Eastern Arc Changes

[Jw2016]

I heard DISH and Heavy Rain are in a contract dispute

Rain fade is about to be history when DISH introduces the super duper 1000.1000000 dish that has so much signal gain it glows at night and will ELIMINATE that nasty rainfade!. Subs that have the old super dish can upgrade for only $5,000 and a 20 year contract is required. Everyone else will be able to upgrade when our OTA USB tuner stick is widely available. A DISH press release states lightning and thunder are hurting the talks with mother nature. It must be noted that Tribune, Sunbeam and Raycom station owners are helping the negotiating to settle the dispute with heavy rain. Mr. Ergen states heavy snow's retrans contract is coming up.

 

[ekilgus]

I wonder what's the benefit of 4K channels when they can't even do 1080P?

 

[DWS44]

when they can't even do 1080P

They do have 1080p for some VOD/PPV. What other 1080p is there? None of the linear broadcast channels are available in 1080p to any of the providers.

 

[Jw2016]

At this time E18 is pending license as a "spare". The pending license only requests authority to use the command and control frequencies for E18 at ~61.5W (no satellite uplinks or downlinks).

Makes total sense, thanks nelson61. Always good to have a spare especially when a bird goes bad at only 22,300 miles away.

 

[Juan]

Rain fade is about to be history when DISH introduces the super duper 1000.1000000 dish that has so much signal gain it glows at night and will ELIMINATE that nasty rainfade!. Subs that have the old super dish can upgrade for only $5,000 and a 20 year contract is required. Everyone else will be able to upgrade when our OTA USB tuner stick is widely available. A DISH press release states lightning and thunder are hurting the talks with mother nature. It must be noted that Tribune, Sunbeam and Raycom station owners are helping the negotiating to settle the dispute with heavy rain. Mr. Ergen states heavy snow's retrans contract is coming up.

not that.. but slingtv is a good start at reducing rain fade

 

[rvvaquero]

not that.. but slingtv is a good start at reducing rain fade

Unless you're discussing satellite TV.

 

[bobvick]

Over the next month DISH will be removing all the SD channels from the Eastern Arc which they carry in HD. Since the Eastern Arc is all MPEG4 there is no need for them to carry the SD channels anymore. This will open up a lot of space for things including possibly more 4K.

While this is good, and a step in the right direction, the Eastern Arc is already approximately 8-10% vacant by estimates that I have read. This would mean there is already space there to do somehting with, that they are doing nothing with. All this appears it will do is create more unused space. UNLESS, and I think this highly unlikely, they are planning to add services to the Eastern Arc that will NOT be available on the Western Arc.
Western Arc is where space is needed. Last year when they were working on the 8PSK conversion, they should have stopped installing any MPEG-2/SD equipment, and began replacing the non-8PSK units with 211 receivers rather than issuing new 311 units.
My bet is on this being a cost saving measure and nothing else. They can discontinue the encoders for the SD channels and save a few bucks. If they do add anything, they'll probably stick it in some stupid package that you have to downgrade to to get, and then spend more to add the $h*t you already had back, to get the new stuff. Must be their new strategy to keep the ARPU up.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I wonder what's the benefit of 4K channels when they can't even do 1080P?

There is no 1080p broadcast standard.


Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys mobile app

 

[zippyfrog]

While this is good, and a step in the right direction, the Eastern Arc is already approximately 8-10% vacant by estimates that I have read. This would mean there is already space there to do somehting with, that they are doing nothing with. All this appears it will do is create more unused space. UNLESS, and I think this highly unlikely, they are planning to add services to the Eastern Arc that will NOT be available on the Western Arc.
Western Arc is where space is needed. Last year when they were working on the 8PSK conversion, they should have stopped installing any MPEG-2/SD equipment, and began replacing the non-8PSK units with 211 receivers rather than issuing new 311 units.

I agree - I don't see them offering a major service (such as some 4k) on only EA. So either Dish has more space on Western Arc after the 8PSK conversion than we know of and they are short on EA, or they have something else planned. Would have been nice to have put all 211's in and jumped all the way to the MPEG4 for everything.

 

[bobvick]

I say their just turning off the encoders for the SD channels that they uplink in HD, saving a buck here and there where they can. I doubt it's any big new service offering.

 

[Bobby]

I say their just turning off the encoders for the SD channels that they uplink in HD, saving a buck here and there where they can. I doubt it's any big new service offering.

You can continue to blow smoke but I still don't see the fire....

 

[Juan]

"DISH will be removing all the SD channels from the Eastern Arc which they carry in HD"

what about the ones that only broadcast in HD (i.e. NASA) that dish down rezzes to sd

 

[Troch77]

what about the ones that only broadcast in HD (i.e. NASA) that dish down rezzes to sd

They will be dropped.

Samsung Galaxy S6 Active

 

[bobvick]

You can continue to blow smoke but I still don't see the fire....

Do you really think they would offer service "X" on the Eastern Arc, and not on the Western Arc?
If they had all of the locals on both arcs, then that would be fine, but as of right now they do not, and I really do not see that happening, I doubt they would have the space.
Only way it could happen would be with a multi dish setup, which most customers probably wouldn't want.
Also, there are parts of the west coast that cannot see 61.5, so that would be a consideration.

 

[Hall]

How about allotting more bandwidth to the existing HD channels?

With the removal of the duplicate SD channels, the remaining HD channels will in fact see a PQ improvement (well, technically, they can). The system that Dish and other providers use is to continually vary the bandwidth given to a channel on an as-needed basis. Today, there is a fixed amount of total bandwidth available that's shared between "x" number of channels. After the SD duplicates are removed, that same fixed amount will be divided between fewer channels.

 

[bobvick]

With the removal of the duplicate SD channels, the remaining HD channels will in fact see a PQ improvement (well, technically, they can). The system that Dish and other providers use is to continually vary the bandwidth given to a channel on an as-needed basis. Today, there is a fixed amount of total bandwidth available that's shared between "x" number of channels. After the SD duplicates are removed, that same fixed amount will be divided between fewer channels.

Can I think is the operative word. It will free up transponders which they could theoretically use to allow them to spread out the channels among them. I.E go from 8 or 9 per transponder to 5 or 6, they could do that, I highly doubt they will.

 

[Juan]

Probably just allow them to jam up more home shopping networks

 

[DishSubLA]

While this is good, and a step in the right direction, the Eastern Arc is already approximately 8-10% vacant by estimates that I have read. This would mean there is already space there to do somehting with, that they are doing nothing with. All this appears it will do is create more unused space. UNLESS, and I think this highly unlikely, they are planning to add services to the Eastern Arc that will NOT be available on the Western Arc.
Western Arc is where space is needed. Last year when they were working on the 8PSK conversion, they should have stopped installing any MPEG-2/SD equipment, and began replacing the non-8PSK units with 211 receivers rather than issuing new 311 units.
My bet is on this being a cost saving measure and nothing else. They can discontinue the encoders for the SD channels and save a few bucks. If they do add anything, they'll probably stick it in some stupid package that you have to downgrade to to get, and then spend more to add the $h*t you already had back, to get the new stuff. Must be their new strategy to keep the ARPU up.

The cost saving is not with the encoders that Dish often changes out for the latest generation of encoders--IF they provide sufficient increased efficiencies and PQ. Encoders are relatively a cheap expense for Dish that can be easy and done. IMHO, it was a solely bandwidth consideration to pull the SD's at EA. However, addressing your other points, it is the cost savings of NOT having to change out all those MPEG2 boxes for MPEG4 boxes is use at the WA. That is a LONNNNNNGGGG and SLOOOOOWWW and really expensive process. I believe in one quarterly conference call Ergen referred to his experiences with both HD and MPEG change-outs as being both very ". . . painful [pause] and costly." He clearly wants to avoid that process at almost any opportunity.

Considering how fast tech is changing, if he were to do MPEG4 at the WA, it would soon reach its limits and one would need to change-out to HEC, or wait and change-out to HEC and bypass MPEG4 altogether . . . BUT then would all that cost and "pain" be wise when the TV landscape is changing and looks to be headed to the internet for distribution. Probably best to not undertake ANY more tech change-outs of sat boxes until we have a far better idea of how MVPD's like Dish really fit into the bold new world. Dish is already offering its internationals at Sling International, and it is my humble opinion that Dish plans not to use any sats to distribute internationals when their lease is up at 118, but will use internet via its Sling International exclusively. So much cheaper, and by then DVR capability via internet will be ubiquitous. Still, so much cheaper.

 

[pattykay]

What about all of the subscribers on Eastern Arc with HD Free For Life? Shouldn't their bills go down since the HD is "free" and they will no longer be receiving the standard-def feeds that they had been paying for?

 

[Juan]

What about all of the subscribers on Eastern Arc with HD Free For Life? Shouldn't their bills go down since the HD is "free" and they will no longer be receiving the standard-def feeds that they had been paying for?

Does it mean all those forced to pay for HD will get their bills lowered is a much better question