs for SD programming and at 20 SD channels/TP, that would be 180 SD channels. Recognize that once everything is converted to MPEG-4, Dish could turn off the duplicate SD channels of HD channels as long as their subscription pricing plans make it practical to do so which I think eventually will happen because even no now cable companies advertise that they don't charge extra for HD. It is fairly obvious that spotbeam capability will be driving Dish's satellite development plans in the future.

 

[navychop]

Didnt we answer this in this thread about 10 times already.

Why should this thread be any different than any other large thread?

 

[mike123abc]

This leaves 51 TPs for CONUS programming which I believe would be way more than needed for WA CONUS programming especially after conversion to MPEG-4.

Dish is still a ways from MPEG-4 on WA. They are just getting around to talking about going 8PSK this year. I do not see them wanting the billion dollar extra cost right away, I think they will give it 3 more years or so to allow attrition and upgrades to get rid of the MPEG-2 only boxes. I could see the 8PSK conversion costing them $500 million alone.

 

[Laddyboy]

Dish is still a ways from MPEG-4 on WA. They are just getting around to talking about going 8PSK this year. I do not see them wanting the billion dollar extra cost right away, I think they will give it 3 more years or so to allow attrition and upgrades to get rid of the MPEG-2 only boxes. I could see the 8PSK conversion costing them $500 million alone.

They need to quit giving the nonVIP boxes to WA subs. I won't believe they are serious until they stop doing that. Every replacement needs to be a VIP receiver. That's not the case -- yet.

 

[drdroo]

They need to quit giving the nonVIP boxes to WA subs. I won't believe they are serious until they stop doing that. Every replacement needs to be a VIP receiver. That's not the case -- yet.

The problem is the older MPEG2 receivers are probably refurbished units by now and have made back their money (and then some) from the initial investment. If someone's only subscribing to the lowest plan, it's just not financially worthwhile to basically 'waste' a VIP receiver on them compared to getting them to upgrade organically when they want HD programming.

 

[Paradox-SJ]

Everyone I know that has had an install in the past few months have all received VIP boxes here in the San Fran-Bay Area...several of them are SD only viewers. So it would seem that dish is aware and in the process its just going to take time...

 

[apollog]

Yeah, a buddy of mine order Dish Family(no HD) and he got 3 VIP 211k's.

 

[mike123abc]

New customers all get VIP, just those returning boxes for repair get an MPEG-2 box back if that is what they sent in. The scary thing is that there is probably over 20 million of these boxes still in the system. Even at $100 each to replace it would be 2 billion dollars. I do not believe they are making any new MPEG-2 boxes, but they probably have a lot of referbished ones lying around. If they convert someone to EA they get another set of boxes back for reconditioning. It will be a long time before they ran out.

If Dish can upgrade you to HD by having you use dishing it up where you pay $100 they come out way ahead. Slowly but surely they will get rid of the MPEG-2 boxes. I wonder if they have a way to cheaply convert an QPSK box to 8PSK? If so that would make it even easier to go to 8PSK like they are talking.

It would be interesting to know what the box statistics in the Dish system are (i.e. how many of each receiver type there is).

 

[drdroo]

Don't most of the modern MPEG-2 receivers support 8PSK already? I thought I read something like that somewhere that Dish had this advantage over their competitor.

 

[navychop]

Most, not all.

I suspect each year the cost of a MPEG-4 box goes down. Somewhere those cost - benefit curves will cross....

 

[drdroo]

Somewhere those cost - benefit curves will cross....

After VIP receivers in any vintage are common in the channel. Each time a receiver breaks and gets cycled through the refurbish process and each time a new receiver model comes out, this increases the available pool of MPEG4 hardware.

It'll be telling when Dish starts handing over VIP receivers as DHPP replacements. Since VIP is a common install now for all subs, we're probably close to seeing that.