A couple of months back, we saw
what was to come with DISH Network's
1080p video-on-demand service. Now, the cats and kittens over at
Sound & Vision have a definitive writeup explaining the value of the aforementioned offering. At the time of review,
Speed Racer was DISH's 1080p VOD movie of the month, so critics fired it up via the satcaster's set-top-box while comparing it to the version on
Blu-ray. Obviously, DISH's 1080p isn't the same quality 1080p as what you'll find on a BD-50, but the results were pretty astounding, regardless. In fact, critics had a tough time deciphering between the two from a normal viewing distance, and while they were fully expecting to be underwhelmed by DISH Network's 1080p material, they were actually stunned by just how impressive it looked. Of course, the dearth of titles available at any given time means that this won't sway potential customers in and of itself, but you can rest assured DISH is looking to beef up its 1080p HD VOD lineup as quickly as possible.
posted Oct 13th 2008 1:00PM
Diabeetus
I struck my wife. Then I found out my wife has been dead for 2 years. Who the hell did I hit?
Wow. Who'd have ever thought we'd live to see a day where Wilford Brimley and 1080p are in the same post?
"Obviously, DISH's 1080p isn't the same quality 1080p as what you'll find on a BD-50 (something to do with sophisticated compression, we hear)"
Are you being ironic? Dish is probably using MPEG4, like most BD titles do, but the BD is almost certainly at a higher bitrate. That explains the Picture Quality difference much better than "sophisticated compression" does.
I am shocked, however, that the quality is apparently very good. What about lossless audio, though?
I think Dish Network uses something called 8PSK compression.
8PSK is not a form of compression, it's a modulation scheme that they use on their satellite transmissions. MPEG4 is the compression format.
Now if they'd actually show the movie in the original aspect ratio, and have more than one title that is a month or more behind the DVD release, this might be useful.