Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

DirecTV's 1st MPEG4 Satellite Launch Successful

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the final-frontier-seems-a-little-boring-lately dept.

tivoKlr writes "Looks like the 1st Spaceway satellite to provide "1500 channels of HD" has made it successfully into space. MPEG4 compression and local HD channels, something that the cable company can't offer in my area." Unfortunately the new satellite obsoletes the HD Tivo, and there's no word on when there will be a new one.

4 of 291 comments (clear)

  1. Who does the sky belong to? by Dancin_Santa · · Score: -1, Troll

    Is the sky open for littering to only those corporations with the deepest pockets? I suppose that's a rhetorical question because the only answer thus far is Yes.

    I don't begrudge them of their money, nor do I begrudge them of their ability to send up satellites on their whim. However, I wonder what the general public is going to benefit from all this private space "littering". Is the benefit from space travel and those little bits of metal flying around the planet only available to those who pay a fee to private companies?

    If it were up to me, I think satellites would only be owned by government bodies so that the services that were provided by these planetary companions would be made available to all citizens.

  2. LOL! by dodem · · Score: -1, Troll

    9/11 We Will Never Forget!!! LOL!

  3. Re:For someone not hip on the lingo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    (raises hand)

    FIRST PISSED!

  4. Re:Quality of MPEG4 signals? by mrand · · Score: 1, Troll

    [...]which means the MPEG2 signal is compressed somewhere between 49-55:1.. That's insane, and MPEG 4 will hopefully lessen the compression ratio.

    Huh? Hopefully MPEG 4 will increase the compression ratio.

    --
    -- PGP keyID: 0x4C95994D