Straight and Simple: D* or E*?

[James Long]

Dishnetwork owns 6 Slots (4 for Super Dish and 2 for Wings) Direct owns (3 for there 2lnb dish, and trying to get one wing Permissions from the FCC).

Seems you forgot to mention D* 3 Spaceway Sats .. the first of which is coming online mid 2004. Combined they have the ability to deliver 1500 HD channels.

To be fair, comparing slots without looking at transponders isn't a full view. D* has three slots on their newest dish providing access to 46 DBS transponders. E*'s Dish500 provides access to 49 transponders, and a SuperDish provides access to an additional 24-32 FSS transponders (500MHz bandwidth). A 61.5 wing dish provides 17 more DBS transponders (including 6 leased from SkyAngel). A 148 wing dish provides 32 more DBS transponders. E*'s 157 is in testing. ALL of that capacity (98 DBS E* plus FSS vs 46 DBS for D*) is online TODAY with no further action by the FCC required. Not all of it is filled.

Perhaps in the future D* will have more capacity. Perhaps E* will too. It remains to be seen IF D*'s plans will work out. There were high hopes for E*'s 105 that have not come to pass. Until the birds are hot and online it is only a forward looking statement, subject to change.

JL

 

[cinemaandsound]

DirecTV or DISH?

Well, let's start by clearing up the point that DISH is MPEG-2 and DVB compliant and DirecTV is NOT. They are MPEG-1.5. They will never be MPEG-2. DISH can update software and add features via a free download (which they have down MANY times over the years on MANY models) where as DirecTV cannot. This is an example of MPEG-2.
Any bugs that DISH has had have been cleared up with software upgrades.
By the way, who has had to change access cards several times? DirecTV!
As far as DVR goes, DISH over 100k of them out there. A lot more experience than DirecTV has.
DISH Networks main focus right now is on HD. Charlie told me himself that he will be the leader. I believe him. He makes changes to accomodate the consumer. Have you ever seen DirecTV act that fast? NOT!

 

[Texas Red]

What I tell my customers is to get a brochure from each company and look at the packages offered by them. Circle the channels you want, and go with that choice.

 

[Mike Greer]

Well, let's start by clearing up the point that DISH is MPEG-2 and DVB compliant and DirecTV is NOT. They are MPEG-1.5. They will never be MPEG-2. DISH can update software and add features via a free download (which they have down MANY times over the years on MANY models) where as DirecTV cannot. This is an example of MPEG-2.
Any bugs that DISH has had have been cleared up with software upgrades.
By the way, who has had to change access cards several times? DirecTV!
As far as DVR goes, DISH over 100k of them out there. A lot more experience than DirecTV has.
DISH Networks main focus right now is on HD. Charlie told me himself that he will be the leader. I believe him. He makes changes to accomodate the consumer. Have you ever seen DirecTV act that fast? NOT!

I was a Dish Network fan - I even tried to pay for a 921 at Sears, thank God they wouldn't take my money. If you want an HDTV PVR like I do, Dish is a long way away. It is bad enough that they don't have the features of Tivo but when the 921 more than a year late and still not working it's just too much! The 921 has been in development for what 2+ years? Is this fast? They finally ship a few only to figure out they don't work and that people want to really use the over-the-air tuner but can't. They don't even have an OTA guide - OTA is the source of much more HD content than Dish Network has on satellite. Why? I guess this one just slipped by the genius management of Dish.

Dish has had major problems with just about all of the receivers they have released - they have even bigger problems with their newest ones - 721, 522, 811, 921 all have serious issues. Do you see a trend here? I do...

I don't know if Dish Network is in a merge mood or not but they sure don't seem to care.

If the HD DirecTivo arrives even with bugs before Dish can supply a functional 921 with an OTA guide they may as well just give up on HD now and go back to what they do best - over-compress the hell out of everything and call it "100% digital quality".

Is there anyone at the helm at Dish Network?

By the way - MPEG2 has nothing to do with updating firmware over satellite and Dish has not even come close to "Any bugs that DISH has had have been cleared up with software upgrades." Far from it!