high definition

[Bulbman2]

I used to have a bud- its gone- only thing I have left is one black and one purple decoder..... Are there any advantages to the bud vs the direct tv or dish networks. I am specifically interested in Hd..... are the signals for buds compressed as much as the mini dishes?

 

[nailzs]

Advantage:
C-Band never gets rained out.
First generation signal.
No compression artifacts.
No "HD-Lite" on HD channels.

Disadvantage:
Not as many HD channels available.

 

[iammike]

I used to have a bud- its gone- only thing I have left is one black and one purple decoder..... Are there any advantages to the bud vs the direct tv or dish networks. I am specifically interested in Hd..... are the signals for buds compressed as much as the mini dishes?

The HD on cband is the original source, so you'll get the best possible HD from a bud. The downside as mentioned already, is that a lot of HD channels aren't available to the home market. As for your decoders, they'll get SD analog channels but you'll need a 4dtv receiver for subscription HD and a PC card for the FTA HD. There are some FTA HD stb's, but they are kind of pricey. There isn't any VC HD available.

 

[tdti1]

I used to have a bud- its gone- only thing I have left is one black and one purple decoder..... Are there any advantages to the bud vs the direct tv or dish networks. I am specifically interested in Hd..... are the signals for buds compressed as much as the mini dishes?

There is a very big difference in picture quality, big dish bets small dish hands down.

 

[truckracer]

Big dish

Big dish gives:

Lots of choices
first generation signal quality-picture and audio quality suffer from compression in the mini dish systems(even on HD).

free stuff, feeds etc.

More for your subscription dollar-More multiple channels of subscribed programming with the movie channels.

My dish has never lost signal due to a hard rain, unlike the mini dish systems (if it ever did i was not home at the time).

HD looks like super duper HD, but not a lot of HD channels.

Standard Def channels fed from the receiver to my toshiba dlp via s-video look better than my girlfriend's Hd service on her mini dish. She even compliments the picture quality-she thought all my channels were HD! LOL. She says it "Looks so real".

She however does not like to wait for the dish to move from say G-1 to G-11. Takes a few seconds, she says my IPG is too slow to respond to scrolling. Oh well i can live with it for the great pics and sound.