Lots of interesting info in DirecTV's Feb 2006 Investor's Brief: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7674696&highlight=strategic#post 7674696 Total (Multi-lingual) system capacity for 11 satellites by end of 2007: 1550 SD channels plus 1650 HD channels, of which 2,650 are local-in-local and 550 national. Number of HD National channels remains about the same until a jump in early 2007 which quickly climbs to their advertised total of about 150 by end of 2007 (50 per time zone? How many in foreign language?). So it doesn't look like more than a couple National HD channels will be added in 2006. STB/DVR cost reduction over time curves. VOD download of popular content via SAT plus niche content via I-N. Power-line technology replaces phoneline for reverse link to D*.... Or connect via customer's broadband system. External hard drive for DVR. Multi-room DVR. D* tuner feeds Media Center and Viiv PCs. DLNA (e.g. Ethernet, BlueTooth, 802.11 Wireless) for interconnection and media extension/control: http://www.dlna.org/home ===================================== PS: Be sure to take their Echostar and Cable comparison charts with a big mouthful of salt. --------------------------------- Sneak preview the all-new Yahoo.com. It's not radically different. Just radically better. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways: - Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.