Will Dish ever go full resolution HD?

[iceondsom]

Until programmers start providing true HD content and not just upconverting SD content, how much the broadcasters are compressing isn't as big of an issue.

 

[Jim S.]

There are already people providing true HD content, and some of it looks pretty sad on Dish. (See HDNet for example.)

 

[iceondsom]

There are already people providing true HD content, and some of it looks pretty sad on Dish. (See HDNet for example.)

Of course there is true HD content out there but there is A LOT of upconverted crap being passed as "HD" by the programmers.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

1 - People who have a normal sized 1080p display cannot see any difference between that and a 720p display, according to mathematics:

http://www.carltonbale.com/wp-content/uploads/resolution_chart.png

The interesting thing about the chart that Ken's link provides is that it doesn't fully back up the summary statement he makes about it.

That chart shows that people can begin to perceive a difference between a 50" 720p set vs a 1080p at a viewing distance of 8'. With a 55" set it is at 10'.

There are a lot of people who have sets large enough and sit at distances close enough to fall within the areas where one can perceive a difference. Someone with a 60" Sony SXRD 1080p set, who sits 9' from it, is well into the area of where a benefit would be perceived.

That is unless a "normal" sized HD set is a 42" set and the viewer sits more than 7' from it. Or someone who is going to sit 10' away from a 46" set. There are people buying expensive 1080p 46" LCD sets who do sit too far away to perceive a benefit.

Now if one were saying that the normal HDTV viewer isn't perceiving the full benefits of a 1080p set, then that would be true for more people. But as soon as there is any benefit from a 1080p set, then it can be argued that having one is worth it.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

I don't think there's anything even slightly unreasonable about demanding that 1080-line channels be the full 1920 pixels wide. There are lots of affordable displays capable of displaying it these days, and I can certainly tell the difference.

A good bit rate is whatever rate that doesn't lead to obviously visible compression artifacts most of the time, which disqualifies whatever they're running right now on, for example, HDNET.

Fully agree. Good way to state the point.

 

[Foxbat]

It's like the old Second City TV show routine with the hillbillies reviewing movies: "Hoo-Eee; dat blowed up good!" When I see an explosion on HDNet or HDNet Movies now, it doesn't "blowed-up good", it turns into a pixellated mess. Before Dish trimmed the bitrate on these channels, "stuff blowed-up good". It's a shame.

Regarding 1080 vs. 720 displays, a graph doesn't mean squat to me. If I go into a store and see two LCD panels of the same size side by side, one 1920x1080 and the other 1368x768, I can tell that one is finer than the other. I guess that means I'm a mutant freak, huh, because some graph on the Internet says I shouldn't be able to tell the difference...

 

[ptech]

Where is the current E* bit rate chart.?

This should just read, Where is E? It has been real quiet for a month or so now.

Of course there is true HD content out there but there is A LOT of upconverted crap being passed as "HD" by the programmers.

This is true but there is a lot of crap that isn't upconverted also. The real scary thing is that enough people watch it to keep it around.

 

[Jim S.]

It's like the old Second City TV show routine with the hillbillies reviewing movies: "Hoo-Eee; dat blowed up good!" When I see an explosion on HDNet or HDNet Movies now, it doesn't "blowed-up good", it turns into a pixellated mess. Before Dish trimmed the bitrate on these channels, "stuff blowed-up good". It's a shame.

It doesn't even need to be a high-motion scene anymore. The last time I watched a rerun of Get Out, Lindsay and friends looked like they had a skin infection. Ugh. And when they covered the last space shuttle launch, the sky was pixelated in still shots. I wish Mark Cuban would jump on Dish about what they've done to his channel!