DISH to have 150 HD channels this year and 1080p VOD in August
By Ben Drawbaugh 
posted Jul 31st 2008 10:23AM
posted Jul 31st 2008 10:23AM
Take that DirecTV, you announce 1080p "this year" and 130 HD channels in August and DISH one ups you with an announcement that it'll start offering 1080p VOD in August -- but DirecTV fanboys will take some comfort in the fact that DirecTV's latest bird started broadcasting HD channels today, while Echostar XI won't start for a few more months. Either way, this is good for everyone, but based on both company's track record, we tend to take DISH's word over DirecTV's -- after the whole CES 07 lie. DISH subscribers with MPEG-4 HD DVRs should receive an update in the next two weeks that will allow them access the 1080p VOD movies, such as I Am Legend. The release also goes on about how the quality will be "same as Blu-ray Disc quality," but we'll believe that one when we see it for ourselves.
When will they add the YES network? ;)
what about mtv,vh1,cw
Actually, things aren't looking well for DISH's outlook these days,
according to a BusinessWeek report in this week's issue. Losing
market share (while DirectTV gains), with customer defections, and
even more so when at&t stops using Dish TV's service in the next 6
months. I'm a subscriber to the print edition, but here's the online
link...
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_31/b4094065678206.htm?chan=search
whatever, there is always the naysayers whenever things about DISH come out that are good. Those are just numbers right now and with the new announcements I think that things are going to start to pick up big time. I trust DISH way more than Directtv. PLUS has anyone ever compared DISH's HD to Direct's; DISH's is actually way better in Video Quality.
On another note DISH gives us a free HD DVR when Direct DOES NOT.
Give DISH some love and I think 2009 will be a great year for them.
Daryl - MTV and VHI don't have any hi-def programming anyways. Still, nice to have, but keep your expectations low when Dish rolls them out.
Well, MTV and VH1 kind of have HD content. They have a channel called MHD that has content from MTV, VH1 and CMT in high def. It's a pretty cool channel. They broadcast concerts and shows like Storytellers and Unplugged all in HD. Both Dish Network and DirecTv offer it.
I have DTV with MTV and VH1 HD and neither one of them have any HD content. I mean absolutely zero in a 24 hour period seven days a week. I guess when they have specials like awards ceremonies they will be in HD but all the shows are not so your not missing anything. Down the road though I'm sure new content will be in HD.
MTV, VH-1, CMT HD channel is call\ed MHD here and it is awesome only problem is they only have like 7-10 concerts and they just replay them over and over.
MORE MARKETING!!
Check out MHD. They are basically the Viacom HD channel with MTV, VH1 and CMT programming in HD.
Of course, like the other channels they repeat things all the time, but the quality is superb.
I second the call for YES! And can't wait for them to offer HD and SD with on Dish on my house. I live in PA and was told my the Dish Reps that I would need one dish for HD and one for SD since the signals come from different directions. I would be very happy to go back to them and drop Verizon FiOS TV and there crappy DVR boxes. (FiOS internet is fantastic)
Rather than create HD versions of themselves, MTV and VH1 (and CMT, urgh) jointly operate an HD channel called MHD, this is where their HD content resides, and yes, it's on Dish.
But all three channels DID create HD versions of themselves, and those HD channels can be found on DirecTV. The only problem is, they have yet to broadcast a single second of HD between themselves.
I wish Brighthouse Networks would add 150 channels. They claim to have 150 movies in HD and 500 by the end of the year. So I guess in Florida they plan to add more soon or just add more pay per view HD channels.
Good news, Dish has kept its promises in the past and is doing everything is has said. I am very happy with my Dish Network. Easily the best DVR in the business, always fast and helpful customer service, and they are adding channels all of the time.....1080p that will Equal blu-ray? What about lossless sound? There will definately be more compression...so we'll see.
As a Dish customer, I'm happy about any announcement like this, but I also recognize this is 75% marketing hype and 25% reality. Yes the new channels are great, but a good number of them are subscription movie channels, which I personally don't use (and I think many enthusiasts would agree that Netflix and Blu Ray are a better alternative for movies than Showtime, HBO, etc., unless you are really into their exclusive series). And the 1080p thing is more hype than real benefit. We're already getting 1080i and most people will not see a difference with the good deinterlacing built in to most displays. And there is no way Dish can transmit a 1080p bit rate that even comes close to Blu-Ray, so of course it will not look as good despite the pixels.
It really depends on what exactly they're talking about. If they're talking about transmitting movies at 1080p24, then there's the theoretical reduction of artifacts compared to the same bitrate at 1080i60.
When you use 3:2 pulldown to convert a 24 frame movie into a 60 interlaced field signal, you're converting the signal into a sub-optimal form. This is fine if the signal doesn't go through a compression stage, but if you compress it as a 1080i60 signal, decompress it, and then reverse the pulldown to turn it into a 1080p24 signal again, you're giving the compression system less consistent information and thus reducing the quality per bit.
On that note, I've always thought it a shame that DVD stores everything as interlaced. DVDs could have slightly more capacity, or better resolution, if they stored movies as p24 instead of i60.
I don't know what Dish are planning here, but if they're just planning to transmit 24fps content as p24, then that's going to result in a net quality improvement. If they're also going to improve the bit-rate (which they'll have to do for "Blu-ray quality") then yeah!
FWIW, I use the external HD add-on feature with my VIP622. It's one of the few times you can get a measure of how large programs are in terms of disk space, which gives you some idea of how much compression is involved. I've seen Dish compress two hour (1080i60) Cinemax movies to 3G, though usually the amount is 4-6G. For comparison's sake, AppleTV supposedly is around 4-6G for a 720p24 (not 1080i60, that's less than half the amount of pixels per second) movie with DD5.1 audio. Both are using MPEG4. And yes, Dish's over-compression is frequently noticeable. DVD is often better quality and more enjoyable to watch, despite the lower resolution.
Actually, I have a bit of hope for the new 1080p material. It won't be live streaming, but will be downloaded to the hard drive. So bandwidth will be less of an issue. If they are smart and download 1080p 24, and the machines can output 1080p 60 from such a signal, that's less bandwidth than 1080i broadcasts (which use as much space as 1080p 30) -- though admittedly we want them to use a lot more bandwidth than even HDNET, which appears to use about 4gig/hr for their movies.
If they do the right thing with these 1080p VOD downloads, this could really be nice (and kill off xtremeHD before it literally launches, which is sad but okay if this really delivers via DISH on what xtremeHD has been claiming it will provide).
Yeah, the one thing that definitely won't be included with their 1080p VoD offering is lossless audio. Right there that means they can never truly hit "Blu-ray quality". Of course, if they can actually manage to deliver a 1080p/24 video with the same bandwidth as BD, then most of their subscribers probably won't care if they're getting lossy Dolby Digital instead of TrueHD.
I'm on cable, but I'll still look forward to seeing the reviews of the quality of these offerings when they start appearing.
Given there's no such thing as "lossless" audio (I'll explain, I know this will be a shock), I'll be happy with "better" audio and HD DVD/Blu-ray quality HD.
I know that comment will be controversial, but let me explain it like this: "Lossless" generally means one of two things. One is the definition being used by most TrueHD/DTS HD enthusiasts - something that is either PCM or a perfect representation of PCM. The other is reality, which is an ideal depiction of the input source. The irony is that PCM isn't really "lossless" so it's not possible for PCM to fit the latter depiction.
"Ok", says a TrueHD hyperfan (don't get me wrong, I like the concept), "but who cares? A perfect representation of PCM is still higher quality than a lossy representation, right?"
Well, not necessarily. If you're allowed to use lossy compression, you can start off with a much higher bitrate source (more channels, 24 bit depth, 96kHz sampling, et al), so you can theoretically end up with a higher quality representation of the audio at a much lower transport bitrate. In the weird world of audio compression, an 8 bit 22kHz stereo PCM signal is "lossless" but a FR DTS 5.1 signal based upon a 24 bit 96kHz source isn't.
At this point, most lossless audio fans scoff and point out that generally it's rare for the lossy audio stream provided on a BD or HD DVD to be based upon a better source than the lossless stream. And that's true, I'm just pointing out the principle.
At the end of the day though, what I'm interested in is the best quality audio that doesn't violate the rules of diminishing returns. High bitrate DD/DDEx and full-rate DTS are both extraordinarily good. The issue with current broadcasts is that they use neither. It wouldn't be hard to change from the current poor audio we have to something indistinguishable (to all ears but those of cats and dogs) from good lossless.
Now if Dish could just release Fox HD in the Seattle area, I would be much happier...
Hang in there. Here in Sacramento we just got the local Fox in HD about a month or two ago. It just showed up unannounced, but very much appreciated.
Buy an antenna and roll your own local OTA HD; cancel Dish's local add-on charge. You'll save $60 a year; that antenna will pay for itself in the first or second year. Plus it'll be uncompressed.
My HD Absolute package keeps on getting sweeter!! My bill is only $50 a month and I get all HD Channels including All the SD & HD Cinemax Channels for a penny a year :D..Thanks E* keep up the hard work..OH and I'd like my locals in HD by the beginning of next year please.
I would wish that with the new satellite that they would bring back some of the Voom HD channels but since they are suing each other that now seems highly unlikely
Personally I don't understand the people that have been jumping ship to Directv when they were happy with Dish. Some did it over the loss of the Voom channels. So what did they gain by switching? Seems to me it was also a matter of very little patience. Directv did get on the HD bandwagon faster, but I never thought of changing over to Directv because I knew it was a matter of time before Dish caught up, and not very long either.
As I said previously, I have had both. I found Dish to be much better in picture quality, customer service, and no one can touch their dvr's.
Funny story: my father called to install Directv (called Directv directly). They chose a program package and a date for installation. No one showed up. He called at the end of the day, they had no order for service. Giving them a 2nd chance, he tried to make another appointment, but could not get the new customer deal because their computer showed he was a past customer (from the first call he made). He's now a happy Dish subscriber. Plus, add to that the fact that after 30 days he got his first Directv bill, and it was never even installed, lol. Not saying it can't happen with either company, but this was our families experience with Directv.
I have had Dish for ten years. This last feb I got Direct TV, for Speed-HD. I kept Dish for my RV and put it HD only. The Dish DVR is sooo much easier to operate than Direct. The menu's just make more sense. I will drop Direct just as soon as Dish get the Fox lawsuit overwith and gets FXHD and SpeedHD. Direct is OK, but after a few CS issues, I would never recomend them to anyone.
Dish's biggest problem is marketing, and it cost them a great opportunity. For almost two years they had more HD capacity than DirecTV but didn't tell anyone about it. Meanwhile DirecTV was promoting their 100-channel lie before DTV10 was even operational. DirecTV's entire executive team must have been thinking "please, god, let us get our HD birds into orbit before our Dish counterparts get a clue!"
It's a damn shame. The ViP622/722 are the best DVRs out there, and Dish's track record for keeping their promises is far superior to the carnival barkers at DirecTV. They're the Rodney Dangerfield of programming.