HDNet Movies joins the HD-Lite crowd??

[long_time_DNC]

I wrote to ceo@echostar.com a month or so ago, complaining about the 129 issue and told them I felt I deserved a discount for the every-20-minute-loss-of-signal and HD-Lite issues. Never received a reply or a call and I've been with them for 9+ years.

 

[Gary Murrell]

this is truely a sad day indeed, I saw the writing on the wall back in march and officially gave up on all HD from Dish, shaved 60$ from my bill and I don't miss it one bit, I miss quality not the sh*t that Dish is having us pay a premium for

HD-Lite is here to stay, Dish wants to cater to Joe-Six pack who thinks it all looks good anyway, even the so called videophiles over on the AVS rave and rant over Directv HD-Lite, and we expect any less from Dish ?

***talk users didn't care either and a few people here singled me out back when I started that huge mess, on average the satellite guys pleases me though with it's users views of HD

I am glad I got out of this mess many many months ago, I let Dish know to why my HD was 100% removed and they had nothing to say, if the oppurtunity presents itself I look to dump Dish all together, SD is going more and more downhill also, they are showing major compression artifacts way too much lately also

HD-DVD is where it is at folks, HDNet is going to release a vast library of titles of their exclusive content(like Bikini Destinations) on HD-DVD, check out their store, I have them already and they are 100% sweet untouched HD

I fill sorry for those that were still HD customers

Dish we would like to give you a big :down

-Gary

 

[Kirby Baker]

HD-DVD is where it is at folks, HDNet is going to release a vast library of titles of their exclusive content(like Bikini Destinations) on HD-DVD, check out their store, I have them already and they are 100% sweet untouched HD

A bit off topic to the thread, but what about us poor folk that have a HDTV with only component inputs? It was my understanding that HD DVD or Blu-ray were going to down rez over components, and make it look like crap!

 

[guffy1]

this is truely a sad day indeed, I saw the writing on the wall back in march and officially gave up on all HD from Dish, shaved 60$ from my bill and I don't miss it one bit, I miss quality not the sh*t that Dish is having us pay a premium for

HD-Lite is here to stay, Dish wants to cater to Joe-Six pack who thinks it all looks good anyway, even the so called videophiles over on the AVS rave and rant over Directv HD-Lite, and we expect any less from Dish ?

***talk users didn't care either and a few people here singled me out back when I started that huge mess, on average the satellite guys pleases me though with it's users views of HD

I am glad I got out of this mess many many months ago, I let Dish know to why my HD was 100% removed and they had nothing to say, if the oppurtunity presents itself I look to dump Dish all together, SD is going more and more downhill also, they are showing major compression artifacts way too much lately also

HD-DVD is where it is at folks, HDNet is going to release a vast library of titles of their exclusive content(like Bikini Destinations) on HD-DVD, check out their store, I have them already and they are 100% sweet untouched HD

I fill sorry for those that were still HD customers

Dish we would like to give you a big :down

-Gary

Gary, I fully appreciate your passion regarding this HD Lite thing, but cmon, HD DVD is the answer?

What, they have about 50 titles, and 75% of those are total crap titles...Plus they have a few HD Net releases?

This is no viable answer for my $3000 HDTV that I bought specifically for sports..Does HD DVD have any live sports they are doing?

Dont get me wrong here, I own an HD DVD player, and I absolutely love the thing...

DISH is the still answer for me though, even though they are bending me over in a huge way regarding this HD Lite nonsense..

No FIOS here Gary, and Charter Cable in my area has like 7 HD channels..So DISH is most definately the answer for my MLB, NBA, and NFL needs, no question about it..

I really dont see how HD DVD could be a viable alternative for anyone, let alone the tens of thousands (at least) that have bought HDTV's specifically because of sports..

If a person is a sports nut and they have to choose between D* and E*, E* is still the unrivaled solution, IMO...

 

[guffy1]

A bit off topic to the thread, but what about us poor folk that have a HDTV with only component inputs? It was my understanding that HD DVD or Blu-ray were going to down rez over components, and make it look like crap!

Im pretty sure HD DVD is at full rezz using component..

Component dosent work to the fullest upconverting ability of the unit when viewing SD material I believe is what the deal is there...

 

[Apologist]

Gary and Guffy, Please keep spreading the word on hd-lite at avs. I just made the switch to E* after having D* for many years. The pq and selection is much better. I am very concerned about them following D* lead with this hd-lite crap though. Monstershd is great along with some of the other channels. I am happy with deciding to finally dump D*. D* started this mess and other providers are pressured to compete. I also have hddvd which is great. Best pq I have ever seen. Their selection will increase but the few movies I own are awesome. It just seems like we will have to live with this hdlite crap. Very depressing.

 

[Kirby Baker]

Im pretty sure HD DVD is at full rezz using component..

Component dosent work to the fullest upconverting ability of the unit when viewing SD material I believe is what the deal is there...

I will probably get one of the add-on players for my XBOX360 when its out. I hope it will play nicely with my older HDTV, because so far, nothing has convinced me to dump it and spend good money on a HDMI equipped TV.

 

[retorq]

I've read lots of places that HD DVD will 'only' put out 1080i over component. It want's a protected data path or soemthing for 1080P.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

Aren't HD DVDs recorded in only 1080i or 720p?

If they output 1080p via HDMI, then that's only a progressive scanning trick by the DVD player. Any TV capable of true 1920x1080 could do the same thing with a 1080i input.

 

[BFG]

HD DVDs are 1080p

 

[guffy1]

HD DVDs are 1080p

But the players dont support 1080p, only 1080i, via component or hdmi..

 

[Tom Bombadil]

Just checked, HD DVDs and Blu-Ray DVDs can be recorded in 720p, 1080i, or 1080p. So discs are likely to be released in all three formats, depending upon the source material. However Blu-Ray movies are likely to all be in 1080p, as Sony is pushing that format.

However while the feature movies look like they are going to in 1080p, so far nearly all of the extra features on the HD DVDs are in 480i or 480p.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

guffy1,

yes, that is what I read for months too. But now many are saying that they will support full 1080p via HDMI. The new Samsung Blu-Ray BD-P1000 already does this.

http://www.samsung.com/Products/Blu_ray/Blu_rayPlayer/BD_P1000XAA.asp

This is a great trend. It looks like as the 1080p HDTV sets come down in price over the next few years, that we will have a lot of great material available via DVDs. (but alas, probably not from E* or D*)

 

[guffy1]

guffy1,

yes, that is what I read for months too. But now many are saying that they will support full 1080p via HDMI. The new Samsung Blu-Ray BD-P1000 already does this.

http://www.samsung.com/Products/Blu_ray/Blu_rayPlayer/BD_P1000XAA.asp

This is a great trend. It looks like as the 1080p HDTV sets come down in price over the next few years, that we will have a lot of great material available via DVDs. (but alas, probably not from E* or D*)

Yes, eventually HD DVD will make a player that supports 1080p..Right now there is one in the works that doubles as an HD DVD recorder, and it will support 1080p..Last I checked the MSRP was believed to be around $2500 for that unit..

As of now there is not an HD DVD player that supports 1080p.

And yes, currently Blu Ray players do support 1080p...1080i from HD DVD shamelessly blows that away though

 

[Ilya]

Wow! So much mis-information about HD DVD and Blu-ray!
Why not stop at our HD DVD & Blu-ray Disc area. All these questions are answered there.
Here are some quick answers, for those who insist on reading them here:

1. All Blu-ray and HD DVD players will down-rez the image to 540 or even 480 lines over component outputs, but only if the ICT flag is present on the disc. Non of the presently released titles have the ICT flag. Very few of the studios are going to use this flag, and not before year 2010 or 2012. See here.

2. Pretty much all currently released HD DVD and Blu-ray titles are encoded in 1080p24.

3. Since the source has only 24 frames per second, whether the image is sent (over HDMI) as 1080i60 or 1080p60 doesn't really matter: the resulting progressive-scan image will be essentially the same on most TVs. See here.

4. The Samsung player internally converts 1080p24 to 1080i60 and only then de-interlaces that to 1080p. Most progressive-scan TVs can do that too. This "True 1080p" thing is just a gimmick.

If you have more questions/comments about HD DVD or Blu-Ray please post in the HD DVD & Blu-ray Disc area.

 

[GeorgeLV]

^^ Yep, 1080p is such a shameless maketing gimmick. There's absolutely no difference between 1080i with 3:2 pulldown and 1080p24.

 

[Ilya]

Back to HDNet and picture quality discussion: No, of course HD DVD will not replace satellite TV. Not yet.
What it will do, however, it will show how great the picture could look, if it wasn't overcompressed by the satellite company.

I have canceled my HBO subscription last month because many of the movies shown there are now coming out on HD DVD, and the picture quality on HD DVD is so much better than on HBO-HD, that I decided not to watch them on HBO any more...

 

[guffy1]

Back to HDNet and picture quality discussion: No, of course HD DVD will not replace satellite TV. Not yet.
What it will do, however, it will show how great the picture could look, if it wasn't overcompressed by the satellite company.

I have canceled my HBO subscription last month because many of the movies shown there are now coming out on HD DVD, and the picture quality on HD DVD is so much better than on HBO-HD, that I decided not to watch them on HBO any more...

Yeah, I cancelled all premimum movie channels from all my providers, and no longer even have a DVR..

I still watch HD Net movies via my Charter Cable card, but other than that I cant stand to watch broadcast HD movies anymore after seeing HD DVD..

 

[Tom Bombadil]

I'll still be watching most of my movies via E*. I don't like that many movies well enough to shell out HD DVD prices, maybe I'll pop for my 20-30 favorites. And the rental path doesn't work at all for me as I never know when I'll be in the mood to watch a particular movie. I've been known to buy DVDs and then not watch them for 6 months, they'll still have their shrinkwrap on them.

Now if there were such a thing as high quality HD on Demand, then I'd go for it.

 

[SRW1000]

I'll still be watching most of my movies via E*. I don't like that many movies well enough to shell out HD DVD prices, maybe I'll pop for my 20-30 favorites. And the rental path doesn't work at all for me as I never know when I'll be in the mood to watch a particular movie. I've been known to buy DVDs and then not watch them for 6 months, they'll still have their shrinkwrap on them.

Now if there were such a thing as high quality HD on Demand, then I'd go for it.

Don't you have the same problem with Dish as you do with rentals? You're stuck with whatever movies Dish is running at any given time, unless you DVR everyone that you're interested in.

I dropped all my Dish movie channels for Netflix about 6 months ago, and have never looked back. I'm saving about $30 per month, and getting just the movies I'm looking for.

Once I buy an HD DVD player, and the studies start releasing more movies in HD, I'll be very happy.

Scott