In the context of HDLite...
DirecTV Sucks
Dish Network Sucks
Most Cable TV Sucks.
No I don't have DirecTV or even subscribe to HD services via cable.
With that siad I dont expect any satellite service to offer full bitrate hd again, but I am not blaming the satellite companies as I don't think that the satellite companies are trying to withhold resolution from you because they want to, its because they HAVE too.
The services are not being greedy the issue is the lack of available bandwidth available to them, and with more and more HD services coming out I see the problem getting worse.
Yes DirecTV and Dish can get new satellites however the bandwidth restrictions are still going to be the same, if the HD is pristine its only going to get worse again as more and more channels go HD.
The government is not giving Satellite Companies more bandwidth and that is what I see being the problem. (And the problem is also the same for MOST cable companies as well)
All the whining about HD Lite to the satellite companies is not going to do anyone good, they can't help it people want and are begging for more HD Channels and are not happy with the current ones they have now. I don't think companies like Dish and DirecTV are rolling their hands laughing because hey are downresing their HD content. Instead my feeling is they are sittiing there saying... Oh my god what do we do?
The MPEG4 answer so far is not an answer at all, truth is MPEG4 does not work. The MPEG4 theory looks great on paper however in the real world it has not giving the expected results. If and when they get MPEG4 working the way its supposed to I still don't expect full resolution HD to return. If it did then I would expect it to be down resed again in the future as more and more HD channels launch and more and more people demand that their favorite HD channel be carried.
Take a look back 2 years ago, How many national HD channels were there? How many do you think there will be 2 years from now? How much extra bandwidth do you see the government giving satellite companies? Do you see the problem here?
This is why I say DirecTV Sucks, Dish Network Sucks and Cable Sucks. And from my looking glass from where I sit we aint seen nothing yet. If you think things are bad now wait til there are 80 - 100 national HD channels and they try to squeeze them in to the space where they now only have 40 HD channels. It's no a nice picture.
Ultimately I see the Satellite and Cable companies overing us better quality then SD channels, and for some they will be happy, but if you want the better quality you will need to watch OTA which will make the broadcasters very happy or you will need to get a HDDVD / BluRay player for the quality HD that Satellite and Cable just can't provides.
I can already see the NAB and the Movie industry sitting back and laughing as this all goes on, because they know that if people want true HD then they will need to get it from a real broadcaster or pay for it by buying the content. They can also sit tight knowing that HD Pirarcy of their movies from channels like HBO is a non threat because no one is getting that signal in real HD anyways.
The question now is what do WE do about it? Do we sit idle as the PQ continues to erode? Who do we complaign to? If we complaigned to anyone would they actually care?
The Ulltimate answer can be found if you just FOLLOW THE MONEY TRAIL.
Because of this one again I say DirecTV Sucks, Dish Network sucks and even Cable TV sucks, and unfortunately for all of them there seems to be nothing they can do about it.
The question is, is there anything we can do about it?