Boston, MA - DBS - Page 7

Steve,
Does Direct tv ever blackout the HD feed for NESN. Also on our box we have to go to 623 and then go up one channel that takes us to 623H. Is that what you have to do?

No I have never seen it blacked out. I have the HR20 700 and all HD channels show up first when you punch in the numbers it used to be the sd version showed up first but was fixed a while back.

What box are you using?

Hi folks,

Got a question, but the answer seems to be vague when I contact DirecTV.

What's the best way to get the most NHL games in HD?

Taking this thread and info into consideration: DirecTV Confirms 2007 HD channel additions.

What are my options?

This is what I did last year. I subscribed to Center Ice, and the expanded HD package from DirecTV . I get NESN and Versus also as part of my basic subscription.

HDNET was described this way: A 24-hour network featuring live sports like NHL® and MLS® games, boxing, drama series, concerts and original news and documentary programming including HDNet World Report and Across America.

The problem I found was that many (I'd say half) of the games that I could have seen in HD on HDNET were blacked out. I couldn't get a straight answer from DirecTV as to why which one's were and weren't blacked out. Sometimes I got games on both C.I and HDNET, sometimes just HDNET (rarely), sometimes they were even both feeds, one away and one home. But for my money many times the HDNET feeds were blacked out and I had to watch the game in standard Definition on Versus or C.I. Sort of frustrating since the game, my new Plasma, Sat.Dish and HD-DVR were meant for that feed and yet it was blocked. Not to mention I paid for both subscriptions, it's not like C.I and HDNET weren't getting my cash. I could see if HDNET blacked out some games if I wasn't paying for C.I , but I was shelling out cash to both.

Ok, so two years ago before I had the new plasma, dish, and HD-DVR I subscribed to this package: DirecTV- Sports Pack. Lots of NHL games but the live broadcasts were blacked out, and I had to watch later at night , or record on my DVR the replays. Now that I've had both C.I and this SportsPack I realize that this is the case a lot , even when the games are broadcast live by C.I, many times last year when I had C.I I had to record the game anyway and watch it later (Dual HDDVR allows recording of one live broadcast while watching another).

So the question remains, what choice will give me access to more NHL games in HD? Since last year on Center Ice, even if a local provider (NESN type station for that area), had games in HD, C.I didn't broad cast it that way.

Is C.I going to have more games in HD?

With this as the new HD line up for DirecTV:

Regional Sports Networks (Available nationally, but local blackout rules still apply.
Fall 2007)
1. Altitude
2. Comcast SportsNet Chicago
3. Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic
4. FSN Arizona
5. FSN Bay Area
6. FSN Detroit
7. FSN Florida
8. FSN New England
9. FSN North
10. FSN Northwest
11. FSN Ohio
12. FSN Prime Ticket
13. FSN Rocky Mountain
14. FSN South
15. FSN Southwest
16. FSN West
17. New England Sports Network
18. SportsNet New York
19. SportsSouth
20. Sun Sports
21. YES

Should I just subscribe to the SPorts Pack, and record the replays that will be in HD, and not get C.I?

Of course loading up on all three, HDNET, C.I, and SPorts Pack would be the solution, but I don't think there's enough time in the day, and I'll have a lot of redundant programming with SPortsPack and C.I.

Any help on this is greatly appreciated.

Just closing the loop on this because it may help others. The "senior tech" I got was the same tech who said the HD locals were on the 101. And of course, when he showed up I had no issues with my HD locals including NESN-HD.

He insisted as before that the HD locals were on the 101 and that he could not even point the dish to the 99, that the 99 was for the 150 HD channels, was only 3 months old, and was not active. He tried to blame my dual 6x8 multiswitches which he himself installed, claiming I needed a powered 6x16 switch which I knew was not true.

He continued to play the 101 card even though I put him on the phone with D* tech support who told him the HD locals were on the 99. They tried to connect him to installer support but it ended in a busy signal. "They don't know anything. They're just sitting in an office somewhere," he said.

It was amazing to deal with this guy. He said he had been installing 3 LNB dishes and those people are able to get HD locals off the 101. Looking back now, knowing the MPEG-4 locals can't be received with the 3 LNB dish, it occurs to me that he does not know what HD is. He's probably looking at widescreen sets with a stretch picture and assuming on his own that is HD.

I told him the problem was at the dish, either a pointing problem, or a connection. While he was up there, I called D* again, confirmed the 99 again, and got the number for installer support. I was on hold with them when he came back in. All he did was disconnect and reconnect the lines at the dish.

And lo and behold, I had high 90s signal on the 99 for all but the #3 transponder which I think others have also.

Even with THAT, he still claimed the 99 did not carry the Boston HD locals and that I would continue to have problems with pixelation and no signal. Of course, I haven't.

Thanks again for the help I received in this forum.

Digger,

Glad things worked out for you and now you can enjoy. This forum is amazing with the amount of information on here and this where I learned everything and continue to learn.

Don't be a stranger keep checking back for updated also check out DBS Talk as that has a ton of information on the HR20 boxes. http://www.dbstalk.com/forumdisplay.php?forumid=12

Hey, I have the HR20 and the H20. The H20 does the channel up even if you only have the 623H selected. It still goes to 623SD. The HR20 goes right to 623HD

Am I interpreting the respective websites correctly? Neither DBS provider provides WGBH in HD? Or am I missing something? (The fact that neither carries Channel 56 in HD makes perfect sense to me. )

Even Comcast does not provide the HD for WGBH. They have 2-2, but not the digital for Channel 2. From what I understand, neither D* or Dish do the local PBS stations in HD, as well as the CW.

Uh, not even WGBH provides an OTA HD feed for 2-1. 2-1 is strictly SD digital.

Comcast provides "all" the HD feeds WGBH puts out.

DirecTV does not.

(Same with CW HD.)

For what it is worth....

They are WAAAAAY out of sync tonight (OTA).

The closest thing I could find is this DBS thread which seems to be mostly about DirectTV. A search didn't yield much either. Is Dish Network that unpopular?

I was hoping to find folks who been Dish Network customers and possibly have subscribed to their dishHD offering (45 HD channels only). I am also interested in folks opinions about antenna placement, reception issues, etc. specific to the Boston area.

I'll let you know about Dish Network shortly. I signed up for Turbo HD Silver which includes ESPN/ESPN2/TNT/TBS/NESN/Comcast Sport New England+local channels in HD+HD DVR with 500g hard drive. $40/month!

with Directv's net sat parked now is anyone seeing low transponder reading on transponder 19 at 103 ca? people in other parts of the country are getting it solid.
all my other transponders are 90+ on this sat i'm only pulling in a 72

When I checked just now, it's similar for me. 90+ on all but transponder 19, which is 80. That's using an H21 receiver. The readings are not necessarily comparable across different models, but transponder 19 is definitely lower than all the others.

From Deadline.com

Thanks for the heads up Ken.

Although it didn't effect me much as I'm well within range of both stations to receive them on the a very affordable OTA antenna.