Direct Tv New 1080p Movies Coming Soon?

[HDTV1080P]

It is good news that Direct TV plans on offering 1080P movies soon. Consumers will need to purchase or lease a new receiver from Direct TV in order to view a few select channels in 1080P. BLU-RAY 1080P movies will still be better quality compared to Direct TV 1080P since the bit rate for audio and video will be much higher on BLU-RAY. Hopefully Direct TV will use 24 frames per second on their new 1080P receivers with a option of 60HZ for older 1080P displays .

http://www.twice.com/article/CA6582279.html

http://www.tvpredictions.com/dexpansion072808.htm

P.S.
Most likely Verizion FIOS will offer true 1080P also since they have much more bandwidth compared to any other provider.

[DCSholtis]

Actually it's rumored on sites such as dbstalk.com that you will NOT need a new receiver for the 1080P offerings to come from Directv. Supposedly all that is needed or would be needed would be a software upgrade.

[HDTV1080P]

Originally Posted by DCSholtis

Actually it's rumored on sites such as dbstalk.com that you will NOT need a new receiver for the 1080P offerings to come from Directv. Supposedly all that is needed or would be needed would be a software upgrade.

Thanks for the information on the rumor. Historically in the history of consumer HD devices there has never been a time when a firmware upgrade would allow a 1080I hardware device to become 1080P. All the 1080I models of HD-DVD players released by Toshiba could not be upgraded to 1080P since the physical chipset for video would not allow for 1080P. Consumers had to purchase new HD-DVD players that offered true 1080P if they wanted 1080P.
The Direct TV HR21 top of the line receiver specs only mentions 1080I as the highest resolution supported. I would be in shock if the hardware in the HR21 would support 1080P with a simple firmware upgrade. I guess we will need to wait and see what future Direct TV press releases mention about 1080P. 1080P takes a lot of bandwidth. Perhaps only a couple 1080P channels will be offered in the future.
Now Direct TV might be able to offer a firmware update to existing MPEG-4 HD receivers so that they will receive 1080P signals and then down convert the signal to 1080I. I still think that consumers will need to buy new satellite receivers in order to output 1080P native signals. Perhaps if someone has the time they could open a HR21 receiver and see if the chipset will even support 1080P outputs. To my knowledge it will only support 1080I but I have not opened a HR21 receiver to make sure.

[HDTV1080P]

If this post is correct if one wants to output 1080P then Direct TV will need to offer new 1080P receivers to their customers.
http://www.dbstalk.com/showpost.php?p=1704339&postcount=501

[UnitLost]

Argh. I just signed up with Direct TV two weeks ago and supposed to get it installed on Thursday. I can't imagine that the boxes will be firmware upgradeable, and that doesn't bode well for the two HD DVR boxes I'm getting. :-(

[ivan901]

i just got my firmware upgrade last night with a message saying it added 1080p resolution but the service isnt up yet. and i went to the settings and it was listed. it said that it will not be switchable with the button on the front of the unit though.

[SleepyT38]

I am a 1080p freak. and I was very disappointed that direct tv was only 1080i. Contrary to popular belief, you can SEE the difference. Yesterday when my receiver came on it went through the upgrade. I thought nothing of it initially but was curious none the less. While watching CNN HD I was something starkly different. It was cleaner, the text and footers notably was much cleaner. While looking through the other HD channels I knew right away what had happened; It was now 1080p!!!! Subduing my excitement I decided to check into it just to reassure my hasty conclusion. I was right!!! To quiet you naysayers who think a firmware update can't adjust resolution know nothing about computer firmware updates. True 720 can't be upped to 1080 through firmware, "i" to "p" is totally possible.