An update from Scott at CES

[kb7oeb]

If they do mess with HBO and Sho I hope they leave the 148 versions alone. 148 would be a cool place for full rate HD, after they moved the locals off what else are they going to do with it?

If they do screw it up the local cable co still has a good hd picture, at least for now.

 

[B.Goose]

I'm not that thrilled with the current Voom channels now.So why would I want more channels and get HD-lite? I will wait and check things out,but may be dropping some channels.

 

[BrianMis]

If they do mess with HBO and Sho I hope they leave the 148 versions alone. 148 would be a cool place for full rate HD, after they moved the locals off what else are they going to do with it?

If they do screw it up the local cable co still has a good hd picture, at least for now.

As of right now Discovery HD, the 2 HD nets, ESPN HD, TNT HD, HBO HD, Sho, and HDTV PPV are all at their native res. But that doesn't mean they will stay that way.

 

[bestboff]

I would say all this hand wringing over HD lite is ridiculous. Statements like I'm dumping satellite and going to HD DVD are laughable. Kinda hard to watch football or the Olympics in DVD. The news of additional channels and the local networks is fantastic! Once this happens, I'll be the first one in line for a 622. The satellite operators have to make a choice between number of channels and bandwidth. Most people are wowed by 720p resolution.

 

[Stacy A]

Down rezzed HD may be the standard in the near future for all HD, but what will happen is this nifty little thing called "competition". Competition causes one company to wake up one morning and say - "We could make our selves stand out from our competition by offering higher resolution HD".

There will come a time when they will need to offer the highest resolution in order to attract customers.

 

[riffjim4069]

MPEG-4 HD-Lite is not the news I was expecting. We'll see that Charlie has to say Monday night, but right now it looks like we'll be returning the 942 we purchased for Christmas and signing up for basic cable for wife can see her Lifetime channels. I'm still holding out hope we'll hear better news Monday night, but we shall see. At least FiOS TV may be available in my area later this year or early next year.

 

[Turboff]

Most people are wowed by 720p resolution.

HD-Lite is not 720p, it's 1280x1080i, which is inferior to 720p.

 

[jonesbruce91361]

down rezzing

Maybe someone already mentioned this and I missed it, but during all this turmoil over Dish down rezzing Voom channels, etc. has anybody remembered that the vaunted 108i isn't the wave of the future? It's 1080p, and the first sets are just hitting the market.

 

[rad]

Maybe someone already mentioned this and I missed it, but during all this turmoil over Dish down rezzing Voom channels, etc. has anybody remembered that the vaunted 108i isn't the wave of the future? It's 1080p, and the first sets are just hitting the market.

Gee, so the providers can't deliver 1080i and you want them to go to 1080p? Bandwidth is not unlimited.

 

[sbturner]

720p

My 46" Samsung DLP converts everything to 720P anyway and alot of other hdtvs do as well. Could DISH just convert the 1080i stuff too 720P and save room this way. ESPN at 720P looks awesome, better that 1080I stuff that I have seen

 

[Ilya]

Could DISH just convert the 1080i stuff too 720P and save room this way. ESPN at 720P looks awesome, better that 1080I stuff that I have seen

ESPN is produced in 720p. That's why it looks great in 720p. And producing sports in 720p makes sense: for dynamic action avoiding interlacing artifacts is often more important than higher resolution of 1080i. However, converting source originaly produced in 1080i (e.g. all VOOM channels) to 720p will not have any benefits: you will simply lose the resolution and will still have all the interlacing problems present in the source.

 

[digiblur]

My 46" Samsung DLP converts everything to 720P anyway and alot of other hdtvs do as well. Could DISH just convert the 1080i stuff too 720P and save room this way. ESPN at 720P looks awesome, better that 1080I stuff that I have seen

This is exactly what BellExpressVu is doing with their HD. They don't even run 8PSK!

 

[toghome]

I'm afraid this has all just been a big misunderstanding. I just got off the phone with the senior tech on duty at Dish Network Advanced Tech Support. He explained that Voom doesn't want to broadcast in HD-Lite (actually, he didn't use the term, HD-Lite, since he was unfamiliar with the 1280x1080i format altogether), but they have to use a degraded format because, until just a couple years ago, "nothing was filmed in HDTV." (He repeated this statement at least 10 times during the course of our 15 minute conversation, so it must be true .) When I explained to him that 35 mm film has a resolution of about 18 million pixels, with 70mm achieving more than 4x that, he modified his position slightly, explaining that the studios are supplying the films in digital form in lower resolutions, something Dish has no control over. I then asked him why HBO is sending the same film to Dish in 1080i, but to DirecTV in HD-Lite. He sputtered for a minute, then looped back to the beginning and explained that only the latest movies were filmed in HDTV. This loop continued until I ended the call. Could it be that Dish/Voom doesn't even know they accidentally kicked the HD-Lite switch on the console?

 

[charper1]

He repeated this statement at least 10 times during the course of our 15 minute conversation, so it must be true.

I hope that is just wishfull thinking or sarcasm.

Could it be that Dish/Voom doesn't even know they accidentally kicked the HD-Lite switch on the console?

No.

 

[vurbano]

My 46" Samsung DLP converts everything to 720P anyway and alot of other hdtvs do as well. Could DISH just convert the 1080i stuff too 720P and save room this way. ESPN at 720P looks awesome, better that 1080I stuff that I have seen

A 1920x1080i picture blows away 720p especially if you look at a still picture and you have to do it on a 1080i monitor. I'll take CBSHD OTA in 1080i over anything 720p anyday.

 

[rad]

A 1920x1080i picture blows away 720p especially if you look at a still picture and you have to do it on a 1080i monitor. I'll take CBSHD OTA in 1080i over anything 720p anyday.

Look at a lot of still pictures on your monitor?

 

[orcatek]

720p or 1080i, forget them both. After seeing 1080p at the show, the both look bad.

720p due to lower resolution, and 1080i due to interlace artifacts in high motion.

1080p address both.

 

[gutter]

In my view `1080I and 720P are about equal. I have seen them side by side as many of you have and really. I can't say I prefer one over the other except in fast action scenes. Howe er 1080P in a totally different matter.

A competitior out there Verizon FIOS, will go for the advantage of quality and price. Then it is bye bye DISH and DIRECT. I still prefer quality over quanity of channels. The the new channels don't mean anything to me now. In true HI REZ I will watch a test pattern rather than a bastardized version of HD. That guy from Advanced tech was really giving a lot of bull. Every movie ever made has more resolution than HD lite. Nobody has to make a movie in HD unless you are shooting video. At least you showed him that you were no dumby

 

[TheForce]

Just wanted to say, I enjoyed meeting some other satelliteguys on the tour. Being here has one advantage over being a pub member- You get the scoop first! Guys, I ditto what Scott said in his first post. When I heard the upgrade path I was all smiles about it. Nothing more to say so wait until CC on Monday.

I will also say that the new line of DVR receivers look great in design concept that will be ready for the new era of video on demand ina whole new way. I was surprised at how forward thinking E* and Charlie are about where TV is heading. It is just way too bad that local broadcast business people just don't get it. Some day when they find that their 30 second spot revenue stream is gone, they'll wonder what hit them. The clue to all what we learned was in the name of these new receivers for Dish Network- "Vip-xxx"


As for downrezing- I pretty much covered my thought on that topic in another location but to review- It isreally a non issue for now. Most of the complaints I heard are technically bogus.

 

[AJF]

Scott or Don,
Was there any mention of MoCA (Multimedia over Coax Alliance) which Echostar is a member of ? It's basically a very new technology which allows multiple streams of SD AND HD over a single cable within a home :

http://www.mocalliance.org/en/index.asp

Also any mention of whether several of these new VIP receivers might be able to be daisy-chained together either with USB or Ethernet so that they act as one large DVR server ?