Dish HD Channels and 4k liner Channels

[Scott Greczkowski]

When did Dish get the 10 transponders at 110 from DIRECTV? AFAIK DIRECTV 7S is still there and I still see 11 transponders on 119 when I run a signal test on my STB's.

RAD you might be correct. I was going from memory.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

So back to the question. Does Dish plan on getting rid of this SD channels. At this point at least 95% of their customers have HD channels. SD looks so bad, at least on Directv.

Where are you pulling your numbers from?

95% of the customers do not have HD, and those who do only have one or two of their TV's in HD the rest are still on old SD sets or are using old SD boxes.

As much as I would love to see SD go away, I think its still going to be a long long time.

 

[Madhatter01]

Where are you pulling your numbers from?

95% of the customers do not have HD, and those who do only have one or two of their TV's in HD the rest are still on old SD sets or are using old SD boxes.

As much as I would love to see SD go away, I think its still going to be a long long time.

Well at least 80% which is still the vast majority. Why cant they broadcast in HD only and down covert on the box to SD for older TV's.

https://www.benton.org/headlines/hdtv-sets-now-over-80-percent-us-households

 

[kwindrem]

I remember when it was stated over and over that no broadcasters, be they cable or satellite, will transmit 1080p programming. "There isn't enough bandwidth" was the reason. This, of course, followed the introduction of 1080p TVs...

The 1080p that's being used for movies is 1080p24Hz (film rate). It uses LESS bandwidth than 1080i. 1080p24 is almost always DISPLAYED at 72, 120, 240 Hz (or higher?) to avoid flicker. (Film in the theater is displayed at 72 (three exposures per film frame). Not sure what's being done with digital cinema.)

1080p TVs deinterlace 1080i for display and most are doing higher frame rates now.

 

[dare2be]

Imagine how much more bandwidth could be saved if all content was compressed with HEVC (H.265)

 

[bobvick]

Well at least 80% which is still the vast majority. Why cant they broadcast in HD only and down covert on the box to SD for older TV's.

https://www.benton.org/headlines/hdtv-sets-now-over-80-percent-us-households

Just because someone has a HD set, doesn't necessarily mean they have HD service. I do agree that they should stop issuing MPEG2 only equipment (311,322,625, etc) and make the Wally/211 the base receiver and 622/722 series the base DVR so they can eventually convert WA to all MPEG4.

 

[kwindrem]

Where are you pulling your numbers from?

95% of the customers do not have HD, and those who do only have one or two of their TV's in HD the rest are still on old SD sets or are using old SD boxes.

As much as I would love to see SD go away, I think its still going to be a long long time.

I would have to agree. TV networks and local broadcasters are still framing shots and placing graphics for a 4:3 aspect ratio which is overscanned on analog TVs. The only justification can be that there are many, many SD TVs in use still. While it's true you can display a 16:9 image on a 4:3 TV, most people hate the black bars top and bottom.

 

[JM42]

Well at least 80% which is still the vast majority. Why cant they broadcast in HD only and down covert on the box to SD for older TV's.

https://www.benton.org/headlines/hdtv-sets-now-over-80-percent-us-households

80% have at least one HD TV, many of those still have an SD set or two around.

As for down converting, doing so would require changing out the WA SD receivers. Dish just went through the 8PSK conversion on WA, they are likely to wait and let more of the SD receivers slip away through attrition and paid(or contract extending) upgrades before going through another conversion.

From Dish's standpoint, if they felt there was any scenario where additional HD would bring meaningful gains in subscribers, they would make it happen. For now, they don't think the return is there. Bandwidth is a finite resource, once they add a channel(or an HD version of a channel), it's hard to undo that decision if a better use of the bandwidth comes along.

 

[Bobby]

I would have to agree. TV networks and local broadcasters are still framing shots and placing graphics for a 4:3 aspect ratio which is overscanned on analog TVs. The only justification can be that there are many, many SD TVs in use still. While it's true you can display a 16:9 image on a 4:3 TV, most people hate the black bars top and bottom.

Then they oughta go invest in a new TV. They've been showing letterbox on SDTVs in Europe for a decade...

 

[Madhatter01]

80% have at least one HD TV, many of those still have an SD set or two around.

As for down converting, doing so would require changing out the WA SD receivers. Dish just went through the 8PSK conversion on WA, they are likely to wait and let more of the SD receivers slip away through attrition and paid(or contract extending) upgrades before going through another conversion.

From Dish's standpoint, if they felt there was any scenario where additional HD would bring meaningful gains in subscribers, they would make it happen. For now, they don't think the return is there. Bandwidth is a finite resource, once they add a channel(or an HD version of a channel), it's hard to undo that decision if a better use of the bandwidth comes along.

The thing stopping me from moving to Dish from Directv is less HD channels or at least the channels I watch are not HD with Dish like they are with Directv. I hate watching SD shows on a 65 4k tv, let alone on 1080p tv, they look so bad.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Imagine how much more bandwidth could be saved if all content was compressed with HEVC (H.265)

Which is a reason why I think DISH is making it easy for people to upgrade to a Hopper 3 system.

 

[JM42]

The thing stopping me from moving to Dish from Directv is less HD channels or at least the channels I watch are not HD with Dish like they are with Directv. I hate watching SD shows on a 65 4k tv, let alone on 1080p tv, they look so bad.

Then stay with DirecTV. I don't mean it in a rude way, but the choice really is that simple if those HD channels are what matters to you.

Even if Dish announced 100% HD & adoption of every linear 4K channel over the next six months, I'd never make a decision based on anything other than what is available and real today.

 

[rvvaquero]

The thing stopping me from moving to Dish from Directv is less HD channels or at least the channels I watch are not HD with Dish like they are with Directv. I hate watching SD shows on a 65 4k tv, let alone on 1080p tv, they look so bad.

Seems to me like you answered your own question. It doesn't make any difference what DISH plans if you can't get the channels you want right here and right now in HD.

 

[Scherrman]

Then they oughta go invest in a new TV. They've been showing letterbox on SDTVs in Europe for a decade...

Wait. People are complaining about how expensive watching TV is now so the answer is to spend more money on more TVs in the house?

 

[Bobby]

Wait. People are complaining about how expensive watching TV is now so the answer is to spend more money on more TVs in the house?

Not more, different. The post was in regard to folks with 4:3 screens being uptight about black bars top and bottom. My thought about Europe 10 years ago was about the fact that the European broadcasters didn't care about what the viewers thought and, guess what, the viewers didn't care either.

 

[Tampa8]

The thing stopping me from moving to Dish from Directv is less HD channels or at least the channels I watch are not HD with Dish like they are with Directv. I hate watching SD shows on a 65 4k tv, let alone on 1080p tv, they look so bad.

Just get something besides DISH. You have repeated the above a few times so it is important to you. There is no known plan for any wholesale changeover from SD to HD for the remaining SD channels. If you feel DISH is that far behind you won't be happy with it.

 

[DishSubLA]

If they wanted to... and they don't want to.

Which makes me think Charlie is still considering NOT having RSN's at all if the price is too high. He has said he seriously considered it at one point, and he also claims that the number of viewers for RSN's is small and not near the high number of viewers for games on the 4 big broadcaster, ESPN, TNT, etc.: the really big games, playoffs, etc. I know Dish must have a plan for the new capacity (perhaps including back-up for current capacity), but none of us have even an idea of what that plan.

 

[DishSubLA]

Well at least 80% which is still the vast majority. Why cant they broadcast in HD only and down covert on the box to SD for older TV's.

https://www.benton.org/headlines/hdtv-sets-now-over-80-percent-us-households

Yes, most people today have HD capable TV's, but MOST of those HDTV's they own DO NOT have ANY HD services connected to them. You would be surprised how many people just are NOT enthused about HD and are NOT interested in it. I know quite a few like this. They do have HDTV's but are NOT interested in HD content.

 

[DishSubLA]

The thing stopping me from moving to Dish from Directv is less HD channels or at least the channels I watch are not HD with Dish like they are with Directv. I hate watching SD shows on a 65 4k tv, let alone on 1080p tv, they look so bad.

Most often, the HD version of the show is available via the On Demand feature. For example, while XD is currently not HD, and that does irk me, it has actually turned out to be not as big a deal because I can either download the XD show from the Dish On Demand in HD with full trick play and NO COMMERCIALS, or I can watch it using the XD app on Roku, in HD using my Dish credentials to access it OR just wait a week or so (the turn-around for SW Rebels this season has been merely a little over a week) for that new episode to be aired on the Disney Channel in HD, which is what I do now. Disney Channel has "XD on Disney" quite often

While I would LOVE XD to be in HD on Dish because I think it a good channel with value for it to be in HD, the fact XD is not in HD today is FAR from a deal breaker. The Genie vs. the Hopper 3 IS a deal breaker, meaning I still prefer Dish over the very fine DirecTV service.

 

[DishSubLA]

Yup remember the SuperDISH?

What a flop that was.

That was supposed to be a "band-aid" not a solution.