# Is D* taking TNTHD off for Sunday Ticket?



## moonman (Jul 21, 2004)

According to this post http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=721674
D* is taking TNTHD off on Sunday's to use the B/W for NFL Sunday ticket. If true
this is even more reason to dump the H/D pkg.. not to mention you NASCAR fans...


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## ebonovic (Jul 24, 2001)

Sure enough... according to the guide...
It is shut down till 8pm EST

Was NASCAR in HD today on TNT?


As another note.
They also had to shutdown all the MIX channels, and the Interactive content via the ACTIVE button on the D11/R15/HR20 systems.
And we all know they already pull a lot of PPV as well.


Can we say: bandwith shortage...
All the more reason to get the HD Package converted to MPEG-4


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## dswallow (Dec 3, 2000)

ebonovic said:


> Can we say: bandwith shortage...
> All the more reason to get the HD Package converted to MPEG-4


All the more reason to dump the seasonal NFL Sunday Ticket people that are the root cause of the bandwidth shortage over to MPEG-4.


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## ebonovic (Jul 24, 2001)

dswallow said:


> All the more reason to dump the seasonal NFL Sunday Ticket people that are the root cause of the bandwidth shortage over to MPEG-4.


Or if they can figure out a way to only have 2 Sets of network programming (CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX) for all 200 some DMAs... instead of 200 copies of the same thing..


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## old7 (Aug 7, 2002)

Between 1:00 PM (ET) and 8:00 PM (ET) there are 3 movies scheduled today.

Trapped, Along Came a Spider and The Negotiator

I am certain that the NASCAR Nextel Cup race was last night.


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## moonman (Jul 21, 2004)

ebonovic said:


> Sure enough... according to the guide...
> It is shut down till 8pm EST
> 
> Was NASCAR in HD today on TNT?


--------------
From Nascar's website:
09/17/06 Sylvania 300 New Hampshire International Speedway TNT/12:30 p.m. 
09/24/06 Dover 400 Dover International Speedway TNT/12:30 p.m. 
10/01/06 Banquet 400 presented by ConAgra Foods Kansas Speedway NBC/1:30 p.m. 
10/08/06 UAW-Ford 500 Talladega Superspeedway NBC/1:30 p.m. 
10/14/06 Bank of America 500 Lowe's Motor Speedway NBC/7 p.m. 
10/22/06 Subway 500 Martinsville Speedway NBC/12:30 p.m. 
10/29/06 Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500 Atlanta Motor Speedway NBC/2:30 p.m. 
11/05/06 Dickies 500 Texas Motor Speedway NBC/2:30 p.m. 
11/12/06 Checker Auto Parts 500 Phoenix International Raceway NBC/3 p.m. 
11/19/06 Ford 400 Homestead-Miami Speedway NBC/2 p.m


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## ebonovic (Jul 24, 2001)

moonman said:


> --------------
> From Nascar's website:
> 09/17/06 Sylvania 300 New Hampshire International Speedway TNT/12:30 p.m.
> 09/24/06 Dover 400 Dover International Speedway TNT/12:30 p.m.
> ...


Okay... so let's see what happens next week.

It is possible they just pulled TNT-HD this week, since it appears there is no HD content on it for today (except for the "loved" up converts)


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## dswallow (Dec 3, 2000)

This situation makes me wonder just what bandwidth requirements would be if all the HD channels would broadcast in the appropriate resolution rather than upconverting everything to one standard. Most of the channels don't have HD programming 24 hours a day. If they'd broadcast 480i/480p when they didn't, there probably would not be a bandwidth shortage.


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## geneb11 (Oct 21, 2002)

I was just doing to post on this. They gave us TNTHD and now they are taking it away on a day that it is watched the most??? and we now have a new channel called HD that is a pay per view channel?


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## moonman (Jul 21, 2004)

dswallow said:


> All the more reason to dump the seasonal NFL Sunday Ticket people that are the root cause of the bandwidth shortage over to MPEG-4.


That would not be practical because D* would then be forced to swap out
all the older MPEG2 equipment for free(including DVR's and new dish) for
all their Sunday Ticket customers(which IMO) are a very profitable group for
them.


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## dswallow (Dec 3, 2000)

moonman said:


> That would not be practical because D* would then be forced to swap out
> all the older MPEG2 equipment for free(including DVR's and new dish) for
> all their Sunday Ticket customers(which IMO) are a very profitable group for
> them.


Who says they'd have to do it for free, at least initially? I think most Sunday Ticket customers are rabid enough they'd pay something towards the new equipment. It's not like they can get the package anywhere else.


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## rkester (Jan 10, 2005)

If this is going to be DTVs policy, to pull a channel so they can air others I think I will be leaving them even sooner than January. Totally no excuse for this.


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## cheer (Nov 13, 2005)

ebonovic said:


> Or if they can figure out a way to only have 2 Sets of network programming (CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX) for all 200 some DMAs... instead of 200 copies of the same thing..


No legal way for them to do that, alas.


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## cheer (Nov 13, 2005)

rkester said:


> If this is going to be DTVs policy, to pull a channel so they can air others I think I will be leaving them even sooner than January. Totally no excuse for this.


What alternative would you suggest?


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## Archangel00 (Aug 25, 2006)

ebonovic said:


> Okay... so let's see what happens next week.
> 
> It is possible they just pulled TNT-HD this week, since it appears there is no HD content on it for today (except for the "loved" up converts)


UMMM NO......let's DON'T wait and see what happens next week. Every NASCAR fan out there better be calling them and raising total hell about this RIGHT NOW and every day this coming week. If they pull this crap next week then they deserve to lose every subscriber that watches NASCAR on TNT.

Don't dare sit back and be passive on this ppl as was suggested. Get on the phone NOW.


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## dswallow (Dec 3, 2000)

cheer said:


> What alternative would you suggest?


Perhaps they should not over-commit resources.

They could also just overcompress a few channels to make room for a few hours; they could even spread the "damage" around by shifting which channels are being overcompressed temporarily.

Is every PPV channel gone during this period? If not, there's another place they could recover bandwidth before dropping a regular channel to make room.

And they still could've just required SuperFan subscribers to have MPEG-4 HD equipment or certain HD games wouldn't be available to them; that'd be a much more manageable number of subscribers than needing to upgrade every Sunday Ticket subscriber.

Heck, they could even just proactively credit HD package subscribers a few dollars for the loss of a channel for a day here and there; at least that'd demonstrate they even care.


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## moonman (Jul 21, 2004)

dswallow said:


> Who says they'd have to do it for free, at least initially? I think most Sunday Ticket customers are rabid enough they'd pay something towards the new equipment. It's not like they can get the package anywhere else.


-------------
Well I'm not "rabid" enough to buy a new H/D T.V....(My TV has a built-in MPEG2
D* tuner so I don't need a "box")


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## Archangel00 (Aug 25, 2006)

On the phone with them now(1-800-824-9081) and they don't know anything about it. LOL
The guys system shows normal guide data and NOT the returns at 8pm ET msg.

*UPDATE*
OK after a brief time on hold to check with his techinal ppl the guy comes back and says that TNT HD is turned off for exactly the reason we all assumed. To free up bandwidth for NFT ST.

*UPDATE 2*
They guy keyed in some information about this into the system and said that it would be going to their engineering department to head off this happening again next Sunday. I made it clear that I am a NASCAR fan and that if I don't get to see the races on TNT HD as I have been previously I will also no longer be a customer.

Please everyone call and/or email about this situation before it's too late. DO NOT sit by idly and wait to see happens.


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## HomieG (Feb 17, 2003)

cheer said:



> What alternative would you suggest?


Pull three shopping channels instead. There are plenty of alternatives. Gonna piss some people off no matter what you do, I guess, but I doubt we'd hear many complaints here about not having shopping channels.


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## RunnerFL (May 10, 2005)

ebonovic said:


> Sure enough... according to the guide...
> It is shut down till 8pm EST
> 
> Was NASCAR in HD today on TNT?


The race was on last night.

My SP for TNTH isn't picking up the 9/17 race so it appears as though TNTHD is gone for good.

What a crock of you know what!


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## Archangel00 (Aug 25, 2006)

RunnerFL said:


> The race was on last night.
> 
> My SP for TNTH isn't picking up the 9/17 race so it appears as though TNTHD is gone for good.
> 
> What a crock of you know what!


Well FF thru the guide and starting at 8pm (ET) the msg changes to Upcoming: Law & Order, out to infinity. LOL
So yes no SP will show up in the To Do list until the guide is repopulated


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## old7 (Aug 7, 2002)

RunnerFL said:


> The race was on last night.
> 
> My SP for TNTH isn't picking up the 9/17 race so it appears as though TNTHD is gone for good.
> 
> What a crock of you know what!


It shows up on my guide just fine. I have it set to record Sunday, Sept 17th @ 10:15 AM PT. I have confidence that TNT HD will be there next week.

_Edited for clarity_


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## Archangel00 (Aug 25, 2006)

Posters in the OP's link to the AVS forum thread have stated that DTV personnel have told them THAT THIS WILL BE HAPPENING FOR THE DURATION OF THE NFL SEASON!!!

Now get off your confident, passivist arse and call and write and raise hell about this situation as being totally unacceptable while there is still time to possibly do something about it.

Or would you prefer to watch the 3 hours of blackness your SP records next week. 

TNT at [email protected]

Call DirecTv at 1-800-494-4388 and 1-800-824-9081

Email DirecTv by using the contact us link on the web site at www.directv.com

Call NASCAR at 386-253-0611


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## Archangel00 (Aug 25, 2006)

OMG I just called back again and this dumb broad said after checking with her supervisor that TNT is to blame for them turning off the HD feed to free up more bandwidth for NFL ST. LMAO

I argued with her blah blah etc. said ok then what are you going to do to keep me as a customer etc....She said well since it's not DTV that is a fault but instead TNT then they aren't obligated to provide me any compensation. 

*UPDATED*
OK after a 3rd call/3rd csr I got the HD pak free for 4 months. Also the story was the same from this rep. That TNT shutdown their HD feed and not DTV. So it would seem any letter writing and phone calls should now be directed squarely at TNT.

*UPDATE 2*
Ok after another call I got $20 off for 6 months AND free HD pak for 4 months.


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## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

Okay, I get the bandwidth issue but most of the NFL games end by 4 pm ET or so. Why don't they reinstate TNT by then? There are only 3 games starting at 4pm ET and only 2 are in HD. 

There were 7 HD games and 9 SD games at 1pm ET.

That means 7 fewer SD games and 5 fewer HD games.

Assuming the HD games are on one bird and the SD games are on the main bird, that means 5 NFL HD games worth of bandwidth are opening up around 4 ET or so. TNT should fit since they are crappy anyway.


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## cheer (Nov 13, 2005)

HomieG said:


> Pull three shopping channels instead. There are plenty of alternatives. Gonna piss some people off no matter what you do, I guess, but I doubt we'd hear many complaints here about not having shopping channels.


Shopping channels (none of which, AFAIK, are HD) aren't put on because viewers want them. Shopping channels are put on because the channels pay the carriers. There may even be contractual limitations to pulling them, but that's just speculation.


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## Leila (Apr 28, 2006)

wow... can't believe DirecTV had the [reproductive spheres] to take out TNT-HD.
I'm not a race fan myself, but I have a neighbor who frequently have parties
during races. He usually has several dozen of his friends and neighbors in
his basement. They watch the race via DirecTV HD... usually all drunk after the
first 10 laps.... 

If DirecTV had to steal bandwidth from some of its HD channels, why not turn off
the Discovery Channel? (probably a lot fewer people affected...  or at least
not the kind who would complain)

If DirecTV took out all the dozen or so religious channels to make room for
Sunday Ticket, I'm sure the news would be on CNN by now...


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## montivette (Sep 7, 2006)

I don't believe DTV is run by the brightest people.

I was thinking about signing up for DTV again (was a former customer) rather than cable mainly because they had TNT in HD and my cable company does not offer it. The primary reason was so I could watch some of the TNT HD nascar races, and the basketball games etc. 

So this post is very enlightening. If they are taking away Nascar HD on TNT for bandwidth to show more football games they have taken away my main reason for wanting Direct TV.

I have been waiting for the Tivo Series 3 to come out and once it does then I was going to decide to sign up for cable again or for Direct TV. If my local Charter cable had TNT HDTV for sure I would sign up with them. But if Direct TV is pulling the remaining Nascar races in HDTV, then I will probably go with Charter cable. 

I really liked DTV and had their service for 4 years before leaving for cable which was not more expensive but way cheaper then DTV. The DTV stupid 1 year and 2 year commitments are now the main reason I am leary about signing up with them again. 

I had my old satellite box hooked back up to see if it still worked. I then called them to sign up for service when they told me I had to sign a 1 year commitment in order to receive a new sat card for my 4 year old Satellite box to get it working again. They suggested I just get a new box from them for free rather than order a new card. I think that is crazy so I said no. OK well that and the fact I don't have a home phone line which they constantly say is a requirement for service (even though several of my boxes were never hooked to the phone and they always worked.)

To get service to me all they need to do is mail out a new card. It makes no sense why I need a 1 year commitment when I own the equipment. As a returning customer I cost them next to nothing, no installation costs, no hardware costs, etc. I checked my financial records and I paid these people $4500 in fees during my first run with them from 1999 to 2003. After all that money I spend to watch TV with them and I have sign a commitment and pay them if I decide to leave them after 6 months?

The whole concept of them pulling HD TNT Nascar racing for football is just another example of their poor business practices. If they actually pull Nascar HDTV from you next week I rather doubt I will ever sign up with them again cause that is just downright stupid and deceptive to sell you on HD TNT when you sign up and then pull the service. And when you call them to cancel I am sure they will insist you pay them a penalty for leaving even though they screwed you over. And their typical solution will be to give you a discount or free service for a time frame to sucker you into staying with them. Of course they probably will re-up your commitment for another year or two and the next time the screw you over again they will announce you still have time left on your commitment and make you pay them to leave.

The explanation of TNT pulling HDTV on Sundays and not DTV makes no sense. Why would they do that in order to allow DTV to do more football games? The only reason TNT would do this is because DTV coerced them to do so via some sort of threat or financial arrangement. TNT agrees to say they pulled it and they say this because DTV perhaps threatened they will no longer broadcast TNT HD on DTV if they don't agree to pull HD on Sundays to allow more bandwidth? Or maybe DTV pays them money to pull HD on Sundays only and tells them to announce the decision to do so was made by TNT. Of course this is a total guess, probably incorrect, and I bet we will never no really what the arrangement or logic was of pulling TNT HD on Sundays during football season.


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## briansk11 (Jan 11, 2006)

I just called and got the run around. After I told her I did not feel I was getting my money worth The Lovely Retention rep said that I should be happy that I am getting 185 other channels and this is the only one that I am not receiving. They would not give me a dime and never admitted to taking it off for NFL Sunday Ticket. Does anyone know if you have to keep the "HD Package" to satisfy the contract requirmentsfor the HD DVR? I think we should have a mass cancellation of the service. Really what would we lose just a bunch of useless "HD" Channels


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## disco (Mar 27, 2000)

Call customer retention: (800) 824-9081. I called and got the HD package free for four months. The lady sounded genuinely understandable to my "anger". She said it's an agreement w/ TNT when they signed TNT-HD that they drop the channel when football airs. Sounds like our beef is w/ TNT, too.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

They have 185 HD channels? 95% pf what I watch is HD. One channel missing is another reason why I might be switching(dare I say it) to Comcast soon.


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## JimSpence (Sep 19, 2001)

disco said:


> She said it's an agreement w/ TNT when they signed TNT-HD that they drop the channel when football airs. Sounds like our beef is w/ TNT, too.


 Unless I'm missing something, this makes absolutely no sense. Or is it that DirecTV added this to the agreement and TNT had to sign it in order to get carried in the first place? Sound like blackmail to me. Hey there TNT, if you want us to carry your HD channel you have to agree to be preempted during football season.


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## scottjf8 (Nov 11, 2001)

dswallow said:


> All the more reason to dump the seasonal NFL Sunday Ticket people that are the root cause of the bandwidth shortage over to MPEG-4.


You say the dumbest things....


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## Archangel00 (Aug 25, 2006)

I'm still at odds on how anyone involved, be it TNT, DTV, or whomever else, could have for a moment thought this was an acceptable way to do things.

NASCAR has jumped into marketing HD products with both feet with Sony, and Texas Instruments' DLP chips, and so on. I mean there isn't a single commercial break that doesn't include the little girl with the box of mirrors or a return from commercial break with a brought to you in HD by.....etc.....

From nascar.com's own web site......
Get your adrenaline racing -- watch every lap on a DLP HDTV from Texas Instruments!

Well I guess now it's watch every lap EXCEPT the laps at Louden and Dover if you watch on DirecTV......

Again I say to everyone CALL/WRITE the ppl that are responsible for this again and again if need be. Also make sure your friends, family and neighbors are aware of this situation. Certainly there are more ppl than not that aren't even aware yet of what is occuring.


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## disco (Mar 27, 2000)

JimSpence said:


> Unless I'm missing something, this makes absolutely no sense. Or is it that DirecTV added this to the agreement and TNT had to sign it in order to get carried in the first place? Sound like blackmail to me. Hey there TNT, if you want us to carry your HD channel you have to agree to be preempted during football season.


Yes. The way she put it, when D* signed TNT-HD, it was agreed upon that it may/will be pre-empted by football in the fall. Was it "blackmail"? I don't know...she didn't specifically say that word.


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## snoots (Aug 14, 2002)

I called to complain and of course the CSR could locate no information. I told her the guide shows that TNT-HD would be back on at 8 PM ET. I suggested there are going to be a lot of po'd Nascar fans like me and who should I call for a credit on the loss of service? She was going to suggest that the "broadcast" group post a notice on the directv site as well as update the guide or send out a message via the receivers to explain the outage. Not likely ! She also indicated I was the first person to call the location she was at and mention the problem. Who knows


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## rmassey (Sep 5, 2002)

I just called to 'complain', even though I don't really care about Nascar. I asked why THTHD was unavailable, after a short hold the rep came back and explained it was because of NFLST. I politely told her this was unacceptable and I would be a former D* sub if this continues. I asked her to please take my name and convey my complaint up to those that make these decisions. By the end of the call, I was offered a $5/mo Credit for 6 months. Not a big deal, but if enough of us call and they are hit with enough of the credits to vocal customers, they may just begin to rethink this practice. 

Stupid Football/sports..... it just controls everything related to Sat programming. I am just so sick of the constant sports obsession that never seems to end.


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## super dave (Oct 1, 2002)

DTV paid $5Billion for NFLST, do you think a few hundred complaints concern them?


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## GrumpyGuy (Mar 24, 2002)

Well I just called them too and gave them a piece of my mind. I also canceled an equipment order for two SD receivers and one HD DVR that I placed yesterday. The CSR noted my comments and forward them in an email to the programming folks. 

I told them why not turn off a few ppvs, shopping, religious, or other junk channels like current, g4, etc. 

Will see what happens next Sunday. 

jerry


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## cheer (Nov 13, 2005)

super dave said:


> DTV paid $5Billion for NFLST, do you think a few hundred complaints concern them?


Nope, not one whit. NFLST is a huge revenue-generator for D*; TNT-HD, not so much.


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## cheer (Nov 13, 2005)

GrumpyGuy said:


> I told them why not turn off a few ppvs, shopping, religious, or other junk channels like current, g4, etc.


Are any of those on the same sat that the HD programming comes from? I suspect not (other than perhaps HD PPV).

Besides...saying, "Don't take this-channel-that-I-like, take these-channels-that-I-don't-like" is stupid. Or do you think that nobody watches G4?


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## MichaelK (Jan 10, 2002)

ebonovic said:


> Or if they can figure out a way to only have 2 Sets of network programming (CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX) for all 200 some DMAs... instead of 200 copies of the same thing..


that has very little bearing on national content.

all that's on spotbeams.

Directv might need to spend alot of their resources to pull of LIL but the cost to bandwidth is not as extreme as some like to make it out to be (not saying you do earl- but some act like pulling all 200 dma's would allow another 500 national channels or something)


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## dswallow (Dec 3, 2000)

cheer said:


> Are any of those on the same sat that the HD programming comes from? I suspect not (other than perhaps HD PPV).
> 
> Besides...saying, "Don't take this-channel-that-I-like, take these-channels-that-I-don't-like" is stupid. Or do you think that nobody watches G4?


HD channels come from all 3 satellites (as well as both Ka-band satellites). While there may be some HD subscribers who have decided they only need programming from a subset of satellites or who may have not been able to get line of sight to one or two of them, but the vast majority of those with HD equipment will have access to all satellites. Thus bandwidth for any HD material could be scraped up from any satellite it might be available to scrape.


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## HomieG (Feb 17, 2003)

cheer said:


> Shopping channels (none of which, AFAIK, are HD) aren't put on because viewers want them. Shopping channels are put on because the channels pay the carriers. There may even be contractual limitations to pulling them, but that's just speculation.


Guess what...TNT (part of TBS) also pays the carriers to put them on. Yup, they get part of what you and I and everyone else pays to DirecTV every month. And viewers want them too. But pull three shopping channels (SD) and you've got enough BW to put on one HD channel. But alas, it doesn't matter anyways because it sounds like TNT and DirecTV agreed to this.


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## rmassey (Sep 5, 2002)

super dave said:


> DTV paid $5Billion for NFLST, do you think a few hundred complaints concern them?


Agreed. Like I said "Stupid Football/sports....."

I am beginning to rethink/refine my way of thinking with Sat programming providers. I am now firmly in the "I want the lowest cost option to Tivo OTA HD" The rest is crap and I just won't pay for it.


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## mattbooty (Dec 28, 2002)

I think the bottom line is that they get significantly more money for Sunday Ticket and Superfan for only 4ish months of service than they do for an entire year of the standard HD package (plus the number of subscribers that are on DirecTV ONLY because they offer ST and the HD games). The number of subscribers who will leave because TNT HD is missing for a couple days a year (especially considering not all Cable Carriers even carry TNT HD) versus the number of subscribers they'd lose if they didn't offer the ST and HD games, or forced all ST users to switch to MPEG4 equipment is a huge difference. It all boils down to money and as much as it sucks for anyone who is missing something they want to watch on TNT HD it would take probably 10 times the number of users on this board complaining to get anything done about it that would affect ST and Superfan users.


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## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

Anyone complaining about D* pulling a channel for football a Sirius subscriber? They pull channels so they can have both teams announcers.

Not agreeing but I'm just saying.

If I were D* I would prefer to pull UHD or Discovery or HDnet but I bet the contracts don't let them.


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## drew2k (Jun 10, 2003)

scottjf8 said:


> dswallow said:
> 
> 
> > All the more reason to dump the seasonal NFL Sunday Ticket people that are the root cause of the bandwidth shortage over to MPEG-4.
> ...


Why is it dumb for DirecTV to move NFLST to MPEG4? It would be great if we had numbers so we could debate this issue or understand DirecTV's motivation (such as the percentage of DirecTV's customer base that subscribes to NFLST versus the percentage that is affected by the temporary shutdown of several channels and services), but we don't.

Moving NFLST to MPEG4 could mean that DirectV would have the bandwidth via MPEG4 to provide NFLST to it subscribers without having to shutdown MPEG2 channels. Of course DirecTV would have to upgrade its NFLST subscriber base to MPEG4 receivers, but this is something DirecTV is going to do across all customers someday anyway, so why not pick one subset of its customers and start now with NFLST subscribers?


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## rmassey (Sep 5, 2002)

Oh, trust me I competely understand the math.
Sports=money=programming decisons.

My only option is to vote with my wallet. After my four free months of HD pkg are up, I'll drop down to TC w/ locals, or take another 2,4, 6 months of free HD programming or whatever they offer.


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## MichaelK (Jan 10, 2002)

mattbooty said:


> I think the bottom line is that they get significantly more money for Sunday Ticket and Superfan for only 4ish months of service than they do for an entire year of the standard HD package (plus the number of subscribers that are on DirecTV ONLY because they offer ST and the HD games). The number of subscribers who will leave because TNT HD is missing for a couple days a year (especially considering not all Cable Carriers even carry TNT HD) versus the number of subscribers they'd lose if they didn't offer the ST and HD games, or forced all ST users to switch to MPEG4 equipment is a huge difference. It all boils down to money and as much as it sucks for anyone who is missing something they want to watch on TNT HD it would take probably 10 times the number of users on this board complaining to get anything done about it that would affect ST and Superfan users.


agreed, but its unethical or immoral or dishonest or cheesy (pick what you want to say) that they weren't upfront about it and let people knke (if even in some micro fine print someplace and people have to find out about it by turning on their tv and find tnt gone.

it's a fairly logical but they should have been upfront about it months ago when they added tnt.


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## MichaelK (Jan 10, 2002)

drew2k said:


> Why is it dumb for DirecTV to move NFLST to MPEG4? It would be great if we had numbers so we could debate this issue or understand DirecTV's motivation (such as the percentage of DirecTV's customer base that subscribes to NFLST versus the percentage that is affected by the temporary shutdown of several channels and services), but we don't.
> 
> Moving NFLST to MPEG4 could mean that DirectV would have the bandwidth via MPEG4 to provide NFLST to it subscribers without having to shutdown MPEG2 channels. Of course DirecTV would have to upgrade its NFLST subscriber base to MPEG4 receivers, but this is something DirecTV is going to do across all customers someday anyway, so why not pick one subset of its customers and start now with NFLST subscribers?


moving any significant amount of HD progrmaming to mpeg4 would have been an extremely risky move as they just this week figured out an MPEG4 DVR. So some amount of subs (again tough to say without the numbers) would have been pissed. Had they figured out an mpeg4 dvr months and months ago as planed then maybe they could have thought about moving it to mpeg4.

Maybe for next year it's a choice...


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## GrumpyGuy (Mar 24, 2002)

cheer said:


> Are any of those on the same sat that the HD programming comes from? I suspect not (other than perhaps HD PPV).
> 
> Besides...saying, "Don't take this-channel-that-I-like, take these-channels-that-I-don't-like" is stupid. Or do you think that nobody watches G4?


My reason for including G4 is because most if not all of their Sunday programing is not Live like a sporting event and it's repeated several times.


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## Archangel00 (Aug 25, 2006)

Not that I have any access to their financial records or anything but I would venture to guess NASCAR is worth a few billion dollars themselves. LOL

And it's yet to be seen if they turn off TNT-HD again during the next 2 Sundays races. But from the sound of it they will. Then again who knows maybe they'll find a way to squeeze it all in somehow.


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## Archangel00 (Aug 25, 2006)

WOW, just amazing, We have the Chamionship Gaming Invitational crap on on the free 101 channel in HD. Can't believe noone else noticed this.


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## cheer (Nov 13, 2005)

HomieG said:


> Guess what...TNT (part of TBS) also pays the carriers to put them on. Yup, they get part of what you and I and everyone else pays to DirecTV every month.


Which is it? Is D* paying TNT (out of our sub fees) or is TNT paying D*?

The answer, of course, is that D* is paying fees to carry TNT, *which is the exact opposite of the arrangement with shopping channels.*


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## cheer (Nov 13, 2005)

GrumpyGuy said:


> My reason for including G4 is because most if not all of their Sunday programing is not Live like a sporting event and it's repeated several times.


So what? If some subscriber wants to watch that nonsense over and over, they would be just as annoyed, and with just as much justification.


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## HomieG (Feb 17, 2003)

Originally Posted by HomieG
Guess what...TNT (part of TBS) also pays the carriers to put them on. Yup, they get part of what you and I and everyone else pays to DirecTV every month.



cheer said:


> Which is it? Is D* paying TNT (out of our sub fees) or is TNT paying D*?
> 
> The answer, of course, is that D* is paying fees to carry TNT, *which is the exact opposite of the arrangement with shopping channels.*


You know I have no idea what the hell lead me to write that in the first place. It doesn't even make sense. You are 100% correct. I guess I gotta lay off the beer some on Sunday's.

And admittedly I have a bias against shopping channels too.


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## ayrton911 (Sep 4, 2000)

I started laughing so hard, when I saw this. They take off channels just whenever they want to show something else now. Absolutely hilarious. ha-ha.


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## TomRaz (Mar 1, 2002)

I didn't realize what was happening so I called D* customer service. Of course the person had a american sounding name but you and I both know they were not here in the good old USA. 

Anyway after talking to them for about 20 minutes and being put on hold 2 or 3 times they blamed the problem on TNT and wanted to give me the phone number so I could call TNT and complain. 

It is pretty sad when D* can't communicate within their own company. Perhaps they could of shutdown CDUSA in HD and some of the other HD channels that were not sports related to solve this temporary issue. 

I think it is time to call Dish and try them for a while !


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## rickaren (Oct 30, 2002)

*I'm sure glad I have DISH HD, too!*_
Can't believe what D* has done with HD programing (now less) and their new HD DVR is not a must have. They were the HD Leader not that long ago and now DISH has 30 HD channels and a great DVR! I had thought that I would cancel DISH after D* caught up last year but they never did and may not for another year! Dish even has better PQ for SD (at least for my setup) so I now use them first if I have space available on the VIP 622. Strange that D* has forsaken the fast growing HD market at the wrong time, but pleased that DISH has stepped-up to supply the programing we that have invested in HD Home Theater want NOW!

PS Most of us thought not going with a Tivo HD MEPEG4 DVR was going to be their only mistake. Looks like the mistakes are still coming!_


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## reh523 (Feb 28, 2006)

Everyone just leave okay ..... You can switch and get TNT HD on Dish or Cable. I can't as NFLST is on D* only.....


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## ebonovic (Jul 24, 2001)

For starters:

When I said let's wait till next week, wasn't a suggestion that you shouldn't call and complain.

Is the NASCAR next week in HD? on TNT-HD? Or any of the content on TNT-HD in HD next week? or is just upconverts?

I am sure TNT had to be consulted before they shut it down.

Welcome to the limitations of the technology....
Until the rest of the sats are up, and the HD converts to MPEG4...... we will see no more SD channels, and certainly no more HD channels.

For Each HD channel, 6 to 7 SD channels have to be pulled.

And honestly.... bottom line (based on the $$$), if they lose a "few" customers because of the TNT thing.... Just think about how many would be MORE ticked if they didn't get the Sunday Ticket in HD.... I know NASCAR is big... but I can guarantee you, NFL/Sunday Ticket is bigger.

There is no "perfect" solution... Shutting of X channel, will only tick off those people. Shutting of Y channel, will only tick off those people.... Think shopping channels aren't watched by people? "We" might not, but someone is buying that crap and keeping all them in business.

The only solution is more bandwith... and that just takes time.

What I find amazing though is:

1) People complain about HD-Lite
2) People compalin about TNT-HD's upconverts
3) People are complaining about the MPEG-4 conversions
4) People complain about no new HD channels
5) People complain about no new SD channels

But it has taken something like this for people to start to reall realize what kind of bandwith limitations there are.


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## ayrton911 (Sep 4, 2000)

I'm honestly not surprised it happened. 

Look at how many more HD channels they are broadcasting during the Sunday Ticket, plus a lot of extra SD channels too. 

TNT-HD was the last HD channel they added, so it makes sense it was part of their deal. 

I understand why it is happening, but I still want to complain.


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## ebonovic (Jul 24, 2001)

And I did just check Titan... it does look like NASCAR is in HD next week.
(Anyone know if TNT themselves has a listing that lists what is HD or not?)

I have also sent an email into my contact to try and find out if TNT is going to be shutdown each week.


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## rmassey (Sep 5, 2002)

I just noticed that they removed TNTHD(75) from my favorites list - bastards.


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## ebonovic (Jul 24, 2001)

rmassey said:


> I just noticed that they removed TNTHD(75) from my favorites list - bastards.


The didn't "remove" it from your favorites list.
They removed it from the entire lineup...
And then put it back in...

And it is a side effect of the TiVo software when channels are added and removed, that thye are not put back into the favorites.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

I sent them an email, but with the excellent deal Comcast is offering me, and the S3 coming out, I'm going to slowly start my transition from DirecTV. Hopefully I'll have it completed by the end of the year if Comcast gets HDNet. If not I'll have to keep DirecTv just for that channel.


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## rmassey (Sep 5, 2002)

Good point Earl. Still sux IMO. 

I'm getting feed up with D* and their antics and really loosing interest in Direct.
- Sick of high prices
- Tired of waiting for more HD content
- Tired of HDlite
- Don't like getting jerked around on HDTNT to caiter to NFLST
- Sick of their 1 & 2 yr commitments
- Not happy with them dumping Tivo
- Phone lines requirements
- Waiting way too long for 6.3 on HR10-250

11 months and counting on my current commit. I'm going to seriously look at building a HTPC or getting an S3 for HD OTA recording. Screw the HW cost, I want control back.


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## Runch Machine (Feb 7, 2002)

ebonovic said:


> For starters:
> 
> When I said let's wait till next week, wasn't a suggestion that you shouldn't call and complain.
> 
> ...


I agree with everything you said above. I'd rather have TNT HD for 7.5 days a week and lose it due to football than not have it at all. As you said, TNT is not 24.7 HD, much of their programming is stretched low def upconverts, so it is reasonable to remove TNT-HD when the bandwidth is needed for other channels that generate more revenue. I am surprised it took till the third page of this thread for these obvious comments to finally show up.

By the way, I don't subscribe to NFL Sunday ticket and I still think the way that Directv is handling the bandwidth shortage makes sense.


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## dswallow (Dec 3, 2000)

ebonovic said:


> The didn't "remove" it from your favorites list.
> They removed it from the entire lineup...
> And then put it back in...
> 
> And it is a side effect of the TiVo software when channels are added and removed, that thye are not put back into the favorites.


And that's another thing. The boneheadedness at DirecTV over channel adds/removes is becoming intrusive. There is absolutely no need to remove TNT-HD from the lineup; simply put up a black screen with program title text saying that it's currently unavailable. Don't screw around removing channels and adding them such that it causes customers to do something to reset it to their preferred configuration later.

What's missing at DirecTV is someone who acts and thinks like a customer advocate. The ill will that is generated by the little things is something easily fixed and will reduce churn.

There's two things I anxiously await:

1) Nick's dual 8VSB ethernet-connected tuner (http://www.silicondust.com/main/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=5)
2) DirecTV's plug-in USB tuner for Windows Media Center/Vista.

Presuming I stick it out with DirecTV until #2 becomes available the combination will allow me to control my viewing environment and untie me from DirecTV's (and frankly every other cable/satellite provider's) shortsighted receiver designs.


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## dswallow (Dec 3, 2000)

Runch Machine said:


> I agree with everything you said above. I'd rather have TNT HD for 7.5 days a week and lose it due to football than not have it at all.


So in your Universe is the work week 5.5 days or are the weekends 2.5 days?


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## moonman (Jul 21, 2004)

ebonovic said:


> And I did just check Titan... it does look like NASCAR is in HD next week.
> (Anyone know if TNT themselves has a listing that lists what is HD or not?)
> 
> I have also sent an email into my contact to try and find out if TNT is going to be shutdown each week.


In case you have not seen my other post, here's what they told me.....
Originally Posted by ebonovic
Seriously....

They didn't do anything to the NASCAR "fans" this week.
Have you confirmed from a reliable source (not to pick on the CSRs) that TNT-HD will be blacked out next week?

------------
I e-mailed D* with some issues I was having with my H/D service, and also
made inquiry to the TNTHD Sunday thing....they answered my H/D issues, and
also replied this way on the TNT thing.............
"However, for TNT channel in HD, according to the broadcast center it will be preempted every Sunday for the NFL Sunday Ticket."


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## Leila (Apr 28, 2006)

Archangel00 said:


> . I mean there isn't a single commercial break that doesn't include the little girl with the box of mirrors or a return from commercial break with a brought to you in HD by.....etc.....
> 
> .


WOW.... I just realized I haven't watched a single commercial in almost a year...
My mind has been brainwashed completely... A commercial starts, my finger
automatically hit skip(30-second) until the program resumes again....  
If I'm not mistaken, this is how they train monkeys?


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## rmassey (Sep 5, 2002)

> 1) Nick's dual 8VSB ethernet-connected tuner (http://www.mininova.org/tor/359937)


Can you explain the first link? It took me to a bittorrent???


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## Robdec (Oct 3, 2002)

Yeah I was wondering the same thing about that link


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## gruxx (Jul 13, 2006)

ebonovic said:


> For Each HD channel, 6 to 7 SD channels have to be pulled.


I'm still getting some fuzzy math.

the bandwidth of 57 SD channels still has to come from somewhere.

Math:
Ok, so they added 17 SD channels. (12 games, two mix, Redzone, two shortcuts) 
They also added 9 national HD channels. (-nyj/ten -sf/ari -another can't remember)

9x6 = 54 sd channels. 
+ 17 SD adds. = 71 channels added

taking out the sd mixes = -7
taking out the TNT-HD = -7

Again, the bandwidth of 57 SD channels still has to come from somewhere. (assuming that they were hurting so bad to shut off channels, they maxed out their bandwidth)

I suppose the 57 could be allocated above 734, from the non active sports packages, but didn't they have a couple of mlb extra innings games yesterday? and November has the start of NBA, NHL, & NCAA bask games.

Maybe from some of the D* Store specific channels? 
Maybe from XM? 
maybe from the liberal media news channels? 
_(hmmm. I thought Anderson Cooper looked a little more *animated* than usual yesterday.)_

maybe a smidge was borrowed from every other channel... * robbing peter to pay paul.*

I dunno. I think someone at D* is rolling dice to figure out where to get the room. (ok 200kb/s from Oh!, 200kb/s from ShopNBC, 1000kb/sec from FoxNewsCha- *wait* let's make that CNN!)

(Yes, I concede that not every added channel was active when every other channel was, but there is that window between 4pm - 5pm when the early/late games overlap. Plus there will be two more package games next week - no thurs / one MNF game)

I also liked how they didn't have the bandwidth to show SF/ARI in HD, but once the other late games ended on FOX, *SURPRISE!*, lets cut to the end of SF/ARI in glorious mpeg2 OTA HD 480i widescreen.

---
Everyone seems PO'd about Nascar. What about sunday night NBA on TNT in November? Does 8PM get TNTHD back in time for tipoff?


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## dswallow (Dec 3, 2000)

rmassey said:


> Can you explain the first link? It took me to a bittorrent???


Sorry... I corrected it; Firefox sometimes (often) screws up copy operations from the address bar and doesn't always perform the copy.


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## AbMagFab (Feb 5, 2001)

ebonovic said:


> Or if they can figure out a way to only have 2 Sets of network programming (CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX) for all 200 some DMAs... instead of 200 copies of the same thing..


None of that bandwidth is on the main sats. And they have more than enough bandwidth for the 200 DMA's on the new sats.

Nice try defending DirecTV though (as you always seem to do recently).

I agree with Doug, move the NFLST folks to MPEG-4 and free up bandwidth on the main sats for the rest of us. They (NFL ST customers) will pay for anything.


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## Lee L (Oct 1, 2003)

dswallow said:


> What's missing at DirecTV is someone who acts and thinks like a customer advocate. The ill will that is generated by the little things is something easily fixed and will reduce churn.
> 
> There's two things I anxiously await:
> 
> ...


OK, yum to that dual ethernet tuner. I guess I have not been hanging around AVS enough. I will need to check into that.

This TNT-HD thing is crazy. I agree 100% that they should have made the NFL ST Superfan people get upgraded receivers to get the extra games in HD and put them in MPEG4. Instead, they are going to make everyone pay teh price for this and need to upgrade their equipment to a piece of junk that will not even recieve OTAS HD (oh yeah, it is coming "real soon now!") to continue receiving HD programming. This is ridiculous.


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## ebonovic (Jul 24, 2001)

AbMagFab said:


> None of that bandwidth is on the main sats. And they have more than enough bandwidth for the 200 DMA's on the new sats.
> 
> Nice try defending DirecTV though (as you always seem to do recently).


That wasn't a "defense" of DirecTV.... why does everyone look at it as defense, when it is just the reality of the situation and WHY it is occuring.... 
Did I give DirecTV...an atta-boy, good job by pissing of the customers ?
Did I absolve them for not communicating that this was going to happen? 
Did I absolve them for shutting down all the other MIX and Active content?

As for the "bandwith" I was referring to.... Duh... no kidding? really?... didn't know they where on a spot beam sat sitting behind the other one?

I was describing one of the root causes why DirecTV (and Dish for that matter) have some of the bandwith issues that they do....

But the fact is they have to dedicate a multi-million dollar satallite to re-broadcast the same thing 200 times... that sat could be used to broadcast something else.... like maybe Sunday Ticket?


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## NickIN (Dec 26, 2002)

geneb11 said:


> I was just doing to post on this. They gave us TNTHD and now they are taking it away on a day that it is watched the most??? and we now have a new channel called HD that is a pay per view channel?


The race was Saturday night this week so nobody missed any HD NASCAR.


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## drewcipher (May 21, 2002)

AbMagFab said:


> I agree with Doug, move the NFLST folks to MPEG-4 and free up bandwidth on the main sats for the rest of us. They (NFL ST customers) will pay for anything.


I have 3 HR10s and I do NOT want NFL on MPEG-4 ever. I know it isn't realistic, but I want to keep Tivo as long as possible, and avoid the HR20 until they have improved the software. Sorry if you don't get a couple races in HD, but if it bothers you that much you can get cable. D* is the only place for football. If another company offered football, I would probably change to keep Tivo as my DVR.


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## ebonovic (Jul 24, 2001)

My guess... next season NFL ticket will be in MPEG-4
If not... something else will have to be converted to MPEG-4 or turned off by then, or you will have the same, if not worse, situation next season


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## terpfan1980 (Jan 28, 2002)

drewcipher said:


> I have 3 HR10s and I do NOT want NFL on MPEG-4 ever. I know it isn't realistic, but I want to keep Tivo as long as possible, and avoid the HR20 until they have improved the software. Sorry if you don't get a couple races in HD, but if it bothers you that much you can get cable. D* is the only place for football. If another company offered football, I would probably change to keep Tivo as my DVR.


Hear, hear!

Not that I am subscribing to the Sunday Ticket this season, but I don't want to see content that requires the MPEG-4 receivers until there's a MPEG-4 receiver that uses TiVo or at least provides a much more TiVo like experience and very similar feature sets.

Why should customers that want and prefer to use TiVo based receivers be forced to switch to non-TiVo receivers to get something that is offered to them (and every other customer, including the NON-HD using majority of the public right now)??

I'll wait until next weekend to see what really happens with TNT-HD and I do appreciate the efforts that have been made thus far by people that are upset that TNT-HD was nuked this (now past) weekend to get DirecTV to minimize the impact on customers that want to see TNT-HD. If DirecTV does nuke TNT-HD during a NASCAR event I'll be on the phone reading the CSRs the riot act and looking for a discount on the HD package during the time when they'll be playing these games with the channel.

Outside of NASCAR though, I'd be one of the first that would say that TNT-HD is primarily a waste of bandwidth (unless they are showing The Closer) with their botched stretched versions of what they show. Losing that programming on a weekend when football is on doesn't bother me that much since they likely aren't showing something that would tear me away from the games that are showing OTA.


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## dswallow (Dec 3, 2000)

bdowell said:


> Outside of NASCAR though, I'd be one of the first that would say that TNT-HD is primarily a waste of bandwidth (unless they are showing The Closer) with their botched stretched versions of what they show. Losing that programming on a weekend when football is on doesn't bother me that much since they likely aren't showing something that would tear me away from the games that are showing OTA.


Not that it matters for purposes of this discussion since it's shown during the week not on weekends, but ER reruns (currently at the end of season 6) are showing in HD on TNT-HD. 2 episodes every weekday. I'm catching up.


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## finaldiet (May 10, 2004)

ebonovic said:


> My guess... next season NFL ticket will be in MPEG-4
> If not... something else will have to be converted to MPEG-4 or turned off by then, or you will have the same, if not worse, situation next season


Earl
I think everyone should count their blessings. I remember having to take tubes out of our 12 in. [email protected] white TV and checking them for the burnt out one at the local store. When I look at tv's, Tivo and other improvements I'm thankful for what I have. 4 channels in the 50's to hundreds and with HD now. This is just another blimp in the radar. This is easy to handle!


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## terpfan1980 (Jan 28, 2002)

dswallow said:


> Not that it matters for purposes of this discussion since it's shown during the week not on weekends, but ER reruns (currently at the end of season 6) are showing in HD on TNT-HD. 2 episodes every weekday. I'm catching up.


Give it another season or 2 worth and you'll hit the wall for that series...

I'm surprised that it's still on and still bringing new episodes as that is one show that jumped the shark some time back. (Or perhaps it wasn't a shark jump, and instead was an event involving a helicopter, but who knows for sure...)


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## gworkman (Feb 6, 2006)

That blimp in the radar will certainly cause a big blip on the radar!


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## ebonovic (Jul 24, 2001)

bdowell said:


> Hear, hear!
> 
> Not that I am subscribing to the Sunday Ticket this season, but I don't want to see content that requires the MPEG-4 receivers until there's a MPEG-4 receiver that uses TiVo or at least provides a much more TiVo like experience and very similar feature sets.


Well then there are some choices you are going to have to make soon then.
There is going to be no DirecTV MPEG-4 TiVo powered unit.

The HR20 is the MPEG-4 DVR solution. The only other unit on the horizon is going to be the HMC, and maybe the Microsoft Media PC solutions... but who knows dates or even costs of those solutions.

I would put the channces of Sunday Ticket HD being in MPEG-2 next season about 25%.... 2008, you can almost bet the bank that it will be in MPEG-4



bdowell said:


> Why should customers that want and prefer to use TiVo based receivers be forced to switch to non-TiVo receivers to get something that is offered to them (and every other customer, including the NON-HD using majority of the public right now)??


Not sure by what you ment on being offered to the public...
But as for being "forced" to switch. It is the evolution of the technology. Should the HR10-250 had MPEG-4 components in it? When they started to design it 3+ years ago? How about ALL the HD units that don't have MPEG-4

It is still just the state of Consumer Electronics, and technology in general.
Nothing lasts for ever... let alone 3-5 years now before something else comes out.
OR there is a new technology. Heck, even DVD is being replaced already (granted it has been 10 years, but Tapes where around how long?)



bdowell said:


> I'll wait until next weekend to see what really happens with TNT-HD and I do appreciate the efforts that have been made thus far by people that are upset that TNT-HD was nuked this (now past) weekend to get DirecTV to minimize the impact on customers that want to see TNT-HD. If DirecTV does nuke TNT-HD during a NASCAR event I'll be on the phone reading the CSRs the riot act and looking for a discount on the HD package during the time when they'll be playing these games with the channel.
> 
> Outside of NASCAR though, I'd be one of the first that would say that TNT-HD is primarily a waste of bandwidth (unless they are showing The Closer) with their botched stretched versions of what they show. Losing that programming on a weekend when football is on doesn't bother me that much since they likely aren't showing something that would tear me away from the games that are showing OTA.


Well... while you are reading DirecTV the riot act, besure to call TNT as well.
As reports are that TNT agreed to this when they signed the contract.

And be sure to ask them for the $0.0157 credit for the TNT per 8 hour period on Sunday that is missed, as that is the "portion" of the the HD package cost, that you are missing.


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## Jon J (Aug 23, 2000)

ebonovic said:


> And be sure to ask them for the $0.0157 credit for the TNT per 8 hour period on Sunday that is missed, as that is the "portion" of the the HD package cost, that you are missing.


Actually, it's pretty easy to get $5 or $10 off for six months or so if you are persistent.


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## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

gruxx said:


> I also liked how they didn't have the bandwidth to show SF/ARI in HD, but once the other late games ended on FOX, *SURPRISE!*, lets cut to the end of SF/ARI in glorious mpeg2 OTA HD 480i widescreen.


That is a Fox decision, not D*. The Fox feeds D* gets are switched to any uncompleted games upon completion of the game that was on the channel. D* just follows along with what Fox gives them in that situation.


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## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

AbMagFab said:


> None of that bandwidth is on the main sats. And they have more than enough bandwidth for the 200 DMA's on the new sats.
> 
> Nice try defending DirecTV though (as you always seem to do recently).
> 
> I agree with Doug, move the NFLST folks to MPEG-4 and free up bandwidth on the main sats for the rest of us. They (NFL ST customers) will pay for anything.


Don't you have an HR10 upgrade thread to visit?

As for the MPEG4 conversion. I am assuming that will happen next year. I got my HD TV and the HR10 just to stave off the transition until the HR20 is debugged and the slimline dish comes out....

If they do get to MPEG4 and the new birds, then there will be no issues.


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## rkester (Jan 10, 2005)

They give away SHO free for 6 months anytime you call to complain it seems like. I've not paid for it over a year now. Not that its worth paying for.

I really should complain about this TNT thing... its bad enough that they choke all the bandwidth with sports anyway, but that they take off a channel I do watch instead of a shopping or religious channel just makes me fume.


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## dbett (Aug 13, 2001)

Just to repeat, DTv is not going to screw the NFL ST subscribers by forcing them to switch to the (still widely unavailable) MPEG-4 receivers/DVRs.

NFL SD is DTV's far and away biggest competitive advantage. It is *the* reason many customers won't even consider switching.

Sorry folks, but TNT-HD ain't quite in that category. But hey, maybe it will be switched over to the new sats.


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## dbett (Aug 13, 2001)

TomRaz said:


> Of course the person had a american sounding name but you and I both know they were not here in the good old USA.


DTV has most (all?) of their CS call centers in the US. At least for their US based customers.


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## drewcipher (May 21, 2002)

I think it is funny that 6.3 isn't out yet and already we have a new ***** point. This is great.


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## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

dbett said:


> Just to repeat, DTv is not going to screw the NFL ST subscribers by forcing them to switch to the (still widely unavailable) MPEG-4 receivers/DVRs.


The issue is with HD content.

I agree with Earl. HD NFL ST will probably be MPEG4 next year, assuming they get the birds in the air on time. The SD stuff may stay on MPEG2, though.

The market penetration for SD is much higher than the HD and they are facing a potential swap out on HD anyway. (Also, by next year, they will have a lot of that swapout done just to sell locals, RSNs and other HD packages.)


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## JoeSchueller (Jun 16, 2004)

[sarcastic flame suit]Maybe they should save bandwidth by not broadcasting the 6.3 updated code[/sarcastic flame suit]

I would have thought that D* would have kept the NASCAR-head's happy with their TNT HD fix this fall. You'd think that if taking 1 HD network off would provide adequate bandwidth, they could have just suspended HD PPV on Sunday afternoons. I know that is a HORRIBLE revenue stream decision because PPV=pure profit, but it could have cut down on complaints/questions, and I doubt the Sunday afternoon HD PPV business is a booming one.

[sarcastic flame suit]Of course, they could just steal bandwidth by compressing the heck out of the HD-lite on Sundays and take the bitrates down to nothing.[/sarcastic flame suit]

Ooops, scratch that - don't want to give them any ideas.

I also agree that MPEG4 will be a requirement for ST next year. I'd be shocked if it wasn't.


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## jjmpeters (Dec 22, 2001)

Followed Disco's advice. They never heard of this problem and could get no explanation from any supervisor.

End result = 4 months of free HD and 3 months of free Showtime.



disco said:


> Call customer retention: (800) 824-9081. I called and got the HD package free for four months. The lady sounded genuinely understandable to my "anger". She said it's an agreement w/ TNT when they signed TNT-HD that they drop the channel when football airs. Sounds like our beef is w/ TNT, too.


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## MichaelK (Jan 10, 2002)

ebonovic said:


> For starters:
> 
> When I said let's wait till next week, wasn't a suggestion that you shouldn't call and complain.
> 
> ...


how about the solution of being honest and upfront and telling people months ago when TNT went live and with an asterik going forward that they intended to premept it for sunday ticket?


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## ebonovic (Jul 24, 2001)

MichaelK said:


> how about the solution of being honest and upfront and telling people months ago when TNT went live and with an asterik going forward that they intended to premept it for sunday ticket?


I don't think there is any disagreement, that DirecTV should have communicated this much earlier then they did.


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## drewcipher (May 21, 2002)

They could have just not added it. I was paying for the HD package before TNT HD was available. Would you rather have not gotten it at all?

Not that it matters, but I was never notified at all that TNT HD was added. I got no message on Tivo or anything. I just stumbled across it.


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## DAS37 (Apr 5, 2004)

dbett said:


> DTV has most (all?) of their CS call centers in the US. At least for their US based customers.


A lot of their call center work is outsourced. The company I used to work for (Teletech-one of the big cc outsourcers) did a big chunk of the sales piece a few years back. We did not offshore that work like so many other contracts were (and continue to be) but others might do so.


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## moonman (Jul 21, 2004)

According to our sister forum, TNTHD will be pulled when 9 games in H/D are sked.
Next week I believe 9 games are...bye-bye TNTHD??
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=8406920&&#post8406920


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## drew2k (Jun 10, 2003)

A new thought about this: When TNT-HD rolled out, I recall several people saying they didn't pay for the HD package but were getting TNT-HD anyway. Is this still true? If it is, maybe that's why DirecTV feels they can pull the channel any time they want? If they don't consider TNT-HD part of the HD package, then in their view they're not reducing the content to those paying for the HD Package so they feel justified in their action?


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## phox_mulder (Feb 23, 2006)

I cancelled the HD package a couple months ago, and as of Saturday, I still had TNT-HD.

Haven't checked since the turn off yesterday though.

I did check my SP's this morning due to another thread saying DirecTV changed the name of the channel, killing a bunch of SP's, but I didn't have anything scheduled since both Saved and The Closer ended their seasons.

Figured I'd look closer when I had more time.


phox


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## briansk11 (Jan 11, 2006)

I hope the Following Message I just received today is due to lack of internal communication if not we might not have NASCAR in HD this weekend.

Dear XXXXXXXX,

Thanks for asking about TNT HD. I know it can be frustrating when the HD programming youre looking for isnt on, and I understand that HD programming on TNT is important to you. In order to provide extra channel capacity for high definition NFL SUNDAY TICKET SuperFan games, weve had to make some temporary changes to our programming. Specifically, weve reduced the number of Pay Per View movie choices and taken down select channels, including TNT HD on Sundays during game time. 

This change will only be for one day a week during the NFL regular season. TNT HD will return on Sundays at 8:30 pm Eastern (6:30 pm Mountain; 5:30 pm Pacific) and during game time the standard definition TNT will still be available.

We are very sorry for any inconvenience this may cause, and appreciate your understanding.

Sincerely,

Marjorie R
DIRECTV Customer Service


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## DeDondeEs (Feb 20, 2004)

It seems that the issue is being able to see NASCAR in HD not TNT. So why not complain to NASCAR. Say hey I can't read all of the ad's on the cars going by in SD. NASCAR will put the heat on DirecTV in no time. 

When you watch a NASCAR race almost every trailer or vehicle parked on the infield has a DirecTV dish mounted on it. There was even a commercial a while back about how DirecTV is the favorite provider of covereage to NASCAR.


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## LoopinFool (Feb 25, 2005)

ebonovic said:


> The didn't "remove" it from your favorites list.
> They removed it from the entire lineup...
> And then put it back in...
> 
> And it is a side effect of the TiVo software when channels are added and removed, that they are not put back into the favorites.


What's worse is that this also killed my season pass for Alias (never watched it, but now it makes sense seeing it from the beginning). It's nice to see some shows that were in HD before I got my HD set-up (which was over 3 years ago now).
Luckily, I only missed 11 minutes of the first show because I was watching TV, saw Alias in the guide, and saw that the record light wasn't on. If I hadn't noticed, I would have missed 4 episodes!
I also had to delete and re-add the SP because no future episodes would get recorded, either.

If this happens again next week, I'm definitely calling to complain! I agree with Doug -- they didn't have to completely remove/re-add the channel. Just killing the content would have been fine. They could even put up a super-low-bandwidth message explaining why it's not there!

- LoopinFool


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## dswallow (Dec 3, 2000)

Even better, since we all know TNT-HD is just TNT rebroadcast in HD as available, they could just remap the HD channel number to the SD datastream so that people with season passes, et. al., aren't bothered at all by the temporary reassignment of bandwidth.


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