Why MultiChoice is not planning full HD broadcasts for DStv

MultiChoice said not all decoders are capable of 1080p, and therefore broadcasting in 1080p would require it to duplicate content.
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This is what happens when you don't look past your nose. No vision, no R&D department, no planning and not keeping up or bringing out of new technologies.

“We also see very little demand from mainstream customers currently [for 1080p],” said MultiChoice.
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With a mindset like that you deserve all the critics and hate towards a draconian company. What marketing, research or polls has been done to indicate that statement. I know that most people want it bigger, better and the best that is available.

Monochoice this is a statement that would have been valid 20 years ago, so GTFO
 
"We also see very little demand from mainstream customers.."
Isnt that what Telkom also said.....
 
what i understood there was,

we cannot sell you a 1080p decoder because our profit margins are too high, you will not pay for your 1080p products

1080p is being replaced already and buggerallchoice still thinks we want 720p. they need to 420.

when i started testing streaming i still had dstv, the quality of picture on dstv was sometimes the same or worse than a medium to LOW quality stream. this multichoice attitude is a joke.

again they are complacent with their monopoly status, why should they upgrade or innovate.

/looks at telkom...
 
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DSTV is really bad in that:
a) 720p is not true HD
b) They compress 720p so there are many artifacts
c) Repeats
d) Many of their streams are still 4x3 (eg CNN)
e) Repeats
f) Decoder software is a joke
g) Repeats
 
Talk about about being shallow on detail. BTW the reason why they will not broadcast in 1080p is bandwidth. Also this is not unique to DSTV. A lot on networks world wide use 720p as a compromise. 1080p simply does offer enough of a benefit to justify the extra bandwidth in their calculation.
 
MultiChoice previously stated that full HD broadcasts also require changes to broadcast infrastructure and utilise more bandwidth than the current 1080i and 720p resolutions.
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There is the reason.
 
Reminds me of when that Telkom idiot said 3GB ADSL cap is more than enough...
 
system32 said:
DSTV is really bad in that:
a) 720p is not true HD
b) They compress 720p so there are many artifacts
c) Repeats
d) Many of their streams are still 4x3 (eg CNN)
e) Repeats
f) Decoder software is a joke
g) Repeats
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Every satellite/cable provider has repeats....I think you may be repeating yourself.
 
Is this why ShowMax doesn't offer 1080p?

Can't help but think that if it did it wouldn't fit in with the overall bs Multichoice is trying to spin here.
 
“We also see very little demand from mainstream customers currently [for 1080p],” said MultiChoice.
Because they are now on Netflix... and the SA sport teams performance doesn't justify Premium anymore.
Oh, speak of the devil, late yesterday afternoon, another call from Multichoice agents as to why I disconnected and regarding reconnecting...lol
 
MYBB, I get a message to stay on or leave the page, then it post messages twice, using Chrome.
“We also see very little demand from mainstream customers currently [for 1080p],” said MultiChoice.
Because they are now on Netflix... and the SA sport teams performance doesn't justify Premium anymore.
Oh, speak of the devil, late yesterday afternoon, another call from Multichoice agents as to why I disconnected and regarding reconnecting...lol
 
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Wow... some people really just don't even begin to understand this.

They would have to double their satellite capacity spend (at least) to carry 1080p vs 720p. Then factor in that the older decoders can't do 1080p so then they have to broadcast SD, 720p and 1080p... and then all the associated software changes on the decoders so that they can "auto-switch" to the correct feed...

The benefit 1080p brings over 720p is not great, and is definitely not worth the extra cost to Multichoice and the price they would have to push the subscriptions up to to cater for it.
 
Most Multichoice broadcasts are probably 240p. I don't own a DSTV decoder, but when I see it in a hotel, it's always crappy.
 
MultiChoice previously stated that full HD broadcasts also require changes to broadcast infrastructure and utilise more bandwidth than the current 1080i and 720p resolutions.
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ginggs said:
There is the reason.
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I remember reading an article a couple of years ago around how much compression is going on with HD streams and that some HD streams of less popular content is "less HD" (due to compression) than others. I would really interesting to find out what the bitrate is on DSTV.

But yes - I am not sure how they are going to support 4K in future using their current infrastructure. Satellite transponders are normally leased for a decade. I guess they have to hope for HEVC encoding and hope that they can compete while keeping the number of channels constant.

My bet is that the internet will play a number on them when it gets to variety. Their cost will skyrocket if they have to increase the number of HD channels.
 
Johand said:
I remember reading an article a couple of years ago around how much compression is going on with HD streams and that some HD streams of less popular content is "less HD" (due to compression) than others. I would really interesting to find out what the bitrate is on DSTV.

But yes - I am not sure how they are going to support 4K in future using their current infrastructure. Satellite transponders are normally leased for a decade. I guess they have to hope for HEVC encoding and hope that they can compete while keeping the number of channels constant.

My bet is that the internet will play a number on them when it gets to variety. Their cost will skyrocket if they have to increase the number of HD channels.
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They won't be supporting 4K for a VERY long time.. minimum 10 years, probably closer to 15 if DSTV still exists in its current form at that point.
 
"Mainstream Customers" are their typical subscriber who "only has DStv for the Rugby and Afrikaans Channels. F0k Naspers in all other aspects". I would hazard a statement that this type of subscriber cares little about 720p/1080p/etc or whether the Bulls-Stormers game is also broadcast in DD5.1, which it is ironically.

My in-laws, with a similar mentality as the above, had an HD-PVR for almost 2 years that ran connected to their 40" LCD with an coaxial aerial cable. It was too "fiddly" to keep switching to HDMI.
 
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