No Chiller HD for Dish (or much else)

[SKrueger]

So I recently wrote to ceo@echostar about my concerns for E*'s position in the HD market with several new HD channels coming on line later this year and early 2008 that have been indicated exclusive to D* at initial launch. I asked about E*'s future HD plans in regards to existing but not carried channels (MTV-HD, CinemaxHD, Wealth TV, etc) and for new channel launches, especially given their competitor's aggressive HD marketing campaign. I also specifically asked about Chiller.

The response received from E* (Angeline Romero, Executive Communications) was extremely uninformative. Other than promotional rhetoric "DISH Network is the leader in HD" and a summary of channels added in the past nothing was stated about any future plans. In response to my direct question regarding Chiller, she indicated that E* had no plans to add Chiller at this time.

Doesn't look like we'll be seeing anything new anytime soon. At least they finally launched some of the long promised RSN's.

 

[db2]

E* is taking the wait and see approach with regards to new HD. Right now they have more national HD channels than anyone. They have publicly stated that they will not take a back seat when it comes to HD so I would guess that as their competitors add more HD, they will add more.

The only thing strange to me is the lack of Versus HD. This channel is free to providers that carry Versus SD so all E* would have to do is launch the channel. No additional contracts necessary.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Echostar is not going to tell you what their future plans are. In the past they did the same thing; two days before the launch of Food HD they denied it on the Tech Chat.

Team Summit is coming up in May. I suspect some stuff will come out of that; and you know that it will get reported first here.

 

[db2]

Team Summit is coming up in May. I suspect some stuff will come out of that; and you know that it will get reported first here.

I hope you're right but my guess is that they are just going to tout the 7 HD RSN's they lit up last week...further insulting those of us in areas that did not get lit up.

 

[GeorgeLV]

E* is taking the wait and see approach with regards to new HD. Right now they have more national HD channels than anyone. They have publicly stated that they will not take a back seat when it comes to HD so I would guess that as their competitors add more HD, they will add more.

That's all fine and dandy, but there is that little matter of transponder licenses and satellite capacity.

 

[db2]

That's all fine and dandy, but there is that little matter of transponder licenses and satellite capacity.

Yep, I know what you're saying but with the new Mpeg4 encoders you'd think there would be room somewhere. They found room for A&EHD so I would hope they could find a spot for VersusHD.

 

[GeorgeLV]

Yep, I know what you're saying but with the new Mpeg4 encoders you'd think there would be room somewhere. They found room for A&EHD so I would hope they could find a spot for VersusHD.

Mpeg 4 encoders are kind of like the old stacker program that doubled your hard disk space with compression. It holds you out for a while, but it's no substitute for getting a new hard drive.

 

[db2]

Mpeg 4 encoders are kind of like the old stacker program that doubled your hard disk space with compression. It holds you out for a while, but it's no substitute for getting a new hard drive.

I agree that a new hard drive (or in this case new sat) is better but when all is said and done you can still fit more Mpeg4 channels with the new encoders on a single TP than you can with Mpeg2. I don't know as much about this as others so maybe I'm wrong but I would think they could find room for 1 more mpeg4 HD channel running 5-8mpbs.

 

[gjh3260]

E* is taking the wait and see approach with regards to new HD. Right now they have more national HD channels than anyone. They have publicly stated that they will not take a back seat when it comes to HD so I would guess that as their competitors add more HD, they will add more.

The only thing strange to me is the lack of Versus HD. This channel is free to providers that carry Versus SD so all E* would have to do is launch the channel. No additional contracts necessary.

I agree.....it would be great to have Versus HD available for the hockey playoffs. I also hope they light up the remaining RSN's in HD in the near future.

 

[M Sparks]

Mpeg 4 encoders are kind of like the old stacker program that doubled your hard disk space with compression. It holds you out for a while, but it's no substitute for getting a new hard drive.

That's an awful analogy...makes no sense.

One device is for storage, one is for delivery. Yes, compressing your hard drive makes more room, but eventually, you'll fill it up again.

Being able to fit more in the satellite "pipe" means you'll ALWAYS be able to fit more in the pipe.

 

[HD921]

That's an awful analogy...makes no sense.

One device is for storage, one is for delivery. Yes, compressing your hard drive makes more room, but eventually, you'll fill it up again.

Being able to fit more in the satellite "pipe" means you'll ALWAYS be able to fit more in the pipe.

Made perfect sense to me. You maybe too dimwitted to make the comparison.

 

[thedamaja]

I'm with M Sparks here that was a really bad analogy. It would be different if you started with a raw feed and then compressed it but, they are not. Dish is moving from Mpeg-2 compression to the newer Mpeg-4 compression.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

I agree that it was a poor analogy.

In the end, I don't want hard drive space, I want to be able to store a lot of hours of HD programming. I want to be able to store 80 hours of HD programming. Whether that is on a 400GB, 750GB, or 1000GB drive is irrelevant.

The same would be true if I wanted 200 hours or 500 hours. In the end I want hours, not gigabytes. I would rather only have to purchase a single 500GB external drive to get say another 120 hours, than to have to buy two 750GB drives.

I would love it if my existing 622 could store 2X-3X as many hours of HD as it did under the old MPEG2/MPEG4 format.

This is like the old drive compressor programs, because accessing those files took longer due to needing an extra stage of decompression. They were less functional. This is not true for E* files stored on my hard drive in a more efficient MPEG4 format. These can be accessed exactly the same as less efficient formats, and played back in the same real-time method.

 

[Sammy033]

Mpeg 4 encoders are kind of like the old stacker program that doubled your hard disk space with compression. It holds you out for a while, but it's no substitute for getting a new hard drive.

That depends on how much you delete. Packrats will fill up space mighty quick. The opposite would probably have a drive die before the need to get a bigger one.

Im somewhere in between depending on what the files are. I like my porn... ooops... music. Thats it. Music :devil:

 

[james_k_p]

Heck, you gotta love that someone would refer to something as old as Stacker.

 

[shanewalker]

I think part of the analogy's validity is in reference to the ceiling for quality PQ...i.e., unless MPEG-4 is tweaked to perfection, the more you compress to add more channels, the worse the overall quality will be--so having greater capacity would be the better option as it affords variable bit rates for challenging content, etc. We don't want bit-starved channels, just efficient use of available bandwidth, right? So, in short, we could use another bird if we want optimal quality AND quantity.

Then, you'd have both ideal efficiency (i.e. bandwidth usage reduced but not to the point of destroying PQ) and capacity w/ the satellite/MPEG-4 combo.

We all know this...but I think the analogy was awkwardly stating this very thing.