Direct TV will end SD broadcasts in 2019

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Gary RV_Wizard

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Direct TV has announced it will end Standard Definition broadcasting in 2019. They haven't been upgrading SD support for some years already, and the last SD broadcasts will phase out in 2019.

http://forums.solidsignal.com/content.php/5483-THE-END-IS-COMING-DIRECTV-announces-end-of-SD-service

This will affect RV users more than residential, since many RVers own their dish or dome, and many are dependent on receiving signals from the DTV 101 satellite (pretty much the only one from DTV that domes can receive). It's not yet known what DTV will broadcast from that satellite position and band, but they paid $billions for it so won't be leaving it fallow! However, whatever it is probably won't be compatible with existing SD satellite receivers, so RVers with Direct will at least need new receivers. Those who pay Direct a monthly fee for receiver rental will get free replacements, of course, and surely Direct will do something to help subscribers stay with them (they want your monthly $$!). Whether existing domes and dishes will work with it remains to be seen., but you might want to postpone major investments in new satellite gear that is SD only.
 
I agree, this hurts people that can only receive SD from Direct TV. I guess for right now, the only Direct TV option for HD is the stationary "dish" type antenna.

I guess AT&T buying Direct TV is going to usher in some changes.

 
It's probably premature to conclude that. We don't know what they are going to put on the 101 satellite, or if some other satellite will be broadcasting on the Ku band that RV domes can receive.  HD vs Sd is not the problem - it is the radio frequency (Ku band vs Ka band) that affects the dome receivers. Right now, Direct has all their HD channels on Ka band satellites, but that's mostly because they didn't have room for them on the old Ku band 101 satellite..
 
We just recently changed from Dish to Direct as there was problem with one of the local networks and a contract problem so we could not get the national affiliate. Most of our neighbor's have also gone to Direct as we are in the country and only have satellite for Internet and TV out here.

I have a VERY old smaller tv in the kitchen and they put an inexpensive converter on it so there is a way around the HD problem.  Hope this works for those that are not ready to change tv's yet.
 
D-n-R said:
I have a VERY old smaller tv in the kitchen and they put an inexpensive converter on it so there is a way around the HD problem.  Hope this works for those that are not ready to change tv's yet.
The digital to analog converter they supplied for your older TV has nothing to do with DTV's HD or SD satellite transmissions. The issue is that the dish "head" (LNB) that's used for the SD sats is not compatible with their HD sat. Nor are the SD only receivers. None of the automatic portable dishes can receive DTV's HD signals.
 
Larry N. said:
I don't know much about portable dishes, but that's specifically true of domes, portable or fixed.
All the automatic portables are domes, but yes, the fixed roof mount domes are out to for DTV HD. The only automatic roof mounts that do work are the Winegard Trav'ler and similar multi-LNB dishes.
 
Whether existing domes and dishes will work with it remains to be seen., but you might want to postpone major investments in new satellite gear that is SD only.

I have had one of those afternoons trying to "find" the signal... hubby says to go get a Wineguard tailgater gizmo... but we have direct TV and not sure I want to spend that $$$ right now... after reading this post... any updates on this. I see only one of their systems does HD and all the dish ones do HD... hum..................... thanks,
Edit: Fixed quote.
 
I don't think there is any new news on this. The only question is how much are you willing to pay to have TV NOW, knowing that equipment will probably be obsolete in about 3 years. Are you willing to use an inexpensive tripod dish for now and do manual set-up?  If not, it's pay the freight for an automatic dish or doe that works now, and pay again later.

This could be a great improvement for RVers IF Direct puts HD channels on the existing 101 satellite that our domes and auto dishes can receive. We would need upgraded receivers, but the HD stuff would become available to us. Again, I say "IF". Since Direct hasn't said what they will do with the 101 satellite capacity, it's anybody's guess.
 
The way things are going it's possible that broadcast TV, cable, and satellite will be obsolete by 2019.
 
It started several years ago.  If I wanted to I could 'cut the cord' today and get all my TV, even live network feeds, over the net.  I have four computers configured and tested to do this already. We've been out on the road for 11 days and I spent more time setting up the sat dish than we have watching it.  Yet we have watched TV every night.  Unfortunately it takes more technical ability than most people have but as soon as someone figures out how to make it dead simple it will explode.  It has already exploded among the tech savvy group, I.e. Cord cutters and it's costing the cable & sat providers big.
 
I think we will go the tripod route. We have a dish and the receiver, our sole problem is pointing on our piece of #%%#$# tripod. I have seen those nice ones in RV store that you can just align the numbers on the tripod. Anyone have one of these and where is best place to get one!  We did get our TV to work so we could watch Olympics, but took a long time to realize we just needed to put a board under the front leg, ugh!!!
 
tanglemoose said:
I think we will go the tripod route. We have a dish and the receiver, our sole problem is pointing on our piece of #%%#$# tripod. I have seen those nice ones in RV store that you can just align the numbers on the tripod. Anyone have one of these and where is best place to get one!  We did get our TV to work so we could watch Olympics, but took a long time to realize we just needed to put a board under the front leg, ugh!!!

A basic rule for setting up any multiple satellite dish is that the post the dish is mounted on must be perfectly plumb. A cheap bubble level sitting on the post before mounting the dish is all it takes to get off to a good start. After that, as long as you have the skew and elevation settings correct for your location and a clear sky view on the right azimuth, dialing in should be pretty easy. It rarely takes me more than 15 minutes to setup and aim our triple LNB Dish dish using a modified low cost roof mount tripod and a no tools needed modified dish.
 
8Muddypaws said:
It started several years ago.  If I wanted to I could 'cut the cord' today and get all my TV, even live network feeds, over the net.  I have four computers configured and tested to do this already. We've been out on the road for 11 days and I spent more time setting up the sat dish than we have watching it.  Yet we have watched TV every night.  Unfortunately it takes more technical ability than most people have but as soon as someone figures out how to make it dead simple it will explode.  It has already exploded among the tech savvy group, I.e. Cord cutters and it's costing the cable & sat providers big.

I don't know what the cable providers numbers are, but neither Dish or Direct are seeing huge losses in subscriber counts. Some loss, certainly, but both have also seen increased profits, so it's not all gloom and doom yet.

I'm curious where you think mobile RV'ers are going to get all the bandwidth needed to stream the programming we currently get from satellite or park cable? On top of what we already use for our normal Internet activities...
 

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