New HD channels and tivo

1511 Views 6 Replies 6 Participants Last post by HiDefGator, Aug 23, 2007

Rambo2810

Discussion Starter · Aug 18, 2007

hi, anyone know when those "150 HD channels " are coming from Directv ?? Also, can I buy a DVD recorder and record programs from Directv ? Will the DVD recorder pick up the HD channels for Tivo ?? I was told that the HD channels will not record. Thanks in advance for any help

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JimSpence

· #2 · Aug 18, 2007

See http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=362403
Yes, you can use a DVD recorder in the same manner as the manual points out for "Saving to VCR". However, it will only record the SD channels from a DirecTV receiver. Or the HD in SD from an HDTiVo.

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bkdtv

· #3 · Aug 18, 2007

New and Upcoming Channels in 2H 2007 and Early 2008

August
Animal Planet
Discovery
TLC
The Science Channel

September
Cinemax (MoreMAX)
HBO (HBO2, HBO Family, and HBO Signature to start, with all remaining HBO channels to follow over next six months)
History
Starz (Starz Comedy, Starz Edge, and Starz Kids)
TBS
The Weather Channel

October
CNN

October/November
Cartoon Network
CNBC
FX
SciFi
USA Network

December
Tennis Channel

1Q '07
ABC Family
Disney Channel
Toon Disney
ESPNews

Dish Network just added the first group a few days ago, and DirecTV will begin adding channels in the second half of September, but they won't be the only ones. You can also expect to see most of these channels on Comcast, FiOS, and other cable providers this year.

DirecTV is using MPEG-4 compression to deliver these channels, so none of them will work with the DirecTivo DVRs. With DirecTV HR20 DVR with their own software is their only DVR with support for these channels. If you want Tivo capability with these channels, you'll have to switch to cable and get the TivoHD.

You'll have to wait a long time to get 100 -- let alone 150 -- HD cable channels with DirecTV. The claims you see on TV are with regard to total future capacity, and even those statements are a bit misleading, since DirecTV figures upcoming HD-PPV in that number. DirecTV also counts sports packages by the number of channels they require (i.e. Sunday Ticket isn't one channel, it is 6+ and the same will go for MLB Extra Innings when it is added in HD).

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matthew13

· #4 · Aug 20, 2007

I just got a new TV & would like to stick with Tivo, so I'll probably buy the new Tivo HD & hopefully Comcast will add the new HD channels as you've suggested. One question, though. I thought I saw somewhere, on some site, that the cable companies may start transmitting certain HD channels in some format not compatible with Tivos. Know anything about that?

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bkdtv

· #5 · Aug 20, 2007

matthew13 said:
I just got a new TV & would like to stick with Tivo, so I'll probably buy the new Tivo HD & hopefully Comcast will add the new HD channels as you've suggested. One question, though. I thought I saw somewhere, on some site, that the cable companies may start transmitting certain HD channels in some format not compatible with Tivos. Know anything about that?

Comcast 860MHz (and 1GHz) systems will not be using SDV anytime soon. Some Comcast 750MHz systems will be using SDV in the next year.

Here's a bit I posted in another thread:

How many analog channels does your cable system have?

Most 860-1Ghz systems have 135 channels. Unless you've got 90+ analog channels on your system, they'll have plenty of capacity for HD. Simple equation to find the approximate number of new HD channels your system can support:

Take 135 and subtract

# of analog channels

# of digital channels / 12

# of HD channels / 2.5

10 channels (allocated for VOD)

If you are on a 750MHz system, start with 115 and subtract. Some 860MHz systems have 130-132 channels instead of 135.

Take the result and multiply it by 2.5 to find the approximate number of new HD channels your system can support without SDV.

A bunch of Comcast systems had just 75-80 analog channels before they started migrating (moving) channels to the digital tier, so they were in a much better position than some Charter and Time Warner systems which had upwards of 90-95 analog channels.

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parzec

· #6 · Aug 22, 2007

bkdtv said:
You'll have to wait a long time to get 100 -- let alone 150 -- HD cable channels with DirecTV. The claims you see on TV are with regard to total future capacity, and even those statements are a bit misleading, since DirecTV figures upcoming HD-PPV in that number. DirecTV also counts sports packages by the number of channels they require (i.e. Sunday Ticket isn't one channel, it is 6+ and the same will go for MLB Extra Innings when it is added in HD).

Yep - DirecTv's HD-Channel "accounting" makes Enron and WorldCom look like childs play

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HiDefGator

· #7 · Aug 23, 2007

They could easily add 30 channels of HD PPV or VOD or both. They don't lack the bandwidth.

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