HD RSNs on Dish

[tjguitar]

Hello,

I'm hopefully getting my own condo soon and curious about some of Dish's pricing. It seems like the best deal. I especially like the hd only packages that have most of the channels I would watch for much cheaper than uverse or directv.

I noticed the "Dish America" HD packages....It looks like the Silver package includse RSNS. I also read that Dish does not carry some RSNs in HD full time - does that mean with the HD only packae I would only see the programming on FSN West and Prime Ticket that Dish chooses to carry or would the HD channel show the SD programming? I understand that Platinium HD CANNOT be added to the Dish America packages?

Can SD packages like the superstations or ppv sport packages like nhl center ice be purchased with the Dish America?

Are you required to get a DVR receiver as your free receiver or can you get just a plain old HD receiver if you dont plan on using dvr and don't want to pay the extra $7/mo?

thanks!
TJ

 

[Mr Tony]

The RSN's in HD on Dish are a crap shoot. They do not carry them 24/7. They have only so much bandwidth so they pick and choose which games to show in HD.

The channels are in SD 24/7 but as for how many games you'll see in HD I dont have a definite answer

 

[tjguitar]

The RSN's in HD on Dish are a crap shoot. They do not carry them 24/7. They have only so much bandwidth so they pick and choose which games to show in HD.

The channels are in SD 24/7 but as for how many games you'll see in HD I dont have a definite answer

But I if I purchase the HD-only package, will I only be able to see the content that they pick and choose? That would suck.

 

[kstuart]

The RSN's in HD on Dish are a crap shoot. They do not carry them 24/7. They have only so much bandwidth so they pick and choose which games to show in HD.

The channels are in SD 24/7 but as for how many games you'll see in HD I dont have a definite answer

It does look like that from our end as sports fans - but I had a chance recently to chat with someone who is dealing with the issues internally.

It turns out that most of the games we do not see in HD, are not available to Dish for technical reasons.

For example, in several cases, the RSN is owned by a cable system, and "mysteriously" they have a fiber feed to their cable head end, but no such feed to Dish, and some games do not end up being uplinked by the provider, so Dish ends up only with the SD feed.

They are trying to get these situations resolved, but the providers do not have incentive to make it equally available to Dish as to their cable head-end.

Yes, for the Dish customer, the end result is the same, that we do not see all the games in HD.

But it is not being done to save bandwidth.

PS It also seems likely that we will not see 24/7 HD RSNs until there are no more popular national HD channels missing from Dish's lineup. I think that will take both E*14 to Western Arc, and the new Eastern Arc satellite (E*15 ?) to both come online, as a minimum.

 

[--sexy-warlock--]

The biggest reason I see for 24/7 RSN networks is to be able to catch the end of games that go over the 3 hour blackout limit in HD instead of the 1960's style OTA snowfests we see in SD. I hate how the HD games have a 4-4.5 hour blackout window.

Also to note, after paying close attention this season, a lot of the blame lays on Fox. There are plenty of games that they don't even broadcast in HD. Less than half of the Nashville Predators games are in HD. And Fox doesn't even spend the money to get an HD camera for their NFL Sunday Pregame show. ;p