I do not intent for this become another HD Lite thread but what are the programmers to gain from HD Lite. Is Mark Cuban getting less money when HDnet Movies is downresized to 1280x1080i instead of its native rez of 1920x1080i? No I do not think so. He couldn't careless whether Dish Network or DirecTv downresizes the channel. His only interest is in getting paid for the channel. On the other hand, Dish Network and DirecTv have a major gain by reducing the native resolution of the channel. They both gained bandwith since they are both looking to get more bandwith.
Here's the problem with HD Lite. Once a provider, like Dish Network or DirecTv, downresizes the native resolution of the channel, they will not put it back to its original no matter what bandwith they get. Look at what happened at Dish Network, they recently put 6 channels in MPEG-4 and gain lots of more bandwith without degrading the PQ more. Yet they have not put the native resolution to the channels. Those channels still remain in HD Lite mod. Willl Dish Network put it back some time in the future? History tells us that is very unlikely.
And finally the argument of there is not enough TV with those native resolution to me is just an unacceptable excuse. If they were providing these channels with native resolution why now they are not doing? Because it is in their interest to do so (bandwith saving) and not in the customer interest. We are all doomed by the HD Lite that Directv and Dish Network are plagued with. We will never see True HD anymore on these providers. Thus, as many have said on this forum --- "HD Lite is here to say" and unfortunately has and will become the norm on the satellite providers.