I know, and TCM has made it clear that they have no interest going HD in the near future. I was just using it as an example to try to make a point. Subscribers are requesting popular channels that carry plenty of HD content, and Dish just goes ahead and adds more channels that are less popular and carry a relatively limited amount of HD content.
The existing lineup of HD channels is very good. For the company to remain competitive however, it needs to be improved. Also, while the lineup is good, how bandwidth is allocated to each of the HD channels is not. This is probably why I'm getting so fired up about the group of Viacom channels being added. Your locals will be on a spotbeam I'm sure, and those seem to be given the amount of bandwidth they need. National channels are a different story. The way Dish handles their HD channels, less bandwidth is generally given to channels that air mostly real HD programming, and more bandwidth is given to channels that air mostly upscaled SD programming. By adding a bunch of new channels that are mostly upscaled SD, those new channels with further eat away at bandwidth needed by channels airing lots of real HD programming. At a minimum, they should be grouping all of the mostly-SD HD channels together on the satellite transponders so that they can't interfere with the mostly-HD HD channels. It would be a very simple change to make, but they just aren't thinking straight these days, so until they are there is probably going to be an increase in complaints about picture quality on national HD channels.
All negativeness aside, glad you'll have your HD locals at last. They're definitely much easier to get via satellite than OTA.
