the problem with dropping SD feeds of channels available in HD is the arctic Market. There is a pretty large population of Shaw Direct account holders in Nunavut , NWT and Northern Yukon that are outside of the F2 footprint for a standard 75E. Not everyone can afford the 2 1.2 meter dishes that are required for f2 reception in the North.

Not to mention that anyone out there with 4x3 TV sets is going to get a much smaller letter boxed picture if they have to watch the HD channels and that will be enough to send some of them to the competition. Sure they can use zoom to somewhat fix it but that is eve ntoo much fooling arond for me to do most of the time.

Shaw needed to just replace the legacy receivers with 6xx receivers as soon as they were available but they chose not to and many of us have already given up on them. I've been gone for a year now after being a 12 year customer.

To me, that's like broadcasting in black and white because some people don't have a colour set. Just lance the damn boil, already. They are going to lose more customers because they won't take steps to expand their lineup.

To me, that's like broadcasting in black and white because some people don't have a colour set. Just lance the damn boil, already. They are going to lose more customers because they won't take steps to expand their lineup.
I agree. Move forward, don't stand still.

The majority of subscribers have the high-def equipment, so don't compromise to the minority.

I wonder if Shaw Direct could eliminate the following west feed channels to gain some space until the new satellite is launched. I am in Saskatchewan so I do not have a bias for which feed would be eliminate I am just suggesting west feed of the following channels (for example);

History west
Showcase west
TVtropolis West
Family Channel West
Teletoon West
Comedy West
YTV West
W Network West
Action West
HBO shows up on four channels 2 east 2 west can see either East or West feeds, not sure why duplicates of the same channels are needed?

And lastly could they not remove either the Spokane or Seattle US Network SD feeds?

That would give Shaw D 16 spaces freed up for other channels (either Standard or HD) I am sure it would not be for everyone's benefit but then we might be able to receive some of the other programming such as FX Canada, Cartoon Network, whatever sooner than later.

Just my two cents

The problem is Shaw Direct customers don't matter to Shaw. What gets carried by Shaw Direct is almost completely determined by their commercial distribution arm; Shaw Broadcast. Because these feeds are used for cable system headends, this is likely not possible.

As for the Spokane feeds, there was a plan to remove those feeds once the fibre optic network from Spokane-Calgary was completed. It was completed last year. I'm not sure why the Spokane feeds are still on Shaw Direct.

Unfortunately, it is looking like January is the absolute earliest for new channels. Expected launch date of Anik G1 is mid-November.

What they could probably do is move those West channels form MPEG2 QPSK, move other channels to their place to free a transponder, to put them and more channels in MPEG4 8PSK, on that freed transponder.

I believe Charter Communications in Washington state still uses Shaw Broadcast to feed Spokane stations to places like Omak.

If Shaw Direct doesn't add Sun News HD when this new satellite launches, like Rogers and Bell and Cogeco already have, I will be dropping Shaw Direct services.

Bell does not carry Sun News HD, thankfully. That's one channel I could care less to see show up again.

Just another point of view but I'd be tempted to jump ship to the first provider that drops Sun "News" Network.

IMHO, news stations are a waste of HD bandwidth these days. I don't need to see the razor stubble or blemishes on the faces of those talking heads to hear and dismiss their blather. Most site feeds of real news, the few that still are obtained, are usually in SD anyway.

Shaw Direct's HD channel coverage certainly makes little sense from a consumer's point of view. Two HBO feeds, where one is simply a three hour time shift, adds little value. Meanwhile, other Astral HD feeds, like MPIX, that provide additional content are missing. I suspect that's an internal, political decision rather than anything based on logic.

2 HBO HDs makes sense to me not everyone in the West can get home from work in time to watch the East feed so why shouldn't they get shows in HD too?

Tomorrow is August 1st... any news on new channels coming or HD channels coming? Someone mentioned that CityTvHD was possibly coming soon.

2 HBO HDs makes sense to me not everyone in the West can get home from work in time to watch the East feed so why shouldn't they get shows in HD too?
Because the eastern feed usually repeats popular new shows 3 hours later anyway. (Example: Real Time With Bill Maher at 10PM and 1AM Fridays and it's the same for almost all other new HBO series.) There is no need for two feeds in the first place. They can just repeat the 3 hour prime time slot after 3 hours like many other national stations do. Even PBS does this. HBO Canada already repeats every new show 5 times a week so it's not like people in the west will miss anything.

the problem with dropping SD feeds of channels available in HD is the arctic Market. There is a pretty large population of Shaw Direct account holders in Nunavut , NWT and Northern Yukon that are outside of the F2 footprint for a standard 75E. Not everyone can afford the 2 1.2 meter dishes that are required for f2 reception in the North.

I know sat companies make a lot of money in rural areas, but I can't wrap my head around how this could be true. The combined population of those territories is a small fraction of a percent of the national population.

Edit: 0.3% - I did the math and rounded up.

reply to markb. Bell carries Sun News. They started carrying it again in Dec of 2011.

Never said Bell didn't carry it, I did say Bell doesn't carry Sun News HD. Bell only carries the channel in SD, not the HD version.

Sun News isn't really HD anyway. Their HD feed is just SD Widescreen. At least it was the last time I tuned in (8 months ago).

Plus, you don't need HD or a wide screen to see what most guys are looking at when the "Sunshine Girls" are reading the news. ;)