I thought I'd put an update on my perspective of DISH's OnDemand product. As stated earlier...
DISH delivers VOD via a few methods;
1. PPV regularly repeats at set times on Channels 502. The one I've seen there recently was OK for PQ (Man of Steel).
2. VOD from channels 1 and 501 are recorded to your HD off satellite and can be played at will irregardless of time. Just pay the price of admission. I watched a 1080P The Wolverine last weekend and the PQ was very good.
3. iVOD feed through your internet connection. You order the program, then watch after enough of the program file has transferred to the HD via your internet connection. I watched HBO OnDemand Dark Shadows HD and the PQ was abysmal. Any company providing this as an HD service should be shamed out of the business. Yes DISH, it was that bad. To list it as HD is false advertising. I recorded the same movie from HBOE shortly after and the PQ was vastly better, but still of sub-HD quality. Similar to about all the other package channels delivered in HD.
Oh, to put this thread back on topic,
my grandparents had an ice business. They would harvest ice all winter long off the lake, pull the ice loads to storage in the ice houses with huge Belgians and other draft horses (can't recall the other breeds), and pack the blocks away in straw and sawdust. It's amazing that the ice would stay until well into the following season. Ice routes were done with wagons pulled by the big horses, then by motor driven trucks. The rail terminal is the city was a big customer. Produce and meat shipments would be iced down in their little "captive market". My mother still has old stationary, business stamps, pencils, ice picks, etc. from those years ago.
