Greetings from the Echostar Press Event
- Thread starter Scott Greczkowski
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My take: the press conference yesterday was for general consumption. Joe & Jane USA don't need to know the details about a customer upgrade program. Charlie will use his Chat to give Dish customers the pertinent information.
"DISH Network will offer a convenient upgrade package for existing customers who want to expand their HD lineup to include the new channels."
It says convenient, not cheap.
It says convenient, not cheap.
"Convenient" means you call Dish and they send out an installer and Dish charges you an arm and a leg to swap out your owned receiver for a leased one. Then you make monthly payments for life plus a $300 one time payment up front. What is more convenient than that?
Foxbat said:
Yes but a smart company would have scheduled a special chat that same evening from CES and then there would be less irritation. However, that doesn't end the irritation about continueing HDLITE right into MPEG4. A real Bummer.
Monday, January 9th, 2006
Channel 101
Usually at 8 pm Central
Check your EPG though as the time probably varies by time zone.
Channel 101
Usually at 8 pm Central
Check your EPG though as the time probably varies by time zone.
I asked this question MANY times. And I got the same answer everytime.philhu said:
In fact two seperate people told me it was because of SatelliteGuys that they made that decission.
1) If they put them up in MPEG2 temporarly then take them away in 2 months they are going to piss off a lot of customers.
2) Customers will start liking the channels and then one day they are gone and dish will get lots of calls and customers will think that Dish is forcing them to upgrade equipment. With them only being in MPEG4 people who want the channels will get them while others happy with what they got can stay using their equipment for now.
Boy they really stroked your ego scott. So they did that not to piss people off yet they are downrezzing everything to HD Lite which is even worse. If that were the case then why not launch all 21 vooms then??? In 2 months we wouldn't have it? Why is that? Are they expecting in 2 months to switch everyone over? LOL what a joke this CES was.
IF they truly were listening to satguys.us they would launch ESPN2 and the Vooms in MPEG2 and the HD LiLs in MPEG4 and we would be pretty happy. And our thinking was that they were only adding 5 Vooms so that we could have our true HD back and we would have been doing backflips! Yeah they were listening.
IF they truly were listening to satguys.us they would launch ESPN2 and the Vooms in MPEG2 and the HD LiLs in MPEG4 and we would be pretty happy. And our thinking was that they were only adding 5 Vooms so that we could have our true HD back and we would have been doing backflips! Yeah they were listening.
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Scott Greczkowski said:
They should do the MPEG-2 "MPEG-4 HD Preview"...period.
It is a simple thing to put up intermittent scrollers or Dish promo inserts to alert viewers of the fact that the channel they're watching is temporary and why (V* did this, if you recall). Hell, send e-mails out to customers and put inserts in the bill (cheap black-and-white xerox copies, who cares?). It also makes sense from a sales/promotion point-of-view--they do HBO/Showtime/Sports Pack freeviews for a reason. Simple fact...they're going to get lots of angry calls anyway, but better to have made the effort to create a content availability 'bridge' than not, IMHO.
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Scott Greczkowski said:
While I'm not real thrilled with alot of what will happen as E* transitions to MPEG4, the process will inevitably anger some subscribers either way. From a business and operations perspective, it seems both of these responses above, while eliciting negative feedback either way, are necessary to begin such a major hardware transition. I don't necessarily agree with the way they're prioritizing content delivery, but I do understand the 'why' for the .
This in no way speaks to my dissatisfaction with HDLite..these are both married topics but they warrant independent arguments in some cases IMO.
Plain and simple, I added DISH to my present DirecTV programing as a reward for their promise to bringing back VOOM 21 in 2006. (I was an early VOOM DBS customer and because of their picture quality and programing I built a small Home Theater, put the construction pictures "On-Line" and that Site has been viewed nearly 15,000 times) Was happy to see the MPEG4 up-grade that would allow the re-birth of VOOM in the highest HD standard. Instead we now find the downgrade in the last few weeks and the foreseeable future of HD programing with DISH. What a leader! VOOM programing was never as good viewed on DISH but promised to re-launch and correct any issues, in 2006. Now it seems to have crashed on take-off. Charles Dolan, founder of VOOM (Cablevision) found out too late he could not trust his son, James, now it's DISH and Charles Ergen!
Scott, they blow smoke up your ass and you liked it. If they cared about what satguys wants. They would reinstate full resolution of the Voom channels. Anything else is bull sh*t.
The "Fat Cat" Role
Since E* has no competition in MPEG4 once they complete their up-grade and neither D* or the Cable companies have VOOM yet; E* will do whatever it wants to do:
HD-Lite, force upgrades, removing programming as it pleases, lying to customers, showing the carrot than taking it away and increasing prices.
All this because E* has become a “Fat Cat”. Customer satisfaction is no longer number 1 priority. Get use to it!
As I stated before; Cable companies had a similar “Fat Cat” attitude, it was either them or your rabbit ears!
Then C-band came in but cable was not concerned. Cable would not go into areas that had no profit potential so they figured C-band was competing with Rabbit ears not them.
Then came the 18” dish, and as prices came down Cable was feeling the heat, but they were telling everyone that you could not get locals. Then when locals became available on Sats, “Fat Cat” Cable was feeling the heat, now Cable is kicking back with View on Demand, HD locals at Full Rez, Internet and phone service. Now both E* and D* are doing something about it. But E* has the ball now with VOOM and Expanded MPEG4 HD and they will dance the “Fat Cat” role: If you don’t like what they are doing now and you feel taken and piss off today then wait till next week and they will really piss you off more!
E*’s “Fat Cat” role will continue until D* kicks in and provides a real choice and hopefully VOOM will be available in other markets at Full HD.
My Two-Cents
Since E* has no competition in MPEG4 once they complete their up-grade and neither D* or the Cable companies have VOOM yet; E* will do whatever it wants to do:
HD-Lite, force upgrades, removing programming as it pleases, lying to customers, showing the carrot than taking it away and increasing prices.
All this because E* has become a “Fat Cat”. Customer satisfaction is no longer number 1 priority. Get use to it!
As I stated before; Cable companies had a similar “Fat Cat” attitude, it was either them or your rabbit ears!
Then C-band came in but cable was not concerned. Cable would not go into areas that had no profit potential so they figured C-band was competing with Rabbit ears not them.
Then came the 18” dish, and as prices came down Cable was feeling the heat, but they were telling everyone that you could not get locals. Then when locals became available on Sats, “Fat Cat” Cable was feeling the heat, now Cable is kicking back with View on Demand, HD locals at Full Rez, Internet and phone service. Now both E* and D* are doing something about it. But E* has the ball now with VOOM and Expanded MPEG4 HD and they will dance the “Fat Cat” role: If you don’t like what they are doing now and you feel taken and piss off today then wait till next week and they will really piss you off more!
E*’s “Fat Cat” role will continue until D* kicks in and provides a real choice and hopefully VOOM will be available in other markets at Full HD.
My Two-Cents
Friends,
I have been with Dish over 9 years. Even though it will cost me a bundle I am happy they are switching to MPEG 4. According to PC Mag MPEG 4 can reduce the bandwith requirement by up to 90% per channel. This allows Dish to offer much more HD content with their existing Sats. Thats what we all want, more quality HD content.
Just my humble opinion.
I have been with Dish over 9 years. Even though it will cost me a bundle I am happy they are switching to MPEG 4. According to PC Mag MPEG 4 can reduce the bandwith requirement by up to 90% per channel. This allows Dish to offer much more HD content with their existing Sats. Thats what we all want, more quality HD content.
Just my humble opinion.
