Who's going HD only in February?

[stanger89]

Not sure how I missed this seemingly official/substantiated news, but it seems in February, Dish Network will be offering an HD-only package for $29.99/month. So, the question is, who's going 100% HD?

http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/01/18...-only-package/

[stanger89]

FWIW, I'm very tempted to go all HD when they offer this. I've got the "everything but the movie channels" package (ie AT250+HD+Locals), but I really only watch a handful of channels. If SciFi is made available, I think I'll probably switch as 99% of my viewing would then be on "HD" channels.

[jptaz]

I am in if they get SCIFI and USA and then I would likely add some preiums...HB0 and Show Time.

I will likely be one of the weird people who keep my digital cable package but ditch the premiums. We have too many SD TVs and the wife likes her ABC family, Hallmark, Disney, etc. Plus Sat boys still requiring a land phone line and no viable high speed internet kills them price wise for me.

The HD Packages available from my cable co suck and are way too much money and for crying out loud would SA and Motorola license SageTV already the DVR software is absolute garbage.

EDIT: I suppose I should have said no we still watch SD...but it is really my wife that watches the SD not me.

John

[Fluffdaddy]

Couldn't, my wife would kill me if she could not see her lifetime channels along with oh and oxygen. She would Snapped on me

Plus no Sci-Fi HD on dish. That a showstopper for me.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by jptaz

I am in if they get SCIFI and USA and then I would likely add some preiums...HB0 and Show Time.

I will likely be one of the weird people who keep my digital cable package but ditch the premiums. We have too many SD TVs and the wife likes her ABC family, Hallmark, Disney, etc. Plus Sat boys still requiring a land phone line and no viable high speed internet kills them price wise for me.

I've got Dish and no land line. And I think the 622 will now "phone home" over the internet if you set it up that way.

As for internet, I've got standalone DSL that probably blows away the cable here

Originally Posted by Fluffdaddy

Plus no Sci-Fi HD on dish. That a showstopper for me.

Rumour has it SciFi is uplinked on Dish, but not yet "enabled" (or whatever) for general use. I'm crossing my fingers that SciFi, and hopefully Speed/Cartoon Network go live on the 1st with the new packages.

[QueOnda]

I saw a write up (don't remember if I saw the link here or another website or blog) which refers/calls dish and directtv as LITEHD. The bandwidth they use is a lower bandwidth than normal HD (ota). Don't know if it's true for all channels but I think it was written by the cable company.

[stanger89]

You're thinking of "HD Lite", and the cable companies are just as bad, or can be. Plus, AFAIK, with the transition to H.264 video, it's gotten a lot better.

[NEOSG]

I'm counting the days until I can call and switch to HD only

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by QueOnda

which refers/calls dish and directtv as LITEHD.

Basically, they were using a 1440x1080 (for Dish, DirectTV is 1280x1080) overly compressed signal instead of the full 1920x1080, and denying it, since the output was upconverted back to 1920x1080. Of course with a mod like the R5000HD, accessing the signal before the upconvertion, they weren't fooling anyone...

[jlindborg]

I've been a DirecTV guy for years and I'm using the HDHR unit to snag HD programing on my locals - if there were a reasonable (i.e. less pricey than the HD5000) mechanism to snag HD content off the Dish network, I'd be all over it in a heartbeat - maybe when the Hauppauge capture device hits the streets.

Does Dish network support serial channel changing on any of it's receivers? I'm doubting it - presumably you have to use USBUIRT or the like to blast Ir at it - not the end of the world I suppose...

[ktaillon]

Take a look at this link, it shows how the dish Networks are compressing the HD signal very low compared to the cable co's.

After seeing the report I'm staying with cable.

I'm trying to figure out how to control and record from the fire wire on the cable box. The cable co's will be removing the analog channels very soon.

[ktaillon]

Sorry about the link:

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/?p=962

[stanger89]

There was already a thread about that link, that "article" is old, and probably outdated. And beyond that cable is not immune from "HD Lite"

[lobosrul]

Originally Posted by ktaillon

Take a look at this link, it shows how the dish Networks are compressing the HD signal very low compared to the cable co's.

After seeing the report I'm staying with cable.

I'm trying to figure out how to control and record from the fire wire on the cable box. The cable co's will be removing the analog channels very soon.

That screen cap was from an mpeg-2 channel. Since then they've moved over most channels to mpeg-4 AVC and retained about the same bitrate. So the pic quality should be much better.

Anyways, IF they add USA, Sci-fi and 1 news channel, plus the package includes the VOOM Channels, then thats a hell of a deal.

EDIT: Actually, that whole article is misleading. Look at the chart at the bottom. Blu-ray encodes are at a variable bit rate, 40mbps is the maximum burst it can handle, not an average or constant bitrate. DVD @ 8 mbps? Hardly ever seen one over 5mbps. ATSC channels @ 19.39 mbps??? Only 1 of them in my market uses all 19mbps (CBS). Digital cable HDTV @ 16mbps?? I remember seeing some from comcast at as low as 8mbps.

I wonder who paid these guys off?!