Monday, September 24, 2007

DirecTV set to launch 70 new HD channels

If you have DirecTV, you may want to tune to channels 9300 and 9301 right now (7 p.m., 9/24) where DirecTV is testing some of its new high definition channels, which will launch Tuesday or Wednesday.

The satellite provider says it will provide up to 70 HD channels by the end of October and as many as 100 by the end of the year. That will put DirecTV well in front of other cable and satellite providers when it comes to HD programming, and best of all, early reports show that DirecTV will not overly compress the feeds to save bandwidth as many providers are doing.

This means viewers will get crystal clear pictures. There have been many complaints about satellite and cable providers downgrading HDTV pictures mainly to save bandwidth. For the uninitiated, so-called "downrezzed" HD looks miles better than standard digital or analog programming but it doesn't compare to true HD, which you can see via an antenna in most markets, including Charlotte.

I just looked at DirecTV's test channels and if the new HD channels have this quality, there will be a lot of high paying customers switching to get images this good on their flat screens.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

lw, thanks for the heads up. Channels looks great. I have had TWC and D* waiting for the new HD. If D* looks like this at launch, I'm leaving TWC. What do you know about D*'s VOD program?