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hd_freak
@verizon.net

hd_freak

Anon

[HD] Any New HD Channels scheduled in future?

Any New HD Channels scheduled in future?

Jeep Matt any updates?

SeattleMatt
Streaming Tech Director
Premium Member
join:2001-12-28
Seattle, WA

SeattleMatt

Premium Member

I have no insight at this time to anything new on the horizon. Wish I did!

There's open space out there waiting, I can at least say that.

hd_freak
@verizon.net

hd_freak

Anon

Thanks Jeep Matt.

You Rock
URFloorMatt
join:2009-07-08
Arlington, VA

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Twitter Joe has recently mentioned the following channels as being high in the queue for new channels:

BBC America HD
E! HD
GolTV HD

Meanwhile, FSC+ HD is not high on the queue.

But obviously these are subject to change and he never offers any timeframe for when they might go live.

My guess is 1.9 will be the focus in the short term. And, given Verizon's history, my guess is the next HD channel addition will be ESPN Deportes HD.
NOVA Nole
join:2011-03-24
Fredericksburg, VA

NOVA Nole

Member

In addition BBC America HD, E! HD and GolTV HD I strongly suspect these are high on the list as well:

Cartoon Network HD
CBS College Sports HD
Hallmark Channel HD
nowayout
join:2009-06-22
Allentown, PA

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Do we know exactly how much channel space is left? The occasional QAM doom talk has made it sound like they've been at the end of their rope for about 2 years now, but they've pinched out a handful of channels over the last several months. Is there a knowable guesstimate?

lakerfan82
join:2009-01-30
Corona, CA

1 edit

lakerfan82 to SeattleMatt

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to SeattleMatt
said by SeattleMatt:

I have no insight at this time to anything new on the horizon. Wish I did!

There's open space out there waiting, I can at least say that.

How much space (ie, how many hd channels) nationally? If I look at Verizon's Channel lineup, the Southern California market currently has 143 HD channels. Looking ahead to 2012, Time Warner is launching 2 new Regional Sports Networks (1 Spanish/1 English) and the Pac 12 Conference is also launching a tv network. Verizon will be hard pressed not to add those 3 for our market when their main competitor in the region is Time Warner...
Pat Bowa
join:2008-11-19
Bensalem, PA

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Isn't there a big expansion in the number of HD channels that Fios offers coming this summer? Whatever happened to that?
URFloorMatt
join:2009-07-08
Arlington, VA

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said by NOVA Nole:

In addition BBC America HD, E! HD and GolTV HD I strongly suspect these are high on the list as well:

Cartoon Network HD
CBS College Sports HD
Hallmark Channel HD

I would bet the next channel addition is ESPN Deportes.

TimSullivan
@verizon.net

TimSullivan

Anon

said by URFloorMatt See ProfileI would bet the next channel addition is ESPN Deportes.
[/BQUOTE :

Jeez, it better NOT be! Now that FSC has been added, it's time to give something that the majority of viewers would like to see.


Zero5
join:2009-07-01
Collegeville, PA

Zero5

Member

said by TimSullivan :

Jeez, it better NOT be! Now that FSC has been added, it's time to give something that the majority of viewers would like to see.

They did. According to Verizon that's why they added BET HD
URFloorMatt
join:2009-07-08
Arlington, VA

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to Pat Bowa
said by Pat Bowa:

Isn't there a big expansion in the number of HD channels that Fios offers coming this summer? Whatever happened to that?

For what it's worth, Twitter Joe had this to say today:

Q: Now that fsc hd is here, what's next on the "list"?

A: several dozen HD and SD, plus a few 3D

Not sure how that's possible unless MPEG4 or IPTV are just about ready to roll, and we've gotten no indication that either is. But he didn't lay out a timeline.

It seems like, based on our math, there could be room for about 6 more HD channels.

SeattleMatt
Streaming Tech Director
Premium Member
join:2001-12-28
Seattle, WA

SeattleMatt

Premium Member

said by URFloorMatt:

Not sure how that's possible unless MPEG4 ...

Ahem....cough...cough...

Greg2600
join:2008-05-20
Belleville, NJ

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MPEG-4 is listed among the release notes for 1.9. Frankly much of the new HD's will come down to contracts.
Strommy
join:2010-04-23
King Of Prussia, PA

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said by URFloorMatt:

Twitter Joe has recently mentioned the following channels as being high in the queue for new channels:
--
BBC America HD

jaw2012
join:2008-08-01
King Of Prussia, PA

jaw2012

Member


When VZ isn't required to convert the majority of their channels is when they should go mpeg4.

So the real question is when will the majority of content owners go mpe4? Because as far as I know most are still using mpeg2.

Jfo4462
@verizon.net

Jfo4462

Anon

How much space would be recovered from 1 hd channel changing from mpeg2 to mpeg4? Aren't all the HBO/Cinemax channels broadcast in mpeg 4?
shark2k
join:2008-06-01
West Orange, NJ

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said by SeattleMatt:

said by URFloorMatt:

Not sure how that's possible unless MPEG4 ...

Ahem....cough...cough...

What about the older boxes that don't support MPEG-4? How they dealing with that?

-Shark2k

bull3964
@stargate.net

bull3964

Anon

I would imagine a lot of that is going to sort itself out once 1.9 is out.

Every HD box that can't do MPEG4 is going to have a sub-optimal experience on 1.9 (no HD canvas, slow as hell, no external storage). People are going to want to swap them out regardless.

Then they simply send notices out to people that still have the older 6 series boxes who subscribe to the affected channels and tell them they have to swap their box out or lose those channels.

Either that or they create a new tier with the new channels and require a 7 series box to subscribe to it.

A hardware swap is going to be pretty easy to organize, especially with the number of 7216's coming back from 7232 swaps.
shark2k
join:2008-06-01
West Orange, NJ

shark2k

Member

The problem is that is still a huge cost factor for Verizon (between the shipping to and from of the boxes). Also, if that hardward is good it could still get used since Verizon will send out refurbished boxes. This issue has been talked about before when talk about HD expansion comes up.

-Shark2k

bull3964
@stargate.net

bull3964

Anon

said by shark2k:

The problem is that is still a huge cost factor for Verizon (between the shipping to and from of the boxes). Also, if that hardward is good it could still get used since Verizon will send out refurbished boxes. This issue has been talked about before when talk about HD expansion comes up.

-Shark2k

I believe it's already been confirmed by a few sources that 6416's that make their way back to FIOS don't get redeployed. They are slowly removing them out of circulation.

The cross section of users that are still using 6416s AND subscribe to (let's say) the premium channels is probably not a huge percentage.

The cost of replacing field equipment will simply be factored into the cost of doing the MPEG4 upgrade.
URFloorMatt
join:2009-07-08
Arlington, VA

2 edits

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said by shark2k:

The problem is that is still a huge cost factor for Verizon (between the shipping to and from of the boxes). Also, if that hardward is good it could still get used since Verizon will send out refurbished boxes. This issue has been talked about before when talk about HD expansion comes up.

-Shark2k

Twitter Joe has previously said that everything below a 7 series is going to the junk pile. That covers the MPEG4 problem. And, as for the cost of reclamation, that's what the $40 fee is for. Maybe the reason for the slow rollout of 1.9 is to facilitate a high percentage of STB swaps?

But like others have said: if you start with a small number of channels, you just send out a notice that says if you aren't running a 7 series STB, you won't have access to the following X new channels. Previously it was suggested (or at least it was my interpretation based on how it was explained) that it was an all-or-nothing choice: either all MPEG4 or all MPEG2. If that's wrong, then there's no reason not to shift what's possible to MPEG4 and reclaim some QAM for more MPEG4 additions, and gradually switch over other channels as it becomes possible.

I believe a substantial percentage of channels are now MPEG4, including the ESPN networks, the Rainbow Media networks, and all the premium networks. All told, I think that could easily make space for "several dozen" new HD channels, particularly if the new channels are also MPEG4.

As has been discussed, if every HD channel were MPEG4, Verizon has capacity for well over 200 HD channels--more than is currently available.

I'll say this too. If you've got a 7232, once a majority of channels are MPEG4, file sizes will essentially drop between a third to a half from what they are now and your DVR will be close to bottomless. So Verizon can afford to absorb the cost to some degree now because the fact of the matter is the new crop of STBs are future-proof for a very long time to come.
shark2k
join:2008-06-01
West Orange, NJ

shark2k

Member

I know how reliable Twitter Joe can be, but if that is true than you're right it does eliminate the MPEG-4 problem. Of course a lot of people on this forum have reported not paying the $40 upgrade fee, so that might not really help (not sure how many people actually paid in within the whole network).

As to the MPEG-4 or MPEG-2, I would think it can be a mix because I'm pretty sure the only reason (or at least my understanding) that Verizon transcoded the MPEG-4 channels to MPEG-2 was because of the fact that not all STBs could handle it (HBO I know comes in as MPEG-4). The tuners can handle MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 so I see no reason, aside from Verizon not being able to send both codecs, for mixed not be doable. The tuner should be able to easily determine the codec type and decode it from there.

As to the DVR, we don't have one just the 7100-P2 STBs, but I agree with you. Going MPEG-4 will definitely increase the amount of recordings that can be stored on the DVR almost acting like another hard drive increase.

All I know if this is indeed true, that is great news for us and hopefully contracts are being negotiated for us to be getting some of the national HD channels out there that we do not have. I for one would love to have Cartoon Network HD and DIY Network HD. If Verizon can get this change implemented it will give them more time for going IPTV (if that does indeed happen).

-Shark2k

Andy from CA
Premium Member
join:2008-09-05
Anaheim, CA

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Until these new HD channels can be added I'd like to see programming from them added to HD VOD.

It should be easy. If the SD VOD programs are available from BBC America, Cartoon Network & others it should be easy to open up an HD folder for each and stock them full of delicious HD content.

dc
@verizon.net

dc to shark2k

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If the new dvr holds about 70 hours HD now is there a guesstimate at what it would hold if everything was mpeg4 HD ?

bull3964
@verizon.net

bull3964

Anon

said by dc :

If the new dvr holds about 70 hours HD now is there a guesstimate at what it would hold if everything was mpeg4 HD ?

It's hard to say without knowing the bit rates, but if we use HBO's 8Mbps as an example, around 140 hours for all MPEG4 material.
URFloorMatt
join:2009-07-08
Arlington, VA

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said by shark2k:

All I know if this is indeed true, that is great news for us and hopefully contracts are being negotiated for us to be getting some of the national HD channels out there that we do not have. I for one would love to have Cartoon Network HD and DIY Network HD. If Verizon can get this change implemented it will give them more time for going IPTV (if that does indeed happen).

It's been suggested, though we can't know for sure, that--unlike the last time--contracts are not holding up additions now. It's technology.

Based on recent additions and some old promises, I would guess contracts are already in place for most of the remaining HD channels--certainly any premium channels not carried, and probably all the channels distributed by Comcast, Discovery (including BBC America), Disney, Time Warner, Fox, and Viacom.

I think this is why Twitter Joe is willing to tell us "what's in the pipeline" because the contracts are in place.
jaw2012
join:2008-08-01
King Of Prussia, PA

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Is that really 8Mbps for HBO HD? I always thought the conversion from Mpeg4 to Mpeg2 was a big reason for the lower PQ compared to the other HD's, but if the bitrate is really 8Mbps, then no wonder.

bull3964
@stargate.net

bull3964

Anon

Yes, it was widely reported in 2007 that HBO's distribution would go fully MPEG4 with 8Mbps on all channels.

»hd.engadget.com/2007/06/ ··· it-rate/
knarf829
join:2007-06-02

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An MPEG4 bitrate of 8Mbps is not bad at all.