Its going to be good year for HDTV Fans!

[fslove]

BOY Scott were your sources WAY OFF on this one! Not only are we NOT getting a whole bunch of new HD channels but Dish is NOT going to put up ANY more HD channels for quite a while!

Scott please go and slap upside the head your source so he does NOT get our hopes up again!

 

[bluuz]

Probably StarzHD and MaxHD. Got 'em last week on Comcast.

 

[James Long]

BOY Scott were your sources WAY OFF on this one! Not only are we NOT getting a whole bunch of new HD channels but Dish is NOT going to put up ANY more HD channels for quite a while!

How about four more VERY soon?

There is room, without breaking the current limits, for four more HD channels at 110 and 119 with some shuffling of channels to clear transponders. It would be trivial to clear a transponder at 110 to add two new HDs whenever Charlie wants.

And there are two definate and two expected HDs waiting in the wings for their E* debut.

JL

 

[ScottChez]

So maybe all that talk from Charlie about no more good HD to add was just a bargining chip for Charlie to get the HD channels free or with the contract terms that he wanted?

 

[Stacy A]

ScottChez,

That's what I'm thinking. Call me an optimist, but I think Charlie has had his finger on the pulse of HD. He knows its the fastest growing area and its where the future lies. I figure he was just part bluffing the people he is in negotiations with and partly softening the blow for HD subscribers. The locals right now create the revenue through new subscribers, so he has to make immediate focus on that, while keeping an eye to the HD market as well.

Stacy

 

[Chris Freeland]

Bravo-HD
Starz HD
Cinemax HD
TMC HD

Those would be my guess, the only other National ones out their available would be INHD and INHD2, I do not really expect those two, but who knows.

OOps! Did not pay attention to the dates, but hay when E* does get around to adding more HD those above would still be the most likely additions in early 2004.

 

[James Long]

Bravo-HD
Starz HD
Cinemax HD
TMC HD

Those would be my guess, the only other National ones out their available would be INHD and INHD2, I do not really expect those two, but who knows.

Those four from Sean's ancient post (and ScottChez's too) do seem to be next in line. It all depends on contracts with the providers and how much shuffling E* wants to do over the next two holiday weeks.

JL

 

[HokieEngineer]

Charlie doesnt have his finger on the pulse of HD, he has it stuck up his @$$. I bet we get 120 local markets before we get another HD channel. E* has lost its direction in the past few months, the superdish was a HUGE fiasco... not to mention the delayed roll out of some of its receivers. Ugh... how did d* get a contract with tivo again? Charlie needs to concentrate on either building hardware or providing tv.

 

[fslove]

Remember guys Scott's "Sources" said by December 1st we would have all kinds of new HD. Well here we are on Decenber 21st and not only we have NO new HD channels bu Charlie said we will get nothing new until at least spring so I am sticking with my ribbing of Scott about his sources!

I think Scott was a bit pissed about his sources as well since I believe he started a thread ripping Dish for their "bait and switch" tactics of getting people to lock into a 1 year committment for the 811 deal only to soon after be told no new HD for a while now!

 

[rad]

Remember guys Scott's "Sources" said by December 1st we would have all kinds of new HD. Well here we are on Decenber 21st and not only we have NO new HD channels bu Charlie said we will get nothing new until at least spring so I am sticking with my ribbing of Scott about his sources!

I think Scott was a bit pissed about his sources as well since I believe he started a thread ripping Dish for their "bait and switch" tactics of getting people to lock into a 1 year committment for the 811 deal only to soon after be told no new HD for a while now!

Remember, Scott posted that Charlie (or was it their programming VP) let it slip at the recent retailer convention about Starz-HD, but that was then SuperDish was going to do all the great HD. Now that SuperDish is a SuperDud (at least for 105) Charlie's got to make it sound like it now big deal, see we're still adding locals and hope folks forget about his promises about being the HD leader.

 

[Stargazer]

Its not a SuperDud at 105, locals are there. There is still the possibility of them using 105 and 121 and perhaps some other slots if they acquire/lease them for HD and other services.

 

[James Long]

Remember guys Scott's "Sources" said by December 1st we would have all kinds of new HD. Well here we are on Decenber 21st and not only we have NO new HD channels bu Charlie said we will get nothing new until at least spring so I am sticking with my ribbing of Scott about his sources!

Scott's post with those 'sources' was so long ago that one has to remember what happened in between, especially the changes relating to 105. Clean the slate as of the middle of November (although it is odd to see SuperDishes being installed with a HD logo KNOWING that there is no active HD on 105 or 121).

Since that 'sources' remark was posted HDs have been moved to 110 and the commitment was made to add more. Recent comments have four more HDs ready to uplink ... although I wonder how holiday schedules will push that back.

Charlie didn't say there would be nothing new until spring. He said that there was 'no compelling HD content' to be added and he didn't expect to add anything within the next three months. There is a difference. Those four channels can suddenly become compelling and be added at any time.

JL

 

[rad]

Its not a SuperDud at 105, locals are there. There is still the possibility of them using 105 and 121 and perhaps some other slots if they acquire/lease them for HD and other services.

This thread is about a good year for HD, not LIL. 105 was to have all the new HD content on it, with the stuff on the wings migrated to 105 so Dish has a single dish solution. That was the original announcement from Dish. So what HD is now on 105, none. What new HD has been announced for 105, none. What has Charlie now said about new HD, it's going on 110. So for HD I still say Superdish is a Superdud, at this time. Nothings to say that once AMC-15 goes up at 105 that Charlie doesn't flip again and say 105 is the HD slot and we all start wondering how we're going to get a Superdish installed.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

The year is not over yet.

There are some rumblings about a few HD Channels coming by the end of the year or just after new years...

Guess we will wait and see.

 

[dmodemd]

They can't even get HD PPV back up and surely thats a money maker for them.... so I don't have much faith, especially with Charlie's stated position on the issue.

 

[EdV]

They can't even get HD PPV back up and surely thats a money maker for them.... so I don't have much faith, especially with Charlie's stated position on the issue.

They did get it back, on 110. It's channel 9467.

 

[John Kotches]

Scott,

So we shouldn't be terribly surprised by information being released on or about January 8th, from LVCC South, 17272, or at the Hilton Hotel?

 

[ScottChez]

Is the HD PPV still going for a Dollar more than Direct TVs HDTV PPV?

 

[BobMurdoch]

Maybe, but it's less compressed so the PQ is better.

(For proof, look at D*'s specs for their new HD-DVR. They have the same size hard drive that E* is using, but says that it will hold 20% more HD content than E*'s will. I read this to mean that their compression shrinks the content to a ratio roughly 20% more constrictive than E's.)

 

[Tahoerob]

Maybe, but it's less compressed so the PQ is better.

(For proof, look at D*'s specs for their new HD-DVR. They have the same size hard drive that E* is using, but says that it will hold 20% more HD content than E*'s will. I read this to mean that their compression shrinks the content to a ratio roughly 20% more constrictive than E's.)

I was told that E* uses MPEG-2

But D* uses MPEG-1 with software enhancements to call it MPEG-1.5