The State of Dish Network, 6 months later!

[Tampa8]

First and most important, so glad you are back at least for awhile.

The numbers I have seen thrown around seem to say there are no where near as many HD receivers as SD ones. I think total sales for the year are HD sets over SD ones. Our local Fox channel did a story about the relative slow growth of HD sets, they interviewed a Circuit City manager. Not scientific of course, but of all the relatives I have, there are only three homes with HD including mine. Some have bought new sets in the last year or two and bought SD sets I suspect because of low cost.

 

[goaliebob99]

Digi, maybe thats what im seeing.... It looked like the audio stream though... I was looking to pull that jewl up as I origionally though it was somthing else but was unable to do in tsreader, I will play around with it more today. Also, if thats ESPN then we need to get on ESPN about that.

 

[DWS44]

glad to see there's still a few folks around that care about the lack of PQ that's seemingly getting worse instead of better...I thought the mediocrity police had run them all off.

Of course, I'm pretty much resigned to the fact that we're stuck with it permanently now, though. Dish obviously doesnt give a rats @$$ about the PQ. Maybe we'll get lucky and in a few years someone will release the next SUPER-HD standard, and then once E* downrezzes that, it will be equal to what HD is supposed to be now!

 

[Tom Bombadil]

HDTV sales are up 80% over 2005. Growth is projected to be lower in 2007, but total sales in 2007 are expected to break 12 million units. That number is expected to continue to climb at least through 2010. Over the next 4 years more than 60 million HDTV sets are expected to be sold.

 

[berck]

I doubt ESPN is the problem. Since I switched back to cable, ESPN HD has looked great. As a matter of fact, it appears to be the best HD channel on the cable line up. Very clear and crisp picture quality.

BTW:
Welcome home Bob.

 

[DirtyTurbin]

HD Quality

Here is my reply from dish ceo email....

Sent: Monday, December 18, 2006 6:41 PM
To: CEO
Subject: HD Quality

I keep reading about HD lite. Is it true you do not broadcast your HD channels in Full 1920x1090i @ 19,4mbps? Thank you

Reply:
There are several different HD formats. Dish Network's HDTV service consists of channels broadcast using accepted HDTV resolution standards, including 1,280 X 720, 1280 X 1080, 1440 X 1080, and 1920 X 1080. All of the resolutions used by DISH network produce a true HD image. Please realize that some of the content, typically used during daytime programming is actually upconverted standard definition programming. This is received by DISH Network in this format from the provider and passed through to you the customer. Upconverted SD programming is easily identifiable by black vertical bars on either side of the screen. Regardless of the resolution, you should not be seeing any digitizing, pixeling, break-up, lip sync, or fuzzy video on any of these HD channels.



Please be aware, the HD world is relatively new, we are constantly trying to find the right mix to get more HD and with the best possible resolution. We work for improvement in this area every day. We are constantly analyzing our channel layout and trying to find better "match ups" for the bandwidth sharing. As we add channels and improve technology, you may, from time to time, see fluctuations in the picture quality. We apologize for this; however, we are doing this in an attempt to continue to offer more choices to our customers without serious quality degradation. We have also made strides in improving the quality of many channels on the service in the past few months with more improvements planned for the future. The best advice we can give to our HD customers is to be patient.



Thank you,

Jennifer Schuyler

Echostar Satellite L.L.C

Executive Communications

 

[Pakbackr]

I doubt ESPN is the problem. Since I switched back to cable, ESPN HD has looked great. As a matter of fact, it appears to be the best HD channel on the cable line up. Very clear and crisp picture quality.

I agree. I am a Directv customer (soon to be switching to DISH) and the ESPN HD channels are among the best for picture quality. This concerns me if this is a DISH issue, as I watch too much ESPN to be disappointed with their PQ on DISH.

 

[Tampa8]

I guess I would have expected HD sales to be more than 33% by now. This article is in line with the Fox News Report I mentioned above.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/media/2006-12-27-hd-education-usat_x.htm

 

[DetFan]

Hey guys and greetings from the united states. ... For those of you who dont know, I have been back from Iraq for the past three days on leave. So, Whats the first thing I do once I get home after giving my wife and daughter the love that they have missed. I turn on the TV.

So Lets Start on the positives.

The quality of the HD demo channel is A++++... I had to check out the bitrate...

Its currently running at 20+ MBPS for the video AND
20 MBS+ for AUDIO! For a total of 40 MBPS+ The quality actually is stunning. I just wish every channel on dishHD could look like this.

The 2nd is VOD programming. While dish is still building upon this, it was nice to turn on my 622 and press the dvr button. From there under the TV Entertainment tab I was able to watch programming from HGTV, NATGO, AND Food Network. Although its only 3 programs it was nice to see step's in the right direction. With the news that was broken a few weeks ago here, It looks like dish is moving well in the right direction.

NETWORK HD, For us here in chicago it looks like dish has finally ironed out the bugs with the mpg4 encoders. That is awsome! The quality is pretty good, allthogh a little bit starved at times. expecally on the 1080I channels. OH yea and if you live in the chicago area, Tune to ABC7 News at 500PM on January 6th for The first NEWS broadcast in HD in the chicago area! Congrats to ABC7 for being chicago's HD station and leading the way in delivering High Def news to the viewers in chicago.

Now we get to the bad.

What the hell happened to ESPN and HDNET???????

WOW the quality on these two channels have gone down the tubes.. Infact, im half way tempted to send an email to dish quality. Espn has much microblocking as well as HD Net. How do you mess up a 720P channel? If we have any engineers in the house please look at this.

CBSHD! What happened to the O&O rule. I would of thought that this would have stayed on being that "technically by the books" Digital programming cant be considered a distant network as it does not follow the same rules as analoge programming. This one still has to be determined by the fcc and I would expect them to address this hopefully in 07

Another disappointment in the HD sector was the lack of HD additions and the voom repeats continue. Im still listening to the same alantis morsette on Rave HD that was on 6 months ago, and well over a year ago. After all I know WTTW chicago (wich tapes and airs) soundstage has had numerous new artists on air than what voom shows. I did remember dish saying by years end saying New hd was coming. Well, The year has almost ended and another broken promise.

I think with the blind sidedness from tivo and and the lost of distant networks, Dish has lost focus on what really matters, and that is the customer. The TV industry has finally crossed a threash hold this year. There are now more HDTV owners than SDTV owners, as reported by my local abc news earlyer today. Has dish, nor directv at that fact, stepped up to the plate. No. In the end if dish doesnt do something with the quality and amount of programming soon, there subscriber base will get smaller as people transition to HDTV.

Recommendations to fix things. Instead of waiting for CES to unveil things, Do it a few weeks earlyer in time for the holidays. What a way to get people in the door with new programming and a christmas gift of new programming, This would also force directv to respond to any "industry shockers" Also instead of following the hdlite standard.... SET THE STANDARD OF QUALITY! What i mean by that, is create a new standard of high quality programming and blow directv out of the water.

Well that's pretty much it. Some times I wish I had a job up in corporate Echostar and that I could call the shots. Things would be way different and I do belive that E* would be in a much better place with more subscribers. What charlie and co needs to realize that sometimes a fresh pair of eyes who can bring in new ideas is needed as it helps relive the fog that they are seeing. I hardly doubt they will take my advice though because that would be a way of admitting that someone isnt doing there job, and that I can do it better than they can. Just give me the chance when I get back permantly. Thats all I ask for and You wont be disappointed

I've not been with them long enough to see this stuff, But I felt compelled to come and say thanks for your service..

That's all..Sorry if I hijacked the thread..LOL.