Here is a summary I wrote some weeks back of the HD channels:
- HDNET which has movies, music, original TV shows. Recently I recorded "Alison Krauss and Union Station - Live" which is an HD live concert that otherwise you can buy in DVD for $20 - but the DVD is not HD ! On June 8th, they will show the Space Shuttle Launch in HD - they show all of them.
- HDNET Movies which has HD Movies (of course) - if you don't have an HD DVD player, these channels are the only way you can see movies in better-than-DVD quality
- HD-News is a 24-hour news channel without the tabloid crap that is on Headline News these days. And, of course, it is 16x9 HD all the time.
- RaveHD is an HD music channel with concerts and music programs.
- RushHD is an Xtreme Sports channel (surfing,snowboarding,etc) in HD
- KungFuHD is Bruce Lee, Jet Li, Jackie Chan, etc. movies in HD - far, far better quality than the fuzzy blurs they are usually shown in.
- MonstersHD is the same thing for horror movies.
- UltraHD is 24 hour fashion TV channel in HD
- WorldSportHD has team sports, like soccer from Spain.
- Discovery HD Theater has the best programming from the various Discovery channels, in HD 24 hours a day, plus some unique programming like Sunrise Earth (which is an hour program photographed at sunrise in some pristine wilderness location, with no narration, no music, and no commercials, just the HD picture and 6 channel surround sound of the wild place at sunrise)
- National Geographic HD, TNT HD and A&E HD have HD programming part of the time, the same shows as on their regular channels
- FoodTV HD and HGTV HD have 24 hour HD content, which at this point is a small subset of the shows on their regular channels (no Emeril yet).
- ESPN-HD and ESPN2-HD and NFL-TV-HD are included.
Even without DishHD, you can still buy HD PPV movies on the HD-PPV channel (clever name, eh?). If you have a good size HD TV, Casino Royale is almost like being in a movie theater (but here you can pause to go to the bathroom!)
You can get more details about the HD programming in the Forum at:
http://www.satelliteguys.us/forumdisplay.php?f=133
PS History Channel HD is coming in the fall, and also The Weather Channel HD sometime in fall or winter. I don't know of any new sports HD channels that are planned - because all of the major sporting events are already on channels that are already in HD: ABC, CBS, ABC, FOX, ESPN, ESPN-2 and TNT. Versus has an HD channel - it's not yet on Dish, but Dish does show the NHL events from Versus-HD and if your regular package includes Versus, then you can watch the NHL-HD events. As mentioned above, WorldSportHD shows team sports from other countries, and RushHD shows individual outdoor (extreme) sports. Universal HD is a channel with HD content from USA Network, SciFi Channel and a few others owned by Universal - I am not sure whether they show the same tennis events normally found on USA. Since Sports is the biggest attraction for HD, most USA sports are already available in HD. Oh, and Dish has an NBA-HD channel but I am not sure what you have to have subscribed to, in order to get that channel - probably the NBA League Pass channel or else the NBA-TV channel. Most of the NBA is on ESPN-HD and TNT-HD anyway...oh, and 9 areas of the countries get their regional sports network in HD (Fox Sports Net, etc.)...
