MPEG-4 Upgrade Plans for the 942?

[riffjim4069]

Well, my DP-34 switch arrived this afternoon so I am ready to chain it to the existing DP-34 switch, turn in a leased 811s, and purchase a Dish 942 (we currently lease one) from the DishStore. We love the 942: me, the wife, the kids, and even Brutus our dog! While we are, in fact, head-over-heels about the 942, we am not ready to purchase a 942 until E* makes known their MPEG-4/962 upgrade plans. This is money your retailer will never see.

Come on E* you're killing us; your lack of any useful information regarding the transition to MPEG-4 receivers is lethal. How about a plan of action already?

 

[Cyclone]

Ok, I'll break the news to you only if you and everyone else agree not to ask any questions.

The 942 will never do MPEG-4. Dish pretty much explained that MPEG-4 is off the table for the immediate future. It will be revisited once the real-time encoders get beefed up, that their effieciency is worth it. Considering that Dish will have to swap out millions of SD & HD receivers to support MPEG4, they will likely want a few generations of encoders before the effiency is good enough to warrant a move.

But thats ok. Dish likely won't have any MPEG-4 on the air for well over a year. You will have so many hours of enjoyment under your belt that you won't mind having made the purchase by the time MPEG does begin to deploy.

While those who are waiting for MPEG-4 will have months/years of anguish, frustration, and impaitence gnawing at their very souls. They will lash out in angry posts every so often. They will want to know when they can get a 962 (the rumoured MPEG-4 HDTV DVR 942 replacement), why is it taking so long?, complaints about the date slipping, etc.. Only to have the 962 ship eventually with still no MPEG-4 HDTV channels out there to be had.

Get it now, enjoy it now.

When the 962 does ship, sell the 942 on ebay, Divide the difference in price between what you get for the 942 vs the cost of the 962 by the number of months that you enjoyed the 942. Then determine if that monthly expense was worth it avoid all the pain of those who are holding out.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

I'd amend the last post in a couple of ways.

- Dish will not necessarily have to swap out the SD receivers for a long time, as MPEG4 isn't likely to come to SD for a long time. So the effort to implement isn't that hard as there aren't nearly as many HD receivers to swap.

- I suspect a 962-type receiver will be out before all that long. Dish does not have to have MPEG4 implemented to start shipping the new receiver, just as they are about to start shipping the non-DVR 211 & 411 receivers. It might be better to wait on it, but no one knows for sure.

- It is likely that Dish will be paralleling MPEG4 with 8PSK/MPEG2 for some time. So we don't know how long the useful life of the 942 will be. I'm guessing at least 18-24 months.

- If you lease a 942 now, it is possible that Dish will give you some credit toward a 962 replacement.

I just popped for a 942 lease as I believe I will get my money's worth out of it before it is rendered useless when Dish turns off 8PSK. I'm going to enjoy using it and not worry about the 962 for a while.

 

[KKlare]

I thought QPSK and 8PSK (quadrature=4 or 8 phase shift keying?) with or without the improvement is a modulation method whereas MPEG2 or MPEG4 is a compression technique. You should be able to mix and match with different levels of forward error correction (FEC). The best would be 8PSK (16PSK?) MPEG4 and just enough FEC to keep a picture as the signal gets weaker under "normal" rain conditions.

-Ken

 

[navychop]

Thank you KKlare.
Also, in January we should know if the soon to be added additional Voom channels will be MPEG-4 or not. Until that fat lady actually sings, we can only speculate.
Financially, it is in DISH's best interest to start shipping MPEG-4 DVRs ASAP, so they have fewer non-MPEG-4 DVRs to replace later.

 

[SimpleSimon]

The new V* channels will NOT be MPEG-4.

 

[jergenf]

The new V* channels will NOT be MPEG-4.

I agree that all existing HD packages will remain mpeg2 until mpeg4 boxes become mainstream. If dish starts encoding the channels that most HD customers are subscribed to then dish bares the burden of supplying free upgrade solutions else risk loosing subscribers.
I predict that mpeg4 will only apply to new HD locals for now.

 

[SpenceJT]

now then, who of us would purchase a Dish MPEG4 receiver that has MPEG4 listed as either an upgrade or a feature to be enabled in the future?

Sure as hell NOT I! They pulled enough of that crap with the 921 (Dishwire, USB, Name Based Recording). I won't fall for that one again. I won't upgrade from my (still highly flawed) 921 until Dish either releases a fully functioning MPEG4 HD DVR, or D* begins rolling out MPEG4 DVRs in my region.