General DirecTV Question

[zippyfrog]

I am staying at a hotel in Denver right now that has DirecTV. ABC, NBC, CBS, CW, PBS, CNN, ESPN, ESPN2 are all digital and HD, but then every other channel is analog. Is that normal? I didn't know DirecTV carried analog channels - I thought they were all digital? Maybe it is digital, but the TV says analog next to the channel number as I was scrolling through.

 

[slice1900]

Most hotels use a 'headend' to distribute channels. They have a bank of receivers set to a specific channel, and modulators that turn them into either QAM (digital) or NTSC (analog) channels sent through wiring to the TVs in the rooms.

A mixed setup like that is probably not too unusual - make the stuff people are more likely to watch in their room digital/HD and leave the rest analog/SD. Cheaper for them that way versus upgrading to digital/HD for everything.

 

[Claude Greiner]

The locals are likely coming off an antenna.

Depends on the hotel. It’s a matter of dollars to upgrade the headend equipment.

Also to display HD in the rooms they need either a HD box like an H25 of pro idium televisions.

If the tv is just the standard cheap garbage Tv you pick up at Best Buy or Walmart that’s 1/2 the issue right there.

 

[longhorn23]

The locals are likely coming off an antenna.

Depends on the hotel. It’s a matter of dollars to upgrade the headend equipment.

Also to display HD in the rooms they need either a HD box like an H25 of pro idium televisions.

If the tv is just the standard cheap garbage Tv you pick up at Best Buy or Walmart that’s 1/2 the issue right there.

so best buy just sells cheap garbage tv's?

 

[MikeI]

Where do you buy your TVs?

The locals are likely coming off an antenna.

Depends on the hotel. It’s a matter of dollars to upgrade the headend equipment.

Also to display HD in the rooms they need either a HD box like an H25 of pro idium televisions.

If the tv is just the standard cheap garbage Tv you pick up at Best Buy or Walmart that’s 1/2 the issue right there.

Sent from my LM-G710VM using the SatelliteGuys app!

 

[zippyfrog]

The locals are likely coming off an antenna.

Depends on the hotel. It’s a matter of dollars to upgrade the headend equipment.

Also to display HD in the rooms they need either a HD box like an H25 of pro idium televisions.

If the tv is just the standard cheap garbage Tv you pick up at Best Buy or Walmart that’s 1/2 the issue right there.

The TV's were LG TV's. About 35 inches. But I think it was the headend equipment. The numbers didn't match up with DirecTV's numbers. Channel 2 was ABC, 3 was CBS, 4 was NBC, 5 was CW, 6 was PBS, can't remember what 8, 9 were, but 10 was CNN in HD, 11 was ESPN in HD, 12 was ESPN2 in HD, then everything above was analog. It was also very interesting that the channel numbers didn't line up with the traditional local numbers. I assume there is some hardware that allows for hotels to choose their channel numbers for each? Because isn't ESPN 206 on DirecTV?

I only know it was DirecTV because channel 24 was ESPN classic and that channel had a DirecTV slate on it advertising other sports packages.

 

[Claude Greiner]

so best buy just sells cheap garbage tv's?

Everything they sell there is junk, IMHO.

But what I meant was usually hotels buy non commercial grade televisions and can’t display HD without a box on each Tv

 

[longhorn23]

Everything they sell there is junk, IMHO.

But what I meant was usually hotels buy non commercial grade televisions and can’t display HD without a box on each Tv

how is everything they sell junk when they sell LG’s and Sony’s Best OLED tv’s?

 

[Jimbo]

so best buy just sells cheap garbage tv's?

You can buy cheap garbage TV's at BB, as well as some very nice ones.

 

[Jimbo]

Everything they sell there is junk, IMHO.

But what I meant was usually hotels buy non commercial grade televisions and can’t display HD without a box on each Tv

Ever been to the Magnolia side of thier store ?

They sell a few Top of the line sets as well as the rest, however, you 'll find the Magnolia is the higher end stuff as far as TVs go.

 

[Jimbo]

how is everything they sell junk when they sell LG’s and Sony’s Best OLED tv’s?

Like I mentioned just above this, the TOL TV's are in the Magnolia stores for the most part.
They do have some in the regular area, because not all stores have a Magnolia dept.

 

[Claude Greiner]

OMG.

I just don’t like Best Buy in general....

Dynex is garbage, I would never trust the geek squad to get within 100 feet of my house, their employees don’t know anything, and I think their prices are higher than they need to be.

I cringe every time I have to go in there to buy anything, and snarl as I’m walking past their cell phone area.

Only reason why they I even go there to begin with is because I need something ASAP and can’t wait for it.

I would never buy a big item from there like a 60 inch tv

 

[Jimbo]

OMG.

I just don’t like Best Buy in general....

Dynex is garbage, I would never trust the geek squad to get within 100 feet of my house, their employees don’t know anything, and I think their prices are higher than they need to be.

Fortunately they sell alot more than Dynex .... And Insignia ...

If I have a location that I really don't care about TV quality, I'll buy form there.

Typically, if its something that I do care about, I'll go to the Local Hi End AV shop .

 

[larry55]

I like BB alway got good service.

 

[JohnL]

I like BB alway got good service.

"Would you like Insurance on that".

 

[Claude Greiner]

"Would you like Insurance on that".

Never again am I buying their stupid insurance.

Got a digital camera and was told the insurance covered accidental damage. Paid $120 for their stupid policy.

A month later, I broke the LCD screen.

Ok no problem, took the camera to Best Buy to get repaired.

The kid at the counter told me it was abuse, and the warranty didn’t apply. The manager got involved, and wanted to stand firm on the warranty being voided.

I never loose my cool, but I started yelling at the manager and causing a scene, saying their warranty was worthless. Meanwhile the manager kept on offering my money back on the warranty. I wasn’t accepting a refund because I knew after I get my money back I would never get them to honor the warranty.

The manager gets smart with me and decides to look up the cost of the screen repair... BAM $60 to fix the screen.

Ok A$$hole, give me my $120 back on your stupid warranty and here is $60 to fix the screen.

So that’s what they did, refunded $60 and fixed my camera.

Never again will I ever buy another Best Buy extended warranty. Every time they try to sell me a warranty I waste their time telling this story.

Why even bother with a warranty these days on anything. Smaller electronic items will be obsolete before the warranty is expired.

Other items like a cable modem for example, I can’t be without and would buy a new one at Walmart at 3am before trying to take it back to the store and finding my receipt the next day.

Only time I would ever consider a warranty would be on a $5000 flat screen Tv.

Anything else, just junk and buy new

 

[JohnL]

Never again am I buying their stupid insurance.

Why even bother with a warranty these days on anything. Smaller electronic items will be obsolete before the warranty is expired.

Only time I would ever consider a warranty would be on a $5000 flat screen Tv.

Bingo, Most electronics are either going to break within the Manufacturers warranty period or last long enough to get your money's worth from the device.

Besides when it comes to Electronics when it does break a newer, better, cheaper device will be there to replace it.

Case in point I still have a 50 inch PLASMA TV I bought probably 10 years ago for $1,700 bucks. I can get a much better TV, SMARTER, Bigger TV for that price, in fact almost 3 years ago I got a brand new 65 inch Quantum Dot TV for hundreds less than that.

 

[krynn]

The locals are likely coming off an antenna.

Depends on the hotel. It’s a matter of dollars to upgrade the headend equipment.

Also to display HD in the rooms they need either a HD box like an H25 of pro idium televisions.

If the tv is just the standard cheap garbage Tv you pick up at Best Buy or Walmart that’s 1/2 the issue right there.

i have a friend on DTV that has a TCL tv ( complete crap ) and DTV looks amazing on it and the 4k is jaw dropping!!!1. it's two years old. so who knows what the life span on the set will be... i have a sony OLED and the HD when i had DTV looked amazing almost as good as there 4k and there 4k looked jaw dropping

 

[Claude Greiner]

i have a friend on DTV that has a TCL tv ( complete crap ) and DTV looks amazing on it and the 4k is jaw dropping!!!1. it's two years old. so who knows what the life span on the set will be... i have a sony OLED and the HD when i had DTV looked amazing almost as good as there 4k and there 4k looked jaw dropping

It’s at the point right now with HD, anything will look good on any Tv.

But unless you know what your looking for people don’t know what they are missing going to OLED for example

 

[JohnL]

It’s at the point right now with HD, anything will look good on any Tv.

But unless you know what your looking for people don’t know what they are missing going to OLED for example

Agreed, most people shopping for TV's, do so on price. This is why the prices have dropped so much recently.

I'd love a OLED Set but I really have a hard time spending so much when there are other options (LCD's) with technology which can get me within a very close proximity to a TRULY OUTSTANDING OLED picture for 400 to 800 dollars or more of a discount. There is also the Dynamic range issues of OLED, and the tendency of OLED pixels to degrade over time like Plasma.

There only a handful of OLED Competitors, if you land a bargain basement OLED (Hisense) set, there are LCD's that will beat them on Picture, Features, Color AND PRICE.

If OLED is to be the default technology of the future, like LCD defeated Plasma, OLED needs to come down in price if it is to become the Dominant display technology for large screens.

John