Is 4DTV Doomed? Should it be?

[cbandjerk]

Is 4DTV doomed to obsolescence? Like analog before it?

Since moto doesn't seem to be coming out with a new model
and 4dtv is their baby. OMG

With the 922 aging i.e. some are now 10+ old

What will the future of 4dtv be

I would just like to see some input on this.

Feel free to rant and rave and take this thread anywhere you like.

 

[tdti1]

Nothing lasts forever, 4dtv will end when everyone switches to dvb-s2 H264, I'm sure even HITS will switch in a few years. Now the question is how long will you be able to sub? That my friends is pretty much unknown, if you can get a 4d at a decent price grab it, I'm sure there is a few years left.

 

[tvropro]

The time 4DTV stays around depends on you and me. When we have or get a 4D and don't sub to anything it sends a signal to the industry that it isn't used anymore. I suggest everyone with a 4D sub to at least one alacarte (SRL and Skyvision are pretty good with the alacarts vs NPS's new rules) If there is enough interest there may be hope in a new receiver some day. I have subbed from day one with my 4D and will continue as long as I have it. If you have no use for your 4D give or sell it someone who can use it. There are always people looking for them to sub to stuff. The strength is in numbers.

 

[stogie5150]

Almost totally useless for what I like about satellite television. But a lot of folks like them. I tried one twice, and they are so archaic that they are painful to use, aren't user-updatable, thus requiring the user to learn a whole new satellite list to use, because Motorola can't be bothered to take five minutes and update the software, or at the very least write some software that will allow the users to do their own editing. Do that and I might use one. Makes a helluva positioner box, though,and the 922's work with a voltage controlled LNB, to boot.

The lack of complete packages,especially sports, is killing the 4DTV. If I cannot get ESPN,NFL Network, my RSN, and sports packages like NHL Center Ice, in HD, I don't have much use for them.

 

[Corrado]

In the past I promoted everyone here that enjoys 4DTV to keep some sort of sub to help keep it going also. It is really important the providers see us.

As someone else said recently..."I don't feel as if I'm enjoying my satellite TV unless it's C band." I would be bored with consumer grade systems and need to check my signal quality and trip counters and such.

There's more to it than sitting down to watch TV. There's the care and feeding.

 

[dunnsept]

I agree with Corrado on the "care & feeding" part. but unfortunately that's also the part, combined with what Stogie says about them being archaic. This is what's driving my wife nuts with mine. The user interface isn't updated, the program guide is outrageously slow. She doesn't mind having to wait for the dish to move but the IPG stinks.
yes, moto is LAZY (or something) why are ancient channels still in the map? sats on there that don't have any programming that recvr can get anyway.
they also must have one of the laziest people ever putting the IPG together.. there have been times when I click on INFO (when it works) and we just laugh. Movie descriptions are like "two people fight" and that's it.
oh well.. I still like it better than the pizza pan options

 

[voomvoom]

Is 4DTV doomed to obsolescence? Like analog before it?

From the title of this thread, I can see where you got your name?

I'm not going to comment anything more, just sit in my corner in complete denial..........

 

[cbandjerk]

Thanks for the input there VOOM

 

[Inno]

I agree with Corrado on the "care & feeding" part. but unfortunately that's also the part, combined with what Stogie says about them being archaic. This is what's driving my wife nuts with mine. The user interface isn't updated, the program guide is outrageously slow. She doesn't mind having to wait for the dish to move but the IPG stinks.
yes, moto is LAZY (or something) why are ancient channels still in the map? sats on there that don't have any programming that recvr can get anyway.
they also must have one of the laziest people ever putting the IPG together.. there have been times when I click on INFO (when it works) and we just laugh. Movie descriptions are like "two people fight" and that's it.
oh well.. I still like it better than the pizza pan options

It's almost as if they want it to fail or be so difficult to use that nobody would want it. Honestly, I think its a great system but it definitely needs a software overhaul. Probably not worth their time and effort (in their opinion) to make that happen when so many folks are content with "good enough" TV, just keep it simple.
Having said that, the picture quality is certainly not what I expected, in fact some of it looks worse than a lot of the FTA channels I watch.

 

[Inno]

From the title of this thread, I can see where you got your name?

I'm not going to comment anything more, just sit in my corner in complete denial..........

Hardly a constructive comment.........probably would have best been kept to yourself.
I think cbandjerk has a legitimate concern, it has certainly crossed my mind a time or two. It didn't, however, stop me from getting a 4DTV receiver and subscribing and judging from other posts, it hasn't stopped him from doing it either.
Not trying to start anything here

 

[voomvoom]

Maybe you're right, and I could have kept it to myself... but, he did say "Feel free to rant and rave and take this thread anywhere you like", so I did. I for one, believe they want us to go away, so they won't have to cut us off. And I want it to stay around forever, that's why I'm sitting in a corner in Denial....
Also, his questions were "Is 4DTV doomed to obsolescence? Like analog before it?"
Well.... analog is still here.... only Videocipher2 has disappeared, but not completely. They just don't want us to use it, but there are still Videocipher2 feeds up there. And they deny them to us......
I understand what he's saying, I just don't want to hear it. Another reason for me to be in Denial? Someone comes on here about once every two months and starts a similar thread.... and you're right, I should have said nothing

And by the way, that concern has been expressed on this site for at least 4 years, and it's going nowhere either

 

[truckracer]

Money talks. Cable and pizza dish dominate the market. We are such a small segment we are gradually being left behind. I feel like HD has really accellerated the demise of 4dtv.
since even if you are lucky enough to have a HDD-200, there is such a limited number of real HD channels for 4dtv.

So many programmers are moving to power vu dvb equipment for uplinking.
They are ditching moto's digicipher.

There is a lot of factors playing into this. Mainly its moto's fault because they have not promoted the technology or updated it to be more HD friendly.
i don't know many people who are gonna go out and spend 2k on a big HD tv and never see any HD with it. ...well second thought...I do know a couple people LOL

Its just a matter of time and the big dishes will be straight up
fta only.

 

[cbandjerk]

Sometimes it just takes a little nudge to get people going

I'm refering to the big /\/\otorola.

Unfortunately it would take a really really big nudge to get their attention

And I don't think the cell phone guys are going to help us out here

So get all those old 920 and 922 boxes subbed before the doomsday batteries
kill um.

 

[Inno]

It seems like such a mass of contradiction. Companies are in business to make money, plain and simple. You'd think if the format were better supported they'd make more money. If there were a better format for cable companies etc. to use then you'd think they'd be using it. I'm sure that this, just like the early days of satellite comes down to this, the signals are up there for the providers use but as long as there are people willing to buy the equipment and purchase programming they might as well sell it to them and make a little more profit. So they're not going to upgrade it because for the majority of commercial players, it works just fine. It may not be perfect for home users because of all the aforementioned problems and lack of upgrades but we are not the intended market.
I have so many thoughts about this that it's hard to get them to make sense in writing but I think that overall we're lucky to be able to subscribe to this type of service at all. I hope it continues to run for years to come.

 

[zaxxon]

I have a 922 4DTV and love it. I have a 57 inch Sony in the rec room and a 32 inch Sony in the bedroom.

The 57 inch Sony has a picture almost as good as HD, the 32 inch is newer and the HD is better than the 4DTV reception, but still great.

I think that 4DTV has about ten years left as long as people sub. If there is a market and people willing to buy, someone will fill it.

I think that a 922 receiver cost's way too much for what you get. Just look at the price of a FTA receiver, around a hundred bucks compared to new 922 for about six hundred bucks.

I guess that Mot. has a patent on the 4DTV receivers so they can keep the price up, but if it evers expires your next 4DTV will be coming from China or Korea.

Shalom

 

[skysurfer]

Honestly, I think its a great system but it definitely needs a software overhaul.

actually, a capability overhaul (add S2 and do megapipe) which would mean a whole new receiver so no chance in heck that is going to happen with so few users left there to buy it.

I don't think even a capability overhaul would solve things - who is going to pay quite a bit more per month for master feeds than just get the channels on DISH or DIRECTV or fiber cable? If the receiver could do the master feeds, cable programmers would force NPS or SRL to put their channels in a main tier and the price of the tier would exceed the cost of getting those channels from pie dishes or fiber (just like it does now for certain 4dtv packages, cheaper to get most of those channels from dbs than get it from a programmer and watch it in way bitrate-starved quality with a 4dtv).

 

[skysurfer]

So many programmers are moving to power vu dvb equipment for uplinking.
They are ditching moto's digicipher.

Digicipher is not being ditched. For every new powervu cable feed I've found in the last few months, there probably has been 3-4 new digicipher feeds.

the only digicipher being ditched is the digicipher mode that a 4dtv can receive. Only two new 4DTV-receivable digicipher signals in the last few months, while four that I can think of 4dtv-receivable signals have gone off the arc in that same time frame.

 

[truckracer]

thats what I meant...DCII receivable by 4dtv. Not counting combo modes, s2, etc.

 

[ZetaMale]

One of the reasons why I haven't had a 4DTV sub for over 5 years is due to all of the commercials and embedded commercials (i.e. the "pop-up" ads) that have become an annoyance. I don't subscribe to cable or the pizza dish programming for the same reason. I'm planning on buying a Pansat 9200 rather than spending $300+ per year for programming with all that ridiculus programming and spinning logos (such as at Fox News). Not only that, I'm annoyed that Motorola hasn't updated their firmware just as others have mentioned. Motorola is losing money in other areas of their business (i.e. commercial 2-way radios), also. My employer use to purchase 2-way VHF radios exclusively from Motorola but have gone to Kenwood because of the overprices and under-performing 2-way radios that Motorola is currently putting out.

 

[photoman76]

I believe the fate of 4dtv rests with NPS. If they ever drop 4dtv, it's doomed.