No More CBS Sports?
- Thread starter shneor
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No, if anyone around here "just likes to argue" it's me! Just ask Bobby, who will quickly agree!
Croc, I think you just always want to have the last word, whether in agreement or disagreement.
This is absurd.
It wouldn't be so bad if they were simply 480 broadcasts, but the ridiculous, shrunken, down-converted feeds are literally a joke at this point.
SD shouldn't even be a thing anymore. In the rare case that someone is using a legacy television (they clearly don't care about the picture quality) it wouldn't be the end of the world if they were missing a little of the picture on the left and right.
I can't understand the line of thinking that decides to broadcast these SD channels, much less the format they often broadcast them in.
I have to disagree with this part. Even if they don't care about the quality of the picture, being able to see the entire picture is still very important. This is especially true with content like sports, or anything else that may have important graphics (like the score of the game, for instance) in the sections of the screen that would be cut off if it were center-cut.
Dish did go about half the season without broadcasting these SD feeds for the NBA League Pass and NHL Center Ice packages. The SD feeds were restored in time for baseball season, so they would be available in MLB Extra Innings. Perhaps it was some type of contractual requirement, that if Dish provides the SD feeds for one out-of-market sports package, they have to do the same for all of them. Otherwise, I guess it is just a case of "back by popular demand." The case of someone still using a legacy television (or at least a legacy SD-only Dish receiver, regardless of the quality of the TV) must not be as rare as you had thought.
Yes, it does. However, there may still be many subscribers still using a 311 or 311k, either of which would only receive the SD channel. So all of those customers would need to be upgraded to at least a 211 before it would be feasible to remove the SD feeds from Western Arc. And this is just one set of similar receivers with SD-only and HD-capable versions. Add in all of the various DVR models and the dual-tuner non-DVR's that would need to be upgraded.
Dish has seemingly been reluctant to do another forced receiver upgrade after the last round (eliminating QPSK, requiring an upgrade to 8PSK) kept getting dragged out much longer than originally expected. It is one thing to do such a forced upgrade at a time when Dish is adding customers, or at least still making a major push to add new customers. Dish could then afford to lose the subscribers who refuse to do the upgrade. At a time when Dish is bleeding subscribers, they likely just want to hold on to every subscriber they can, who is happy with the equipment they already have. Dish could also be delaying the forced upgrade as long as possible in the hopes that the subscribers who are leaving also happen to be the ones using the oldest receivers. In that case, the problem solves itself eventually.
True. Dish is slowly eliminating standard-def locals on the Western Arc, market-by-market. Some of those markets then will only have locals on Eastern Arc. So, this is a way for Dish to get entire markets converted to HD-capable equipment, or at least the subscribers who want satellite-delivered locals.
When we moved cross country a little over a year ago, we were in an apartment while looking for a house. We had a higher end Spectrum cable package in the apartment.
It was simply horrible. I was so used to the Hopper 3 system. The speed for the Spectrum system was SO slow. Only 4 tuners, which used to seem like a lot, but suddenly we're having to decide what to record and what to not record. The picture quality was poor enough I had techs come out to check the connections - nope, all looks good! And that PQ looked fine to them! The DVR storage was SO limited. We moved to a different apartment and they had an AT&T cable bundle. The internet was actually great (fiber optic, 400 Mbps up and down.) The picture quality was better, but still not great. Once again, limited DVR tuners and storage. And so slow compared to Dish. And the second TV was connected via their wireless box, and it disconnected almost every day, requiring a reboot of the main receiver, then a reboot of the remote, then hoping it worked, usually didn't, had to do it numerous times to get it back up again. AT&T support was useless.
We ended up moving to YTTV and THOUGHT it was pretty good. But the picture quality, even when it says 720 or 1080, is extremely compressed and you can see a lot of artifacts and just a generally "jerky" behavior, particularly for sports and other high speed action. The interface is horrible, no real live TV guide, DVR doesn't let you hide watched episodes and shows you every new and rerun in the list for any show you choose to record. Plus we need Philo plus YTTV to get the channels we want.
As for RSNs, no streaming service other than AT&T carries them these days. And they have their own issues. One reason we stayed with YTTV was they did get the RSNs, but they recently dropped them the way almost everyone has - the RSNs have just priced themselves out of the market and I assume their model in the future with Bally will be individual streaming subs.
Bottom line: I griped about Dish a lot, but I really miss it now.
It was simply horrible. I was so used to the Hopper 3 system. The speed for the Spectrum system was SO slow. Only 4 tuners, which used to seem like a lot, but suddenly we're having to decide what to record and what to not record. The picture quality was poor enough I had techs come out to check the connections - nope, all looks good! And that PQ looked fine to them! The DVR storage was SO limited. We moved to a different apartment and they had an AT&T cable bundle. The internet was actually great (fiber optic, 400 Mbps up and down.) The picture quality was better, but still not great. Once again, limited DVR tuners and storage. And so slow compared to Dish. And the second TV was connected via their wireless box, and it disconnected almost every day, requiring a reboot of the main receiver, then a reboot of the remote, then hoping it worked, usually didn't, had to do it numerous times to get it back up again. AT&T support was useless.
We ended up moving to YTTV and THOUGHT it was pretty good. But the picture quality, even when it says 720 or 1080, is extremely compressed and you can see a lot of artifacts and just a generally "jerky" behavior, particularly for sports and other high speed action. The interface is horrible, no real live TV guide, DVR doesn't let you hide watched episodes and shows you every new and rerun in the list for any show you choose to record. Plus we need Philo plus YTTV to get the channels we want.
As for RSNs, no streaming service other than AT&T carries them these days. And they have their own issues. One reason we stayed with YTTV was they did get the RSNs, but they recently dropped them the way almost everyone has - the RSNs have just priced themselves out of the market and I assume their model in the future with Bally will be individual streaming subs.
Bottom line: I griped about Dish a lot, but I really miss it now.
- Nov 29, 2003
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Your post has gotten me thinking about my own situation.
Due to the RSN wasteland on DISH and the fact that I'm in Hawaii and considered California for a sports market (yeah, like I will attend games over 3,000 miles away on a regular basis), I will miss any of the games whenever my favorite out of market teams play a California team even though I subscribe to NHL Center Ice and the MLB package later in the season.
As a result, I've been psyching myself to switch to cable once my current contract with DISH is up. We only have Spectrum here so with a bundle, I'd be able to keep the same price on my internet (but double the speed since I still get the old Earthlink package even though Earthlink is no longer part of Spectrum since Spectrum bought out Oceanic Time Warner). I'd also cut my monthly wireless costs by a substantial amount (over AT&T).
OK - so here's where YOU got me thinking.
With DISH we get DISH Anywhere - which is truly Anywhere. I also pay for my father's Xfinity account in Pennsylvania and his remote watch service applies only to when other devices are watching while attached to his local router. (otherwise I could get my teams when they play California on his Center Ice package).
Another thing is that for us in Hawaii, we get our shows based on East Coast time. That's a 6 hour time difference at this time of year. My wife spends several hours each morning doing her Physical Therapy routine watching her favorite shows live.
We also get the DISH feeds of SIRIUS XM. SIRIUS satellites do not reach Hawaii so the ability to catch some of their programming is a plus.
And of course, the Hopper interface and performance.
So damn you DISH!
Many benefits to leaving but sacrifices as well. Perhaps skip Center Ice/MLB packages through DISH and buy directly from NHL.TV since it's less expensive directly and if I want to see my team home feeds and anything in HD I have to go over my ROKU anyway.And I already have holes in my roof from the DISHes.
Luckily, still some time to think.
No I realize that. So many people have dropped the RSNs, as a Royals fan I listened to the Royals owner talking about how upset he is that they have priced themselves out of so many providers, and a lot of local Royals fans no longer have access. From everything I am reading including some "insider" stuff it appears that Bally will provide a direct to user option but not until 2022. But I am no willing to go back to Directv, AT&T streaming is terrible, and my experiences with cable were horrific - they make YTTV look extremely good. Honestly, the Dish/Hopper 3 system is, IMO, so far superior to everything out there that the only thing keeping me from switching back is the two year commitment - I've gotten to like month to month contracts and the freedom it gives you.
Purchase the Hopper 3 and there is no two year commitment. Someone has a Hopper 3 for sale in the Classifieds section on this site right now, for $150 plus shipping.
Looks like you're going to have to stream RSN's in the future. MLB Talks RSNs Going Direct to Consumer | Cord Cutters News
Like Crodrules said if you purchase a hopper 3 you can sign up for the pay as you go RV program(month to month) you can stop if you don't need it and restart whenever you want
Why hasn't the FCC set a cut off date for SD broadcasts. Let it go and free up the space.
When did this become a thing? But we'd need a Hopper 3 and a couple of Joey 4Ks (that's what we had when we left Dish when we moved here in Aug 2019.)
