waltinvt said:
Instead you uplink all the new channels in MPEG2 (which is what they've done), so all existing HD customers can get them but be clear that this is temporary and part of the overall move to MPEG4 and better PQ for all HD.
This does 2 things:
1. It at least comes closer to fulfilling the earlier promise of "all 21 Voom channels by the end of '05" "plus maybe one or two more channels". This helps discredit Dish's past history of broken promises instead of substaniating it.
2. It makes existing customers feel included instead of exploited. Your getting part of something now but your also expected to do something in exchange for this and more to come.
What it doesn't do is try to decieve customers like the disguising MPEG2 as MPEG4 move so obviously tried to do. Dish has always underestimated the ability of their customers being able to figure out what's really going on.
You owe me a new keyboard, as I spat out my coffee on my old one after reading this.
I think some of us are losing sight of a blunt fact:
The absolute worst thing for Dish Network to do would be to take any currently available channels away from those who don't pay a price to upgrade their hardware.
It would give Dish Network the precedent that they could wrangle a $300 fee out of customers who want a given channel. Look how hard it is for them to even move a channel to a higher-priced tier (i.e. AT120 to AT180); I can't recall the last time that was even done, and we're talking about a $10 per month upgrade.
The notion that customers would be given the channels in a preview mode and "be expected to do something in exchange for this and more to come" is
ludicrous. It is laughable; it is naive. If E* were to say "after so-and-so, you won't be able to receive this channel unless you upgrade your hardware", they would face a class-action lawsuit the day after they switched it over. Even if they run an annoying banner 24-7 on the channel that said "THIS CHANNEL IS BEING PREVIEWED FOR FREE", at best they would still face serious customer blowback (much worse than they're currently getting, which seems confined to this and other message boards) once they moved it to MPEG4.
Also keep in mind that the channel providers get paid per subscriber. How does a months-long "free preview" work from a contract standpoint? Does anyone honestly think ESPN would sit still if Dish put ESPN2-HD on the main HD pack at first, but then months later moved it to an MPEG4 tier with much fewer subscribers? Maybe they could work out a deal with Dish, but then Dish would have to work out similar deals with every other content provider that it wants to put onto this new tier, if it wants anything else besides ESPN2-HD on it.
Sorry, peeps. The way I see it, Dish had no choice but to put out MPEG4 hardware ASAP and create the demand for it. If they had waited until MPEG4 encoding was ready for prime time (so to speak), which as far as I can tell is at least a year away, they would have only put off the inevitable task of switching out their entire customer base, while seeing DirecTV pull farther and farther ahead.
And while I'm irked that I haven't gotten any new HD programming, I'm still getting the same channels that I have been getting. I can't complain about that, nothing has been switched off, and won't be until sometime late next year IMHO.
And before you flame me as a Dish apologist, keep in mind I own a 921. We're the ones who deserve medals or something.