D* Future HD Plans With New Satellites - Page 32  

Who is offering it for $299?

A few threads down from this they are talking about it.

No

Check the Recorders forum here for D* Tivo info.

You can do OTA recording with the HD Tivo if the satellite tuner is not in use or even if you are recording or watching something else from the satellite. What you can't do is record HD OTA if you don't have DirecTV service.

Along these lines, someone mentioned in another thread that you can not do OTA recording if both SAT tuners are not connected. Are they just full of it or is this really a requirement to enable the OTA tuner? My current wiring situation makes enabling the dual SAT tuner functionality an impossibility since all coax is run to one main location and delivered to each room via multiswitch in a two story home.

I'm pretty sure the guy was just using a horrible way of saying what you did, eric, but I want to make sure I cross my T's and dot my I's before I pull the trigger on the HD TIVO.

Thanks,
Jeff

Iceblade, on the HR10-250 if you only have 1 Sat input, then you can only record 1 program at a time, either Sat or OTA. The second OTA tuner is only active if both Sat inputs are active. The reason is the unit creates 2 'virtual Sat/OTA tuners'. Without both Sat inputs you only get 1 virtual tunner. I have heard that you can tell the TiVo that you have both Sat inputs connected even if you only have one, and that will activate the second OTA tuner. The downside with that is that the unit may try to record a show for you using the un-connected sat tuner. Does this help?

Wow... that's really odd, f300v10. Thanks for the info. I've lived with just one tuner hooked up on my bedroom TIVO setup, so it's not a big deal to me to be restricted to one SAT tuner on the HD TIVO. I'm more concerned with being able to record an OTA program and a SAT program at the same time... or perhaps 2 OTA programs (not very often). I have the bedroom TIVO to use for my wife's programming or whatever... so no biggie.

Thanks for the help. Any idea why the heck they did it this way with the virtual tuners?

Regs,
Jeff

probably to make it easier for end users to understand. It's tough to say "sometimes it will record 2 programs, other times 3 or 4...)

It's tough enough to get people to understand that it can record 2 Live programs while you watch a PrEviously recorded one. Many thing you should be able to record 2 and then watch a 3rd live. If you troll the tivocommunity forums you'll see every month or so some person gets excited that "their tivo CAN record 2 while watching a 3rd live show" because they happenedd to be watching the buffer behind. Can you uimagine the angry support calls wanting to know why yesterday it recorded 3 shows and today it only did 2?

Besides that, there could be hardware issues. I think the broadcom "dvr on a chip" that they use in it might only be able to deal with 2 streams at a time.

When is Spaceway2 goin' up?

Scheduled for mid- to late-October, I heard.

Hong.

According to here Spaceway2 will go up October 27.

Will I still be able to use component out to get HDTV with the new channels that Direct tv is going to offer?

I think that would be more dependant on what box they give you.

To add to that, I would expect all their HD stb's to have component.

Thanks

The new MPEG4 equipment is pretty certain to have component output, and I think we can expect full HD resolution from our local stations, whether received OTA or from D* spotbeams. Since the component output has no copy protection, however, at some point in the future there may be specific programming on premium HD services that is downrezzed to 480P over component. By that time we'll probably all have 1920 x 1080P displays w/HDMI inputs, so I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.

A quick couple of ?'s for you:

Any word on when Spaceway 1 will finally be in position?

Did you say earlier that it was being moved via thrusters only?
Is this the norm? Does it have a main engine'? (Seems like you could almost use more precious fuel this way than one or two quick 'burns' with the main engine. Almost sounds as if the main engine is non-functional).

If more fuel is used by having to use the thrusters, what about the longevity of the satellite? Do they 'drift' so that there have to be minute corrections at times, or is more fuel only used if the satellite is moved to a new location?

Sorry if the above sounds very basic, I'm just trying to understand why this one satellite seems to have taken forever to get to its geo-synchronous orbit.
Bish

They have two propulsion systems on it; the XIPS unit, which is a Xenon Ion Propulsion System, and a conventional hypergolic-fueled thruster system with little rocket nozzles. Normally, about 50~60% of the launch weight is fuel, and about 80~90% of that is used to correct for North/South drift. I don't know the specifics on this spacecraft design, so I'm just using 'text book' numbers. Of course, the books have a way of getting re-written when newer technology comes along! The last I heard, they were only using the XIPS, which doesn't have a lot of thrust, but is very effecient. I would suppose that they'd want to save the "regular" thruster fuel in case they had to make any large orbital adjustments in a short time. As far as a "Main Engine" goes, some do, some don't, but most of the commercial sats destined to live in geosync orbit rely on the launch vehicle to get them pretty close, and then they use their on-board fuel for the final little nudges into their assigned spot. Unless something goes terribly wrong during the insertion to geosync orbit, they all have enough fuel onboard for their projected lifetime.
And they may have some other reason for moving it slowly that we don't know about.

I keep searching their websites and can't find much....any news on when it will be here in miami?

There have been issues with the satellites. Spaceway 1 seems to have a drifting problem, so it isn't in place to start operations.

Spaceway 2 was supposed to have been launched June 24, but is delayed until around October 19. This was due to problems with the other satellite (Telekom 2) also to be launched.

I think that BOTH satellites have to be launched and in proper orbit before operations (i.e., more HD channels) can begin.

the idiot installer who was at my house two weeks ago said their were three birds already up. of course, he also told me the orlando-daytona market would be hi-def in november. for that screw up and others, i'm getting a free OTA. it would have been up thursday except for the fact we've had a tropical storm lurking off the coast all week!!

You cant count on anything you are told over the phone by any D* employee, and you certainly cant expect any of the installers to have any credible information..

The best info you will get about the new satts is right here in these forums, just do a search, or do a little browsing around...

Threads merged.

Spaceway 1 has no drifting problem and is right where it's supposed to be (102.8). You can keep tabs on it via the Lyngsat webtsite:

http://www.lyngsat.com/tracker/space1.html

Spaceway 2 has a launch date of October 27th:

http://www.orbireport.com/Log.html

Maybe when you posted it, but it isn't listed now.

Yes, but do we know if it works?

Just because it's in position doesn't mean it's up to snuff.

Yes, we can be pretty confident that they have been testing it and it works.

Do you really think that they would have officially announced the start of MPEG 4 HD LiL service in the top 12 markets starting in two months if there were any outstanding technical issue show stoppers.

I think your point is valid, BUT ...

why is it taking so long?

The first Spaceway satellite has been up for many months. So why haven't they started HD LiL already? They can't be waiting for the other Spaceway satellite since that won't even be launched for a few more months.

I haven't seen a good explanation for the very long delay between launch and operation. I think the delay is far to long to attibute it primarily to "testing", even if it is new technology. Stuff like that gets prototyped and debugged on the ground. It doesn't require 6 months of testing in orbit.

It has to do with the delay of the F2 launch. It would have been better to have both birds aloft at the start to not only offer the first 12 LIL markets but also be able to begin offering the next LIL markets as well as national HD. With only one bird up, only the first 12 markets can be served.