Starting on August 14th, DirecTV will begin launching 30 more high definition channels to boost their HD lineup to 130 total channels.
Additionally, by the end of August DTV will be broadcasting all their HD content in the new MPEG-4 format, the first provider in the industry to do that. This also means glorious Dolby Digital sound will be standard on all HD stations.
And later this year, they’ll start offering pay-per-view movies in the 1080p format, the same level of clarity that you get on a Blu-Ray disc.
So what are these new channels? I actually am somewhat disappointed in what we’re getting, mostly because I’m not a current Showtime subscriber (that may change when Dexter returns). Still, there are two that will likely get some use in my house.
The list goes as follows: Showtime Extreme HD, Showtime Showcase HD, Planet Green HD, ABC Family HD, additional DIRECTV HD pay per view channels and an additional 23 Regional Sports Networks (RSNs) in HD 24 hours a day.
The wife watches a lot of stuff on ABC Family, and I usually watch the wonderful and quirky Middleman show that Richard has been recapping for us here at Pop Critics.
Planet Green might be cool as well, but the rest of them amount to a lot of sports stations that I’ll never watch.
I’m more excited about the 1080p on-demand movies that will be coming later this year.
All of this new stuff is the result of the DirecTV 11 satellite that was launched into orbit earlier this year. They’ll be continuing to add HD content as DirecTV 12 is already scheduled to blast off in early 2009.
Interesting….. its good things are finally converting over more!!!