Dumping Non HD Channels?

so I guess any channel out there that is carried in HD but Dish doesnt carry should be dropped then (using your theory)? I'm sure there would be folks mad about losing Disney or ESPNU as example

Also...there are probably more SD receivers out there than HD

In addition, many HD channels are not spot beamed to Hawaii (and I'm guessing Alaska and Puerto Rico).

For example, the free EPIX preview this month gives us a message saying, HD is not available, switching to SD alternative. And since EPIX3 is HD only, we don't get that one at all.

If I recall, the EPIX channels were available in HD in the 5000 range with BB@Home. But this range has not been lit up for the free preview.

Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys
 
Then we have channels like ESPN who doesn't even use true SD anymore. They down convert the HD into a letterbox screen.

correct. ESPN last year (if I remember right) dropped the SD "master" version on all 4 of their channels and only has the HD version
Sadly though on ESPNU alot of basketball games are not broadcast in HD...but rather 16:9 480i
 
Dish is not going to drop SD because I would bet most of those customers have been on the same equipment, trouble free for years. For most companies that is the dream to have checks roll in every month with no maintenance costs. Just think of the crisis for the older folks who would be forced into some new complicated box and HDTV. My parents have a 32" Samsung HDTV yet they watch the SD channels on the local cable system. They will likely never upgrade to a digital box unless it is forced on them. I'm sure there are a few million Dish customers who are just like them, comfortable where they are and resistant to change.
 
Dish is not going to drop SD because I would bet most of those customers have been on the same equipment, trouble free for years. For most companies that is the dream to have checks roll in every month with no maintenance costs. Just think of the crisis for the older folks who would be forced into some new complicated box and HDTV. My parents have a 32" Samsung HDTV yet they watch the SD channels on the local cable system. They will likely never upgrade to a digital box unless it is forced on them. I'm sure there are a few million Dish customers who are just like them, comfortable where they are and resistant to change.

Let's not forget we SD customers who wanted HD equipment and were told it would be a massive extra charge because we didn't have good or established enough credit. That happened to me a little over two years ago as a new customer. I'll bet it's still happening to new customers now. We wind up being stuck paying the same monthly amount as the free HD for life crowd for non-HD service, even though we wanted the HD service. It's like a "being poor" fee (Not to mention that we have to pay for SD installation, to add insult to injury, whereas the good credit HD folks get it free!).

Anyhow, the "corporations are always right and poor people should be stomped on" crowd will undoubtedly start arguing with me about this again, but it's not really the point of the post, which is actually that Dish is STILL forcing many new installs into having SD equipment (Unless they've changed their policies in the last two years). They'll never be able to free up that bandwidth and transmit channels available in HD as HD-only if they not only don't replace old SD receivers automatically, but actually set up new SD installs, including for people who have a preference for HD. I mean, it's one of those penny smart and dollar dumb things- Dish saves money on equipment installs in the short term, but is stuck with a long-term issue of having to maintain both HD and SD versions of most channels. And now if they want to go all HD, they'll have *a ton* of people they have to upgrade gratis or lose as loyal long-term paying customers. If they had simply started making all new installs HD years ago, the number of SD installs would have shrunk and be continuing to shrink through attrition to the point where they could eventually just switch to all HD (Except for the channels that only broadcast in SD or that they only have SD rights for) and swap out the very limited number of old SD setups they'd have been left with under that scenario.

By continuing to force some new customers into SD setups (Well, force in the sense that it's the only way for them to get Dish without a big fee), they are ensuring that they will never be able to switch to an all-HD setup without having to incur massive costs to simultaneously upgrade all their SD customers' equipment gratis or take a massive revenue hit the month after they make the switch because they will lose all those SD customers. People who got forced into paying for SD install when they wanted the HD that was advertised are not going to opt for a new 24 month commitment and/or paying a fee if Dish says "It's all HD now", they'll say "Give me the HD equipment and free HD for life you original advertised with no new commitment, or I'm out". At this point, with me, it'd be a point of pride that I'd never pay Dish a dime to upgrade me to HD equipment. They should have installed it in the first place IMO. And I wouldn't accept a 24 month commitment with a company that keeps dropping sports channels without a guarantee that all the channels I love will be there all 24 months (I only made the first commitment because cable was too much at that time and I needed the cost savings of the first year promo deal- and I wouldn't get cost savings from a second commitment unless I left Dish for a while first.).
 
Let's not forget we SD customers who wanted HD equipment and were told it would be a massive extra charge because we didn't have good or established enough credit. That happened to me a little over two years ago as a new customer. I'll bet it's still happening to new customers now. We wind up being stuck paying the same monthly amount as the free HD for life crowd for non-HD service, even though we wanted the HD service. It's like a "being poor" fee (Not to mention that we have to pay for SD installation, to add insult to injury, whereas the good credit HD folks get it free!).
Dish is umm... dishing out free equipment! That means they are taking a risk in giving it to a customer who hasn't paid them a dime yet. Based on one's credit, they choose to dole out equipment and what not they feel comfortable with being able to see that money back. This isn't some sort of conspiracy, rather it is an unfortunate reality of life.

Anyhow, the "corporations are always right and poor people should be stomped on" crowd will undoubtedly start arguing with me about this again, but it's not really the point of the post...
You shouldn't have started your post off with the tirade then.
...which is actually that Dish is STILL forcing many new installs into having SD equipment (Unless they've changed their policies in the last two years). They'll never be able to free up that bandwidth and transmit channels available in HD as HD-only if they not only don't replace old SD receivers automatically, but actually set up new SD installs, including for people who have a preference for HD.
And perhaps this is another reason why they don't get rid of SD. Additionally, there are probably a bunch of people that don't have HD televisions in every room and would hate having the letterbox screens!

By continuing to force some new customers into SD setups (Well, force in the sense that it's the only way for them to get Dish without a big fee), they are ensuring that they will never be able to switch to an all-HD setup without having to incur massive costs to simultaneously upgrade all their SD customers' equipment gratis or take a massive revenue hit the month after they make the switch because they will lose all those SD customers.
Of course, there is no data being offered here to show percentage of installs that are SD only by choice, by "force", or otherwise (I know I barely could get an HD signal at my home, the Dish installer had to bring a bloodhound to find a spot that'd get through the trees. I was so grateful to the bloodhound.)
Dish is not going to drop SD because I would bet most of those customers have been on the same equipment, trouble free for years. For most companies that is the dream to have checks roll in every month with no maintenance costs. Just think of the crisis for the older folks who would be forced into some new complicated box and HDTV. My parents have a 32" Samsung HDTV yet they watch the SD channels on the local cable system. They will likely never upgrade to a digital box unless it is forced on them. I'm sure there are a few million Dish customers who are just like them, comfortable where they are and resistant to change.
I had a co-worker whose father-in-law had an HD screen and HD service, but still watched the SD channels despite repeated attempts to have him use the visually superior stations.
 
Also, Dish is still sending out SD receivers to customers. Dish has to quit issuing SD equipment before the changeover can start.
 
SD still has its uses. My daughter's programming which consists of mostly cartoons isn't worth storing in HD on the DVR, saves space on the DVR in SD, and having it in HD doesn't really add any visual enhancements.
 
Ya'll act like nobody has SD TVs anymore. And want to make Dish replace all SD recievers with HD. That's kinda like buying new socks everytime you need to do laundry. It be awfully expensive to replace all your perfectly good socks just cuz they are dirty.
 
And perhaps this is another reason why they don't get rid of SD. Additionally, there are probably a bunch of people that don't have HD televisions in every room and would hate having the letterbox screens!

I think there is a zoom mode to fix that issue.
 
Dish is umm... dishing out free equipment! That means they are taking a risk in giving it to a customer who hasn't paid them a dime yet. Based on one's credit, they choose to dole out equipment and what not they feel comfortable with being able to see that money back. This isn't some sort of conspiracy, rather it is an unfortunate reality of life.

In a perfect world, I'd love there to be a law that these companies have to make the same offer to everyone. They'd probably meet somewhere in the middle of what they offer their "best" and "worst customers". It'd be something like $99 install for everyone, but everyone gets HD equipment and free HD for life for that price. Short of that, at least make them advertise their "minimum" offer in the big letters in their advertisements (i.e. the pay $99 for install, no HD unless you pay a couple hundred extra, etc..) and put their offer for their favored few in the small print that no one reads. ;) Seems like bait and switch in spirit, even though it's technically not, when you advertise a big deal upfront and the fine print rules people out once they actually get on the phone.

But, let's say, for the sake of discussion, that Dish and companies like it are going to be continued to be allowed to do exactly what they do now in terms of price discrimination and advertising practices. At the very minimum, shouldn't folks like me get $5-$10 off a month for not having HD? After the initial costs are covered or not covered based on credit, it seems odd that going forward folks like me pay the exact same monthly programming rate for SD as others pay for HD. At least with cable, if you don't get the HD, you save a few bucks. I feel like I'm actually subsidizing the better off here.

You shouldn't have started your post off with the tirade then.

True. Probably a character flaw on my part. Things kind of irritate me and I ramble about them.

(I know I barely could get an HD signal at my home, the Dish installer had to bring a bloodhound to find a spot that'd get through the trees. I was so grateful to the bloodhound.)

A bloodhound being special equipment to find a satellite signal? I have this mental picture of an actual dog sniffing around and pointing it's snout in the right direction through the trees, but I'm sure that's not the way it works. ;) That'd be a neat trick if it did, though!

I had a co-worker whose father-in-law had an HD screen and HD service, but still watched the SD channels despite repeated attempts to have him use the visually superior stations.

My parents are kind of like that. I think once you get passed a certain age, you just kind of get into your routine and don't really process what people are talking about or think it matters when they talk about SD versus HD or distinctions between different computers or phones or whatever. There's a crowd that's kind of like "What? I can watch the game on my television. There's no snow or visual artifacts. It's on my giant (relative to the average size of old SD sets) HD television. It's HD, right?". You can flip the channel for them and they can't tell the difference. In a way, those folks are probably happier- less likely to want things that cost them more money or that they can't afford. I kind of wish I could learn to be more content with what I have in general, honestly, though I do value the ability to tell the difference between SD and HD in particular. ;)

Also, Dish is still sending out SD receivers to customers. Dish has to quit issuing SD equipment before the changeover can start.

Exactly. :)

Ya'll act like nobody has SD TVs anymore.

People do have them, but they're legacy devices. A year or two back, my store-brand 32 inch HD television broke. I thought, well, I don't have HD television service (inputs are SD Dish and a DVD player) and I'm short on money, maybe I can get a really cheap SD replacement. As best as I can determine, no one manufactures or sells SD televisions anymore. Anyone buying a new TV after a certain point (I'm going to ball park 2010) has an HD TV, even if they don't have a source of HD programming. Fortunately, prices are dropping on the low end- a relative needed a new TV this fall and stood in line for $100 32 inch HD TV on Thanksgiving night (Well, he got there and they had handed out all the tickets for them, so he left, but he almost got one anyway), $200-$250 is something you can pull off simply by looking around for a good price most of the time if you don't mind 720p and a store or low-end brand.

So, wrapping around to the point, right now the folks using SD televisions are people who bought their televisions at some point prior to a few years ago (And even then most new television purchases were probably HD), waiting for them to break. Every new or replacement TV from a certain point forward is HD. Give it another, what? 5-10 years? And 95% or more of households will have HD TVs, simply by attrition. If Dish had been smart, they'd have stopped selling or repairing equipment that couldn't at least support HD capabilities a few years back when HD TVs stopped being manufactured. That way, non-HD compable dishes and receivers would gradually fade away as non-HD televisions fade away. Then, you'd hit a point where pentration was enough that you could just switch over to HD and only have to replace a few people's equipment, and only lose a few SD die hards who somehow have a 10-20 year old TV still operating that they won't replace.

The way Dish is doing it now, they're going to never be able to move to all-HD without either taking the major financial hit of replacing all the SD receivers in use that they keep handing out, or take the major financial hit of losing all those subs.
 
I would rather Dish focus on getting the HD feed of all SD channels they have. My daughter watches tons of Disney, TeenNick, Nick Jr. etc. and it all looks terrible. If they offer the channel in HD we should be getting it in HD.

However, not every channel that broadcasts in SD is availaible in HD. An example of this would be Chiller TV which is on Ch. 199.
 
The channel provider's currently require the carriage of both. In some cases like Disney they want to charge for both copies, and to get the HD version you have to have the SD version.

Maybe they will eventually want an extra charge for different audio formats too!
 
EA is all MPEG-4 HD equipment. If Dish could free up satellite space by dumping the SD version of channels they would have done it, after all for the non HD customers the HD equipment could just be locked to output in SD. On WA it would require replacement of SD receivers, but not EA.

The programming providers insist on SD carriage and not receiver down converting. So, Dish has to do it, and has had to launch satellites to increase capacity.
 

3D VIDEO - Dish Hopper with Sling

Adding Hoppers/Joeys to existing home wiring

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Total: 0, Members: 0, Guests: 0)

Who Read This Thread (Total Members: 1)