EchoStar: No 'Backseat' to DIRECTV On HDTV

[Eric_C]

I switched to Dish simply because of the 622 and the HD availability.

Voom channels are OK but World and the other Voom movie channels are worth it. I just wish they flipped the variety around a bit more but still for the one or two times a month I have to search the guide I record about 3-4 good movies on the DVR in HD which makes it worth it for me.

I am extremely happy with Dish overall. For what I pay I truly believe I am getting a great deal for the content and overall quality of the equipment. The 622 is a product done right, not something often seen these days.

Hopefully Dish won't do the corporate thing...the person who was responsible for most of the 622's setup will want more money, they'll let him go and hire it out to someone else and we'll end up with crap.

FIOS is a superior technology in almost everyway but until they have a decent DVR they will remain behind the game for the informed consumer. That Motorola POS is not even going to make me look twice....now if they replace it with something better that may change.

 

[technikal]

We can help Mr Ergen count the 622; making a poll; I'm confident if all our E* users will participate ( ~30,000 ) we will have good representative selection for deduct total number the HDDVRs by extrapolation to 16,000,000 accounts.

I'm pretty sure the CEO knows how many 622's he's sold. If not, they have some pretty big issues.

For the DirecTV ads - I was on a flight yesterday and was reading the airline's magazine. There was a DirecTV ad speaking to how much superior their HD content was - showing 'Cable' with a big blocky picture and D* with a nice, sharp picture. Down in the fine print, they made a statement to the effect that the comparison was SD Cable to HD D*, and did not hold true for HD -> HD comparisions. I understand that marketing is all about presenting your product in the best light, but that's a bit much imo.

 

[Stargazer]

So basically HD is still not mature enough yet to make it worthwhile to get the HD content, that there is a lack thereof.

 

[Stargazer]

Is there any way of looking at the serial/receiver numbers of the 622's to see how many have been sold? Look at the earlier ones and the later ones? Or do they not keep them in order of the model number?

 

[mike123abc]

Dish probably has close to 1.5 million HD subs... He kind of gave away the number by saying it is high single digits or low 2 digit %.

 

[Digital Dude]

If Dish isn't taking a backseat then why did I have to go over to a friends house with DirecTV HD last Monday to watch my Sharks on Versus HD?

 

[Fredinva]

CV:

Sounds to me like any content added this year will be more of a reactionary move from changes made by D*, or other providers, rather than some preemptive strikes of their own....

FoodHD was preemptive
as was,
NGHD
A&EHD
oh yeah, so was the entire Voom deal.

but I don't want to see exclusivity on Directs MLB EI

fred

 

[cosmo_kramer]

Fred,

You are 100% correct about those channels, but I was referring to Vogel's use of the word "can" in that quote referring to their plans for '07. Sounds like a wait-and-see attitude to me....

 

[John Kotches]

Keep in mind that with the recent improvements in MPEG-4 encoders that they would quite potentially be able to add a fair number of stations by forcing anyone who wants HD into an MPEG-4 capable receiver.

I'm not saying that would be the solution logistically; but it is a potential solution to the problem.

Cheers,

 

[nlk10010]

I switched to Dish simply because of the 622 and the HD availability.

Voom channels are OK but World and the other Voom movie channels are worth it. I just wish they flipped the variety around a bit more but still for the one or two times a month I have to search the guide I record about 3-4 good movies on the DVR in HD which makes it worth it for me.

I am extremely happy with Dish overall. For what I pay I truly believe I am getting a great deal for the content and overall quality of the equipment. The 622 is a product done right, not something often seen these days.

Hopefully Dish won't do the corporate thing...the person who was responsible for most of the 622's setup will want more money, they'll let him go and hire it out to someone else and we'll end up with crap.

FIOS is a superior technology in almost everyway but until they have a decent DVR they will remain behind the game for the informed consumer. That Motorola POS is not even going to make me look twice....now if they replace it with something better that may change.

I couldn't agree with you more.

You know, it really speaks to marketing and the general intellect level of the public how D* has been able to keep people believing it has a uniformly superior product. DirecTV keeps advertising how it is GOING TO HAVE all this HD CAPACITY, how it is GOING TO BE the leader in HD, etc. In the meantime, all E* has done is add NGCHD, FoodHD, HGTVHD, NFLHD, A&EHD and STARZHD. Granted, these don't have the best HD content but Charlie really has no control over that. In the meantime D* is GOING to do this and WILL HAVE THE CAPACITY to do that. I understand that there are some channels they have that Dish doesn't (e.g. NFL ST, some RSN HDs, Setanta) and if you prefer those, fine. But for people to excoriate E* because it adds channels that don't have HD all the time and to praise D* because they're GOING to have all that HD capacity is really remarkable (and laughable).

=NLK=