Dish to start upgrading HD customers to MPEG4

[WiCkeDuDe]

You will have nothing to upgrade. You can ignore this thread and pretend it never happened because you will NOT be getting an mpeg 2 box for HD. They have only provided Mpeg4/mpeg2 boxes for HD for a couple years now.

+1
Relax, all the VIP receivers are MPEG4 and thats all that dish has been installing for HD installs since 2006.

The upgrade has nothing to do with you.

 

[Claude Greiner]

I think the problem Dish is running into is that customers with MPEG2 equipment do not know they can get additional channels and they are loosing customers to Directv because of this.

Might as well upgrade them and give them more channels before they switch to Directv.

Im sure there is not many customers left out there with mpeg2 equipment.

 

[dishcomm]

THe following was just posted to the Dish Network retailer website.

would I be correct in assuming that once the "eastern arc" birds are in place and ready for use , the cutsomers in the eastern third of the US will be getting repoints and thus create more work for the techs?..If so, good.
What do you think? Sorry if this appears off topic. If it is please move it to a new or more pertinent thread.
Thank you Scott.
Dishcomm

 

[mike123abc]

I think the problem Dish is running into is that customers with MPEG2 equipment do not know they can get additional channels and they are loosing customers to Directv because of this.

Might as well upgrade them and give them more channels before they switch to Directv.

Im sure there is not many customers left out there with mpeg2 equipment.

It would make sense if Dish were to upgrade the dish to point to 129 or 61.5 when they updated the box. But are they doing that for free too?

 

[RedSavina]

I posted this in another thread but here it again, I found out during a couple quick power outages that the 722 can be set to receive SD only. My power went out and while my 722 was rebooting the power went out again. when it finished rebooting the 2nd time there were no HD channels available on any list.I went to my menu and pulled up my local OTA HD channels and somewhere along the line it said I would have to call dish to upgrade to HD. when I went to system info it said I had a 722 SD instead of 722 HD. I rebooted a 3rd time and it went back to normal, so I guess they have the ability to change a HD box to SD box at any time, in fact if needed then can probaly send it out as sd and upgrade to hd if a customer wants an upgrade. anybody else seen this?

I remember the post you are referring to. My 211 was activated, then later de-activated. While de-activated it would still show a couple of channels and a partial EPG. During that time the info screen listed it as a VIP211-SD. Now that it is activated again, it is listed as a VIP211-HD.

I agree that it appears the boxes can be set up to be either HD or SD. If so, then a SD customer could use a VIP receiver for SD only - as long as E* doesn't stick them with that ridiculous fee!

 

[kb7oeb]

My 622 did that before activation, it doesn't restrict the resolution, it won't let you watch HD channels. I got an error saying I needed to activate HD to watch ota locals or when I tried to select an HD channel.

 

[hdtvtechno]

Directv should be taking notice and doing the same process..:up

 

[JimK2]

Assuming the success of this rollout, how many MPEG2 HD channels are there that can be converted MPEG4 afterward? Also, how many more MPEG4 HD channels will they have capacity for after this transition?

The 8 mpeg2 channels on 2 transponders will handle 12 mpeg4 channels with improved picture quality.

 

[davcole]

Interesting news however it's not suprising. I think eventually all cable providers will switch over to mpeg4 completely as it makes sense from a bandwith and picture quality standpoint.

For myself I welcome the upgrade for channels like ESPN and TNT as they seem to have the most problem with macroblocking.

 

[Derwin0]

hmm... makes me wonder if it's worth activating my mothballed 811. That way I can have it upgraded to a 211 in time for the DVR add on.

 

[drummerguy]

Probably not. This only affects existing MPEG2-HD customers with 6000, 811, 921, and 942 receivers.

Brad

Hmmm...that's interesting. I guess I read into this as them transitioning all MPEG 2 boxes to MPEG 4 for Eastern and Western Arc. But I guess that would be a much bigger task than transitioning the legacy HD boxes. So, I guess my question is, what happens to those MPEG 2-only SD boxes (like my 522) when they turn on Eastern and Western Arc, if all SD programming is going to MPEG 4 as well?

 

[TheForce]

I still have my owned 921 on my account even though I use the 622. Been lazy to have it removed. I think I'll just wait and see if they do something with that. I don't need a second receiver but would take one if it could be driven with a single coax RG6 from the Dish. Then I could install it in the Kitchen.

 

[navychop]

I wonder how they will handle the grand-fathered $10 mpeg-2 HD accounts? Mine's pre-paid for a year. They can have both my 811s but the 6000 I'll keep because of the VGA output works with any old computer monitor. (only used for OTA anyway.)

I would expect that for a period of time they will continue to provide the limited slate of HD channels that previously were MPEG-2. Just because a receiver CAN receive MPEG-4 HD, doesn't mean it WILL. Your subscription can still be limited to the same channels you get now, just like they limit AT200 vs AT250.

Then, of course, they'll drop the lower tier $10 HD plan.

Re' the 6000: You can get devices to convert various outputs to VGA.

 

[BlackHitachi]

Dish 600, 921 and 942 would be my guess.

Scott sorry to bother you. I would like to know what you think Dish will do for use who own our receivers. I don't see dish giving use one but maybe a credit for what we own?

 

[wonko]

Scott sorry to bother you. I would like to know what you think Dish will do for use who own our receivers. I don't see dish giving use one but maybe a credit for what we own?

Since the swap program has already started, why not call Dish and find out?

 

[nrholland]

I called E* about upgrading my 625 to an MPEG 4 receiver and they said they didn't know anything about free upgrades. They just told about their usual upgrade options.

 

[vegassatellite]

I called E* about upgrading my 625 to an MPEG 4 receiver and they said they didn't know anything about free upgrades. They just told about their usual upgrade options.

625 is not an HD receiver and not part of this upgrade.

 

[BlackHitachi]

Since the swap program has already started, why not call Dish and find out?

LMAO!!! I did and they new nothing about this??

 

[Jerryinvirginia]

I could have sworn that we had a thread on this yesterday but Ic anb't find it.

You're correct. It was posted 5-20 @6:48pm under Dish Network Tech Discussions, but not the entire message as shown on retailer web site.

 

[Edgar_in_Indy]

It seems like they could make some kind of converter box that would go inline somewhere between the dish and the receiver and convert the MPEG4 stream to MPEG2. Or would that just require too much processing power to do cost-effectively?