CES- A report from Scott's "Roadie"

[ScooterS]

I had a chance to attend CES and became one of Scott's "Roadies" for a day or so. Slogging his bags of equipment and joining him in a couple of interviews gave me a bit of perspective on Scott's interaction with Dish and others. I'd like to share some thoughts....
- I am truly AMAZED at how well known Scott and the site are. For a guy who started a BBS from little or nothing, to someone who is well known in a multi-bazillion dollar industry is quite an achievement.
- Folks from Dish commented that they were surprised at the passionate loyal following that the Board has and how many people are are really "Into" tracking the ongoing details of Dish and Satellite TV (my words).
-If some of the Dish folks seem a bit uneasy around Scott. It is because they realize that he probably knows more about parts of their company than they do and he wants to know about things that they can't/won't talk about.
- I think that some of the "discomfort" that they may have with Scott and others, is that Dish is a for-profit business. Like any business, they want to announce their stuff, their way, on their time line. "Leaked" information is not in their best interest from a marketing or competitive advantage perspective. Some leaks can literally cost them millions in lost revenue or competitive advantage. I believe that Scott earned a lot of respect by not "leaking" details on the upgrade program.
- As much as we may want to complain about "HD-LITE" and other issues, Scott, you, and I don't have the power to DEMAND that we get what we want any more than we can DEMAND that the car dealer give us free leather seats. We can ask and we can haggle, but we can't order them to do what we want. However, we do have the power to change providers if we aren't happy. Rest assured, Dish and others are listening to a lot of sources, particularly Scott, as they make THEIR business decisions. DEMANDING that Dish give us full rez HD will probably be received about as well as telling a Cop "I'll have your badge."
-Not withstanding the above comment, I truly believe through Scott's hard work, Satellite Guys has moved from an "annoyance" to a true "force to be reckoned with" for Dish. They are listening. Our challenge is to keep talking about our needs and desires in a constructive way. At the same time they know that we are "always watching."
-I truly believe that the HD upgrade program is a result of Scott's work and many of us letting Dish know that we weren't happy.
.........for what it's worth

 

[CPanther95]

I don't think anyone really expected Scott to DEMAND anything.

 

[waltinvt]

Thanks Scooters for a great insight into things that we probably wouldn't have gotten anywhere else.

 

[John Kotches]

Yes, talking clearly and rationally is a much more effective tactic.

Acting like a rabid, insane fool is unproductive and ultimately destroys any credibility one has built.

Best,

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Thanks Scooters.

I really didnt ask him to carry my bags he just grabbed them out of my hands. I kind of felt like a rock star or something.

Dish needs to learn to work with us better and I think they understand this now, especially since we are quickly approaching 40,000 registered members.

I have two favorite moments from CES were

1) Being on the floor of the Dish booth with Charlie and having people come up and interupt us to say hi to ME! (Without ever saying a word to Charlie) after a few times this happened Charlie mumbled something like "What am I chopped liver"

2) Going to the Sound and Vision party and talking with Mark Cuban and finding out SatelliteGuys is one of his daily stops.

This was the first time I felt like I have truely done something, it was a proud time for me.

 

[DVDDAD]

Scooters,

I appreciate you taking the time to write your post and share your insider perspective on things. Scott, I'm sorry some felt you betrayed them. Those unappreciative bastards! You didn't betray anyone. You were betrayed by them! Gary never should have taken your pub info and plastered it over on AVS. Even though he didn't reveal the source, it was wrong and as much as Gary has done to help with the HD-Lite issue he took a risk of hurting Scott's relationship with Dishnetwork, which in turn would hurt all of us. Keep up the great work Scott!

 

[Foxbat]

- As much as we may want to complain about "HD-LITE" and other issues, Scott, you, and I don't have the power to DEMAND that we get what we want any more than we can DEMAND that the car dealer give us free leather seats. We can ask and we can haggle, but we can't order them to do what we want. However, we do have the power to change providers if we aren't happy. Rest assured, Dish and others are listening to a lot of sources, particularly Scott, as they make THEIR business decisions. DEMANDING that Dish give us full rez HD will probably be received about as well as telling a Cop "I'll have your badge."

Yes, but at least Leather is an option. We have no such option. Changing providers solves nothing as DirecTV's HD offerings are worse off than Dish. Mark Cuban keeps Echostar from diluting the HDNet signals, but he doesn't seem to have any friends over at DirecTV.

Scooters, if you play your cards right, maybe next time you can have your own Roadies schlepping the bags to help out Scott...

 

[ScooterS]

Speaking of Leather.... Did Scott metion that the Adult Video Convention shared the Sands Convention Center with CES (one of the smaller sites)?.... It made for some interesting people-watching in the hall over lunch! :shocked bow

 

[Foxbat]

Ah, memories of CES past... Somewhere in the piles of stuff in the basement are the color glossies for all the "Cuming Attractions" I picked up at Chicago CES back in the 80s. If it weren't for the Adult Entertainment business, a lot of CES innovations wouldn't have been successful...

 

[Purogamer]

Um, rock stars don't have spongebob christmas decorations in their yard...

...i'm just saying...ya know...

You guys don't think the guys from the other sites have the same, if not more, clout than scott? Did you guys see those guys hanging with charlie or were they hanging out at that lame-o party the whole time?

 

[Stacy A]

Anyone know where CES is next year? I'm making reservations to go for sure this time. I'm not about to miss some of this again.

 

[LER]

It's ALWAYS in Vegas.

 

[Stacy A]

I thought so, but a post above referenced CES Chicago. But... that's good to know because the wife LOVES Vegas. Just the thought of going back turns her on. So, I want to make reservations for next year as early as possible.

 

[LER]

I think it used to move around, but that changed a couple(few?) years ago.

 

[ScooterS]

Purogamer:
I don't think it is an "us vs. them" thing. I would simply say that Scott and the Satellite Guys are well known in the industry.

I/we didn't spend the entire time at the Dish booth, so I can't speak to others who may have visited there.

I wasn't invited to any parties (hint-hint) so I really can't comment on what happened there. Maybe I will be invited to some VIP events and can give you more insight in the coming years (hint-hint-hint).

Actually, I was there Thursday and Friday morning. I had to fly out Friday afternoon, so I missed a lot of the fun and games.

Also, I think we have lost sight of the fundamental problem. No one should think for a minute that Dish and other providers don't WANT to give us all Full Rez HD and a zillion HD channels.

I believe that it is a problem of squeezing 20 pounds of programming into a 15 pound pipe. At this point we can either have the best possible resolution or we can have more channels. If dish makes the pipe bigger, it will cost them/us a lot more. Will we (all customers) be willing to pay for it?

If they increase the price due to bandwidth cost, will they get flamed by the 98% of the folks who don't understand/care about/need/want Full Rez HD? Will they loose customers to competition?

If they don't expand the pipe, will they do better to offer more channels or higher resolution. They are attempting to strike a balance between the two.

Remember, as large as we are, we still are the "techie geeks" who know the difference in the resolutions (and we still argue among ourselves about that). The vast majority (98%) just want to see there favorite channel and will be amazed at anything better than fuzzy compressed SD programming (except for the guys who want the same thing on a big-ass TV)!

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Yeah there really wasnt an "Us vs them" thing there at all, in fact I sent a good amount of time with Al Noland and Richard King.

It all boils down to a coke and pepsi thing. Some people like Coke others like Pepsi, some like them both and others don't like any of them at all.

I was just reading over there a few moments ago and they were saying the down rezing is because that's what VOOM is sending them, while VOOM is saying its Dish's doing.

Now that I have been away from Vegas for a few days I have time to reflect, my mind was thinking of why they were down rezing, and that is still an issue, however now I am wondering why they are putting all the spin on why they are down rezing. It would actually be nice to get a straight answer.

Another question I have in my mind is who is actually telling the truth? I talked to everyone at Dish and VOOM that I could, and there was a lot of finger pointing. Why play the games.

I must say no matter what though, I enjoyed talking to EVERYONE that I met, I found out some good stuff and I dug for news, I didnt just report what was in the press releaes, instead I found the real news and reported it to you, my only regret was what I found was not good news.

 

[TheForce]

"Another question I have in my mind is who is actually telling the truth? I talked to everyone at Dish and VOOM that I could, and there was a lot of finger pointing. Why play the games."

Scott- I suppose I should say- wake me up when the downresing is known to be less than 1280 pixels horizontal.

Is there anyway for you to get an answer from the people that would know at E*? I could ask as well and you know the man I would be asking. But he and I both recognize the answer is not as simple as "downres with a dial" There are many influencing factors that generate a dumbing down of the HDTV maximum resolution allowed. Some of those are done right in your own equipment! This is why I have not bothered to discuss the subject with the engineers I know at E*. Maybe I'm naive but I like to believe I can trust them to do whats right and that would be to limit the horizontal resolution to a minimum of 1280 pixels or not claim it is HDTV. I'm not technically foolish enough to demand all 1080i signals maintain 1920 pixels as I know that is silly. I just don't want to see it be less than 1280. I do know that some time back DirecTV was experimenting with 800 pixels on the horizontal with the logic that most people were not using monitors that could see anything higher anyway. I think they discovered they were wrong but are they still doing it? I know Showtime HD is so at least one channel does limit the resolution on some programming. These would be upconverts and they are not claimed to be HDTV anyway. The good news is there is less and less SD to quasi HD upconversion of movies each year.

 

[Purogamer]

I think I can sum up CES and E*'s presence...

Scott Greczkowski ruined our lives...

Thank you, drive through...

 

[ScooterS]

Purogamer: I am confused by your last.

Are you saying Scott ruined Echostar's life or Scott ruined the Customer's lives.

Scott sure didn't ruin my life!

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

To be fair I am just just reporting what I hear, the good things and bad things.

If I decided to hold something back because I thought you guys would get upset I would be doing a disservice to all of the SatelliteGuys.

I guess to steal a line from Fox News, I report you decide.