Pichardo, I am very much interested in HDTV.Please tell me if they will offer any 1080p channels or if they all will be on the old format, 720p?
Also, how many HD channels can we expect to get from these providers?
AZB
The format of choice will be 1080i, some providers will be 1080p or 720p/i.
So far Indotel has chosen 1080p as the over the air standard (as late as last month).
One of the up and coming services provider will have the regular line up of international channels like HBO, MAX, etc... in the HDTV offering along some regular tier programming too. The amount of channels in HDTV will be the big difference you'll see later on the year. The earliest providers have little to compete with so they will opt to offer as fewest as possible in order to hook enough accounts. Later they'll keep adding as competing providers come into play.
The big talk is DirecTV and possibly Dish also coming into the DR market via a consortium that is holding negotiations to make it possible.
Even as the format of choice could be 1080i, the older sets with 720i capability will be able to show the channels.
Some providers want to start offering On Demand HDTV programming/movies.
Others are more interested in offering digital channels with more channels to watch, rather than many HDTV ones.
By the end of the year users will be able to pick the best format/channel line-up to their liking and pay scale.
Given the problems with copper and cable theft, the satellite providers have the upper hand in having to deal with man-made interruptions to the systems than land-line providers.
Just wait a little bit longer...