8. Summer 1995, Transition to MPEG2:

Although all set-top boxes, technically known as Integrated Receiver-Decoders or IRDs, include full MPEG2 decoding hardware, until the fall of 1995, the actual signals transmitted were in the older MPEG1+ format, but using the MPEG2 syntax. The IRDs are backward compatible with MPEG1, which is for practical purposes, a subset of MPEG2. IRDs automatically operated with full MPEG2 compatibility without any change required, as the MPEG2 encoders were gradually put on-line during the late summer of 1995.

1997-8

In April 1997, DirecTV added additional channels to its DBS services, including increasing the number of channels carrying pay-per-view. More barker (preview) channels with motion video were also added to the system. At the same time, the encoder firmware (software) was modified.

In 1998, HDTV (high definition television) debuted on DirecTV as did Dolby AC-3 (5.1) surround sound audio which was only on a few pay-per-view channels and occasionally on one of the Starz network channels.

Year 2000

DirecTV continued to expand. The commercial network feeds were considerably augmented from the original New York and Los Angeles locations, providing signals from many local markets. Development of new technology augmented the capabilities of the statistical multiplexers, permitting fine tuning of the MPEG2 algorithms on each encoder dynamically.

A new satellite parking location was added, west of the original constellation, that includes foreign language programming, HDTV, NASA and some of the local network affiliate stations.

DirecTV continues to expand its offerings and in general has provided good quality service. Picture quality is still better than analog cable and VCR tapes although not up to the level of DVD or analog videodisk. But all in all, the quality is very good.

C O N T E N T S

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