It's 2014, is it safe to say we'll never get RSNs in full-time HD?

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hurricane87

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Original poster
Jan 19, 2014
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I know this has been brought up a million times but it's now 2014 and I'm still forced to watch my 2 favorite channels (NESN and Comcast SportsNet) in SD unless a game is on. I love the programming that these two channels provide other than just games. Why? its 2014 why can't I have my favorite channels in HD. Will this never ever change?
 
Ahem..... Soon™

It's certainly not a priority for DISH that can safely be said.
 
I guess never say never, but I don't think so and as mentioned don't think its a priority Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys
 
A study has shown that majority of dish customers are satisfied with the status quo...they haven't cancelled

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First, Welcome to SatGuys! :welcome

To explain since you are a new member..."Soon" has become somewhat of an inside joke around here as it seems everything from Dish Network is always coming "soon". Whenever we hear that, our general assumption is to treat it as "We might get around to that some day, but don't hold your breath" or something along those lines.
 
Directv should be in your future if HD RSNs are important to you.
 
They are always all in HD when I watch them.
Guess that is because I only watch em when a live game is on which is not every day. Dish them puts it in HD for me.
Seems to free up more bandwidth for other channels like the movie channels which I watch all the time.
 
They are always all in HD when I watch them.
Guess that is because I only watch em when a live game is on which is not every day. Dish them puts it in HD for me.
Seems to free up more bandwidth for other channels like the movie channels which I watch all the time.
Some RSNs have more locally-produced content, specials, replays and high school and college sports than others. It would be nice to have those in HD and not just the live pro sports.
 
Some RSNs have more locally-produced content, specials, replays and high school and college sports than others. It would be nice to have those in HD and not just the live pro sports.

CSN Chicago is definitely in that boat with the amount of Cubs, Sox, Hawks and Bulls replays they have. There are also highlight shows and those are the ones that bother me the most. They are produced in HD, and since CSN Chicago is not 16:9 letterboxed in SD, it is the standard 4:3, words/stats are cutoff on the sides. If bandwidth is a problem, I would love to see Dish have only the HD versions of the RSN's and eliminate the SD versions - sort of like how there are some channels in the Blockbuster movie pack that are HD only. But I know the transmission contracts would never allow that...
 
CSN Chicago is definitely in that boat with the amount of Cubs, Sox, Hawks and Bulls replays they have. There are also highlight shows and those are the ones that bother me the most. They are produced in HD, and since CSN Chicago is not 16:9 letterboxed in SD, it is the standard 4:3, words/stats are cutoff on the sides. If bandwidth is a problem, I would love to see Dish have only the HD versions of the RSN's and eliminate the SD versions - sort of like how there are some channels in the Blockbuster movie pack that are HD only. But I know the transmission contracts would never allow that...

Actually the could do that... But they would have to pay for both versions. Charlie is way to cheap to do that.
 
First, Welcome to SatGuys! :welcome

To explain since you are a new member..."Soon" has become somewhat of an inside joke around here as it seems everything from Dish Network is always coming "soon". Whenever we hear that, our general assumption is to treat it as "We might get around to that some day, but don't hold your breath" or something along those lines.

Thank you for explaining that to the new guy. This seems like a great forum with a great community. With that said, Comcast SportsNet New England is literally the only channel I watch. They have great original programming, highlight shows, ect. I know I only have myself to blame for not doing my research before going to Dish, but I feel like having any channels in SD is absurd in this day and age. This isn't 2008 anymore. Getting a comparable plan with Direc or cable with DVR ect is going to cost at least $25 more and I can't really justify that. What's the CEO's email address so I can complain...
 
CSN Chicago is definitely in that boat with the amount of Cubs, Sox, Hawks and Bulls replays they have. There are also highlight shows and those are the ones that bother me the most. They are produced in HD, and since CSN Chicago is not 16:9 letterboxed in SD, it is the standard 4:3, words/stats are cutoff on the sides. If bandwidth is a problem, I would love to see Dish have only the HD versions of the RSN's and eliminate the SD versions - sort of like how there are some channels in the Blockbuster movie pack that are HD only. But I know the transmission contracts would never allow that...
Getting rid of the SD versions won't save near enough the bandwidth required for these to be full time HD. Maybe once western arc is converted to mpeg4 , but that's well down the line.
 
Getting rid of the SD versions won't save near enough the bandwidth required for these to be full time HD. Maybe once western arc is converted to mpeg4 , but that's well down the line.

Can someone explain to me why adding a couple more HD channels per region is a possible bandwidth issue? They have hundreds of HD channels already why would they neglect regional sports which arguably is keeping millions of more americans (such as myself) from cutting the cable cord.
 
Can someone explain to me why adding a couple more HD channels per region is a possible bandwidth issue? They have hundreds of HD channels already why would they neglect regional sports which arguably is keeping millions of more americans (such as myself) from cutting the cable cord.

You have it wrong. It's not a regional or spot beam issue. RSNs have to be CONUS on both Eastern and Western Arc because of things like the Sports pack, NBA League Pass, and NHL Center Ice. So you're talking about 30-40 RSNs (my numbers since every time you turn around there's a new one popping up and I've lost count) times two. That's a lot of bandwidth to make them full time HD channels.

Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys
 
.....regional sports which arguably is keeping millions of more americans (such as myself) from cutting the cable cord.

That part probably has some truth to it. However RSN's cost more than most other channels, and there is only so much bandwidth available. What is not so true about your thought is Direct TV does have almost all of them in HD so it isn't so much a matter of losing cord cutters, but losing subs to Direct TV if HD is the issue since DISH has most of the RSN's. Even then, by now there just are not that many DISH subscribers who both just must have them in HD 24hrs, and didn't go to Direct TV or cable if they did. (And Direct TV has started in limited areas to add an RSN surcharge)
 

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