I cancelled my HD package today

[JimMcC]

My 1 year commitment for the free 811 ended a couple days ago. Today I cancelled the HD package(required for the year). It is not worth $10 per month, and they've only added 1 channel in the last 12 months(TNT-HD).
Maybe if a lot more people cancel the HD package, Dish will add some more HD channels(and I don't mean HD locals).

 

[gredneck]

I doubt it, after the last charlie chat we won't see any new HD Channels until 2006.
we get 1 or 2 new ones in the mean time to keep us quiet.

 

[Bruce]

I have thought about canceling it also, but I need (want) ESPN and TNT for the sports reason, if not for them, it been gone a while ago.

 

[Cholly]

A number of people have cancelled their HD packs. Personally, I'm keeping mine. I enjoy the occasional concerts on HDNet, ESPHHD football, Discovery HD Theater and shows on TNT-HD. The only networks of significance that aren't in the HD pack are INHD1 & 2 and Bravo HD. (I'm not including the broadcast networks, because that's a different issue, and for many subscribers, the OTA tuner takes care of it). To each his own.

 

[BFG]

It's worth the $10 for me. If you never watch it that's one thing. But the price is correct for the premium of the services.

 

[Paradox-SJ]

It's worth the $10 for me. If you never watch it that's one thing. But the price is correct for the premium of the services.

The price is 10.00 too much as its really not a premium at all. Simulcast, up converted stretched and heavily repeated material...where is the premium service?

They want us to believe its a premium service so they can extract more money out of us. It looks like they are have done a good job is this department.

I mean don’t they include HBOHD and SHOHD when you subscribe to their individual packages? So explain ESPN and TNT then?

I do have the HD pack and I definitely enjoy Discovery and a few HDNET show like World Report and seeing that I cant view these show anywhere else I pay the premium price the charge.

 

[BobMurdoch]

Smallville in HD on HDNet is amazing looking (I never watched this show the first time around, but I'm hooked now. They just had the 1st season ending cliffhanger where Lana gets sucked into the tornado in her pickup truck..... WOW what an episode... this one had more action, life changing events for the characters, and neck snapping plot twists than the entire season had up to that point) The 2nd season opener is tonight and should be great. Nothing But Trailers is a good one to hunt for as you get HD versions of movie trailers, and HD movies is good if you can get by the fact that most of these films are ancient 10-20 year old films (but that could be a plus as many haven't been on any other channels for a while -- kind of like an Encore HD equivalent). The Discovery Channel HD is always good for some gorgeous visuals (hey, I remember when we paid $7 a month for that channel ALONE).

The clincher is ESPN HD though. My TV is locked on the channel from 7:30 until Midnight every Sunday for NFL Primetime and the Sunday night game. Most highlights are in HD and are not upconverted, and Baseball Tonight goes HD when it launches in the spring. Sportscenter is simply gorgeous. Compared to the rough start they had when we bashed them for upconverted stretch-o-vision, they have really stepped up to the plate and become THE killer app for HD. I don't watch as much TNT HD as I thought I would, but that's due to the fact that the Charmed and Angel reruns aren't true HD. Angel was a great show, but , like ER, I seem to have no interest to watch the show after I see it once. I didn't watch Charmed until Rose McGowan joined the show but now watch it every week..... Once I whittle down my recorded programs I might add that one when they cycle back to the beginning and Brenda, er Shannon was on it.

HBO and Showtime are always good for movies and shows during primetime...

I REALLY want Universal HD though. If they add new Battlestar Galactica and Stargate SG1/Atlantis episodes I will start BEGGING for this one. SciFi shows always seem to be more satisfying in HD....

 

[Poke]

Yeah its worth the 10 to me! Plus more HD will be on out soon probally this coming year for sure would be my guess.

 

[BFG]

Except, the HD department is one of the areas that they're killing us in. They're fine killing broken promises like NBR, but for some reason they don't want to give us any false hope for HD. I really wish they would put the HD back the way it was. Ever since the olympics we've lost a TP to nothing, now they're just being lazy and not doing anything with it. They have the capability to add ESPN2-HD and Universal-HD NOW! they're just killing themselves with this MPEG4 crap.

 

[Poke]

Yeah would be nice to get ESPN2-HD but I think we might be surprised what we will see in the future. MPEG4 is something everyone will and is going to half to deal with.

 

[BobMurdoch]

Except, the HD department is one of the areas that they're killing us in. They're fine killing broken promises like NBR, but for some reason they don't want to give us any false hope for HD. I really wish they would put the HD back the way it was. Ever since the olympics we've lost a TP to nothing, now they're just being lazy and not doing anything with it. They have the capability to add ESPN2-HD and Universal-HD NOW! they're just killing themselves with this MPEG4 crap.

Amen Brother!

Kill 11 of the PPV channels (the 12th slot was vacated by Cnnfn last night). and THEN you'll have room for the 2 new HD channels.

CMon guys..... Universal HD and ESPN2 NOW!!!!!!!!!! Kill the HDPPV and the HD Demo channel if you can't bear to give up what little PPV revenue you generate from the SD movies. All of the retailers I've been in just leave it on HDNet or Discovery HD ANYWAY.

 

[BFG]

Well what I'm actually talking about is a really transponder (19) sitting dead empty.

Originally this TP held HBO and Showtime, but they got moved to 13 and 17 to make room for the Olympics channel that occupied TP19 all by itself for the duration of the olympics. Then after the olympics were over it sat empty for a while before hosting the elections app. Now that the elections are over the TP again sits dead empty.

Here's the Dish Lineup Now:
TP 7 - HDNet, HDNet Movies
TP 13 - TNTHD, PPV HD, HBOHD
TP 17 - DiscoveryHD, ESPNHD, SHOHD
TP 19 - Nothing

Here's what they can do:
TP 7 - HDNet, HDNet Movies
TP 13 - PPV HD, HBOHD, SHOHD
TP 17 - DiscoveryHD, Universal HD
TP 19 - TNTHD, ESPNHD, ESPN2HD

 

[Poke]

Yeah that sounds good BFG! Send that in to Dish Oklahoma State Cowboys play UNLV this weeked on ESPN2. Would be nice to watch it in HD like I did their game against the OrangeMan on ESPN.

 

[long_time_DNC]

One has to wonder... We buy big screen TVs, 811's or 921's and get the HD package in hopes that they'll add more programming. Getting TNT-HD was a nice addition. Seeing the Olympics in HD was spectacular...but since then, nothing new and while V* and D* are talking about lots of HD, E* is talking MPEG4 and new hardware *maybe* in late 2005.

I like the HD channels...I just want more of them.

 

[Poke]

Yeah Im big NASCAR fan and its nice watching the races on TNTHD. But I think you will see more of them in the future. I love my big Widescreen to watch movies and HD when there are things on but in the long run it will be woth it. This is something everyone is dealing with no matter who you get your service from. But again it will get better.

 

[DarrellP]

$10 is more than worth it to me. Dish HD is FAR SUPERIOR to the HD on Voom and I am paying them $64/month for a boat load of HD channels that I don't even watch. The PQ on Voom leaves a lot to be desired, I'll pay Dish my money any day. When I switch from Dish to Voom, it's like "Oh my God, is this HD?". A well mastered DVD looks as good (better in some cases) as a Cinema10 movie on Voom. HDNET Movies PQ is far superior to any of the Cinema10 channels Voom offers.

In Voom's favor, Voom is working on putting some new encoders in place and they are testing it on one promo channel and so far the results are decent, but still not as good as what Dish provides.

 

[dfergie]

Other than SciFi and my locals, I hardly ever watch anything but the HD Channels...

 

[BFG]

I've been monitoring the Voom program guide. But so far not I've not found a single program that makes me go "gee I want to watch that" The voom programming department needs a lot of work. What a waste to have 21 channels and nothing to watch on them...

 

[DarrellP]

Voom has some good programming but everytime I try to watch something, it ends up looking so awful I tune back to Dish. EquatorHD has some awesome programming on now, but that is Voom's worst PQ channel, great way to showcase your network, huh?

 

[BFG]

Copper Canyon: Train Ride Through the Sky - That doesn't sound to interesting to me. I guess I'm a pretty picky guy and I will not watch something just because it's HD. The things I'm looking for are Cancelled TV shows like HDNet has, Billboard Music artists, and A-list Movies.

But I imagine the PQ on voom has to be suffering. The must be compressing a lot in order to fit all those channels on the TPs. I think the compression on each TP is 3HD channels and 6 SD channels, that's pretty tight.