Sub Channels

[Scott Greczkowski]

Yup they do that with ION. I think its the only one though.

 

[whatchel1]

Why would they wait until WA goes MPEG4? They could do it on EA RIGHT NOW as its MPEG4...but they aren't

Because it wouldn't be right to do it for EA and not do it for WA.

 

[boba]

Yup they do that with ION. I think its the only one though.

Isn't ION still a national feed rather than local channels?

 

[eacalhoun]

I do wish that DISH (and DIRECTV) would provide the common subchannels, such as the MeTV, TNN, RTV, THIS TV, Antenna TV, PBJ, THISCOOLTV and Bounce ad then map them as subchannels in the areas where the subchannels are available. This way they could provide a lot of the subchannels out there without using a lot of bandwidth.

In my area, cable carries most if not all of the sub-channels in my area. And either on the air or via the local stations' websites, they promote the channel that viewers can tune on local cable. I believe this is a competitive disadvantage (albeit likely minor) sat has to cable. Since these sub-channels are vastly SD, would that mean even less of a bandwidth issue?

 

[TheKrell]

Isn't ION still a national feed rather than local channels?

Yes. The one national channel is mapped down to our local channel numbers. My Ion affiliate here in northern VA is channel 66. Yours is (?) different. This is what Scott meant by saving bandwidth on subchannels that are in fact the same for everybody.

 

[HDRoberts]

again we are talking about LOCALS which in most cases is arc specific.

A lot of locals are on BOTH arcs. For example, here in Cleveland, HD Locals are on 129, SD on 110, and both HD and SD are on 61.5.

Also, there would be a lot of debate about fairness in Eastern Arc markets are given things like MeTV and AntennaTV, but not WA customers.

I would love the ION-type solution. However, I think many of these subchannels occasionally preempt with local programming. So the locals may not be fans of cooperating.

 

[Mr Tony]

In my area, cable carries most if not all of the sub-channels in my area.

same here in Minneapolis.
That is their one advantage...they have the bandwidth usually

Since these sub-channels are vastly SD, would that mean even less of a bandwidth issue?

MPEG4? pretty much
MPEG2? no.....That gets back to the arc issue. If your SD locals are on WA they can only get 12 per transponder. In most cases the TP is full.

Dish could do them in MPEG4 SD and still have room even on WA. Just plug a SD channel in a mux with the HD locals. Unless you have a VIP receiver you can't see the station. Thats what Directv did with a subchannel. Its MPEG4 SD. You need a HD receiver to be able to see it.

 

[MikeD-C05]

I've suggested to DISH formally, that I wish that they would allow our receivers to use the PSIP data from the ota sub channels. This would give us full guide data for all our sub channels and DISH wouldn't have to put the guide data up on the satellites for all the sub channels across the country. They would only have to put guide data for the main 6 networks ABC/CBS/CW/FOX/NBC/MyNetwork. I know the DISH dtv pal plus dvrs could use psip data for it's dual ota tuner. It wasn't name based recording and it was more like VCR recording ,but you got guide data and information for each show recorded off of the psip data.

 

[KC9TIK]

I have WPIX, WSFL, and WGN as CW affiliates through Dish. They're "local", but not near my DMA. I'll continue to watch the CW Plus via big dish in HD, which local affiliates do have, but only in SD.

 

[The Fat Man]

As an EA viewer, I must say sorry, but I could care less about locals on the WA. I hope the new satellite at 61.5 would allow more spotbeam room for more HD locals and perhaps sub channels as well.

As for locals in SD only in Boston it's every affiliate that's not one of the big four networks. That's WGBH (PBS), WMUR (ABC out of NH), WENH (PBS out of NH), WUNI (Univision), WSBK (MNTV), WGBX (PBS), WBIN (Independent out of NH) WLVI (The CW), WNEU (Telemundo), WMFP (Plum), WTUF (Telefutra), and WBPX (Ion). That doesn't include sub channels. There are many sub channels here in the city. Thanks to OTA I do get virtually all offerings.