Most of us deserve exactly what "E" is doing

waltinvt

Supporting Founder
Original poster
Supporting Founder
Feb 16, 2004
3,439
2
Vermont
Most of what Dish is pulling right now (and apparently will get away with) is a direct result of it's customers being a bunch of whining sheep with no backbone to fight for anything - just bitch about it.

I've been trying to tell this group for a long time that this is the kind of company "E" is (and "D" is no better). What you're seeing has been planned but certain things had to happen first; one being the fall (acquisition) of Voom, the other being "D" establishing a commitment to stay with downrezed HD.

Dish doesn't care if we're happy. Dish doesn't care if we whine, sputter and bitch to each other in these groups. As long as we continue to pay Dish "X" $$, on time, every month they will do as little as possible in return. Their priority will always be on getting more customers to do the same. What they provide in return will be just enough to insure that - no more.

Dish has established that they have no qualms about not always telling the truth. Why should they ? They've always said what they had to at the time and then did or didn't do whatever was best for Dish. Sometimes it's corresponded with what they had said, other times not.

As long as profits are up and churn is manageable and Dish stays under the same management, this will not change. You don't fight this kind of attitude with talk. You don't even fight it with walk unless you're doing it as a big enough block of customers.

To fight a company like Echostar, you have to be willing to sacrifice short term to gain long term. You have form a large group and commit to each other. Be willing to give something up for the betterment of the whole group. From what I see, none of you are willing to do that and until you are, you're never going to have a whole lot of influence with Dish or anyone else for that matter.

Now say 75% of all HD customers that monitor this and the other major discussion groups, get together and organize a "HD viewer" coalition of sorts. They submit a list of concerns to Dish with the understanding that if nothing can be worked out, "X" thousand customers immediately drop any HD related programming with Dish. Then you wait it out.

Unless you have that kind of backbone, you're always going to be at the mercy of companies like Dish and the only benefits you might receive are those caused by competition from another company. Sadly however, I personally believe the only real competition died with Voom.

So, either somebody takes the ball here and we all commit to a fight or just go back to your coach and accept whatever comes down the pike. Hey we may get lucky this time, who knows but there will always be another situation similar to this with Dish - because that's the way they are. Fortunately they're still better that "D" - at the moment.
 
You are 100% correct. Dish holds all the cards and really doen't care what we think. They know that any new HD customer will not know the difference because they never knew what true HD looked like in the first place. If you head this up then I am with you. My annual contract is up in March and I am probably heading to Comcast. I would be saving money because I can combign TV with internet. My OTA antenna will get me my locals in HD and my FTA receiver can supply me with internationals. We need to do something because the way things look now looks to be the standard.
If only Dish would offer offering true HD, they would pull in cable and D subs because no one else could compete!
 
Walt I agree with you 100%, although eventhough we probably will not know anymore after the Charlie Chat than what we know now I am not going to let this effect me until after the Chat. I'm still holding out hope they will do the right thing, although I must admit it's probably all for not.
 
You cant have what you want and the next guy cant have what he wants without the two conflicting. If every technophile HD geek got HD in 1080I this would impact the amount of SD channels that are provided and limit choices that those who dont care about HD want. Yes this is going to effect you guys that love your HD tech and some will leave to go with another service that will basicly be doing the same thing just to show that you can. Balance, thats what it has to come down to.
 
BrianMis said:
Walt I agree with you 100%, although eventhough we probably will not know anymore after the Charlie Chat than what we know now I am not going to let this effect me until after the Chat. I'm still holding out hope they will do the right thing, although I must admit it's probably all for not.



As opposed to knowing nothing; but that doesn't stop some from running off at the mouth! Maybe AFTER the Charlie Chat, we may know enought to have a sensible discussion.
 
clapple said:
As opposed to knowing nothing; but that doesn't stop some from running off at the mouth! Maybe AFTER the Charlie Chat, we may know enought to have a sensible discussion.

Let us hope so. But I do understand that there are upset people, and I understand where they are comming from. Alot of us have huge investments in our HDTV's and home theater equipment, and we want to use it to it's fullest potential. I left my local cable company because their HD selection sucked, I went with Dish because of their HD offerings. HDLite is a slap in the face to the industry, but from the looks of it, that's where it's heading. :(
 
I agree with Bob, since it's already Saturday, we may as well see what goes down at the Chuck Chat Monday but my feelings still stand. This is just one more incident in what's become a well established pattern of behavior by Dish. Frankly, I'm tired of it. It's been a love-hate relationship since day one and it doesn't have to continue.

I'm not talking about putting the screws to Dish - like I said, they're still currently a better option than "D" but that's exactly why they think they can pull some of this stuff. Hey, I voted for Bush but he still drives me friggen crazy sometimes. I'm tired of not having decent choices. I'm tired of people saying one thing and doing something else. I'm tired of being manipulated. I'm tired of the extortion. This isn't just Dish, it permeates through the whole industry, starting with the FCC, NAB and Congress.

I know, I know, it's only friggen TV! But I live in Vermont with very limited OTA and Cable options. I support a family of 10 and we don't do a whole lot. I'm not complaining - I wouldn't trade my life for anything. It's just that we as a family like good quality television. We all watch a lot of movies and national sports. Try to buy 10 tickets to a Pats or Red Sox game or a Nascar race at Louden, NH. Nope - we're basically limited to watching it on TV. So when someone starts screwing with something that affects me and my family, I get a little passionate.

Sorry for the treatise, just thought I ought to qualify where I'm coming from. Come Monday, we should all take a good look at where we're going.
 
goaliebob99 said:
Please guys wait untill monday.. Wait to see what dish says :)


What the heck for?!?! They haven't said anything about bettering PQ since the Dec 5th fiasco. They obviously are going 1280x1080i on most channels. So what do you ACTUALLY think will happen Monday??? They are going to once again tell you they have the most HD channels, are adding more, talk about their new MPEG4 receivers and HOPEFULLY an upgrade path for existing customers.

They won't touch on the resolution ONE BIT, why bother alerting people to the resolution when in all reality probably most don't know/care???

I for one jumped ship yesterday. I already have a Comcast dual tuner HD-DVR with my locals already in HD for $70 less a month for one year and $250-700 less than a lease or purchase of a E* HD DVR. I'm am no longer a subscriber, you guys are just going to whine and complain a whole lot more come monday night.
 
Reefer you are probably right but the least I can do is wait until Monday night and see what comes out of it. I'm with Walt 100%. Dish has the opportunity to be a great company but they always seem to come short. I'm tired of all the promises then the let downs. The only reason I have Dish is because their HD was the best. Now they arn't any different than what Comcast offers. Sure they have more channels but people want true HD and are willing to pay for it. My yearly payment is up for renewal in April. They have until then to get this fixed.
 
Well dont matter if it's Direct or Dish they can only control so much. Untill those channels or Networks that own the channels upgrade their stuff. Well your only going to get what the Networks broadcast in.
 
Reefer123 said:
As I said in another thread, you are going to be bitching and whining even more on Monday night after nothing and I mean NOTHING is even mentioned about resolution.

Ummm keep in mind this IS after the info at CES.

Also to the poster of this topic I think Dish will totally understand what a mistake they've made after they see people drop the HD package in droves if they force the HD Lite channels on HD purists on Febuary 1st when they don't wanna pay for em'. Just wait till Febuary 1st, that'll be the test and people seeing Dish's reaction to it.
 
Poke you posted this non-sense somewhere else too.

Several people and I noted that the stations broadcast in full rezz which you can check out by their OTA signals. It is Dish & Directv that downrezz.

Please get your "facts" right.
 
I understand that and I understand what folks are are so upset about as far as the rezz. Yes it is on Dish & Direct end if they are downrezz and if they are I agree on that. All I was trying to say is that not ever station is going to broadcast things the same. Some will broadcast things in the same rezz but not all of them will but yes I agree that if they are downrezz they should get it fixed. So we are on the same side Grandpa J!! Either way it's something that someone should confront Charles on to see what he says about it. :)
 
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waltinvt said:
Now say 75% of all HD customers that monitor this and the other major discussion groups, get together and organize a "HD viewer" coalition of sorts. They submit a list of concerns to Dish with the understanding that if nothing can be worked out, "X" thousand customers immediately drop any HD related programming with Dish. Then you wait it out.

Around mi casa, we've decided to wait until Monday.

I am currently saddled with a 942 a 921 and a 721. One of these actually appears to perform as advertised, so NATURALLY it was the one with the shortest lifespan.

I have already been given the "NO MORE TECH!" financial guidance by my CFO, so if E* plans on charging any money at all, it's "Sorry, Charlie." I'm reducing my programming to AT 180, no locals, and one receiver (the 942).

OTA HD will just have to do. This experiment is costing way too much money.

As were were making our bed today, listening to the whisper-quiet 921 grinding away in the background, we observed that the sheet and comforter set we were installing was in fine shape after 5 years and many washings.

As we shouted over the 921-din, we decided that, as of this moment, there were two NEW product standards, dish-like and Un-dish.

As in, the sheet set mentioned above would be, "Un-dish." As would the remanufactured 6.1 Panasonic receiver I purchased at the same time as my now long gone 811. "Three years of flawless performance for $120, how un-dish."

You can come up with your own examples for things that are dish-like.

I have a beer I have to cry in.
 
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I am in the process right now of dumping Charlie, all 130$ worth

I told Dish that is what I would do, they wish to screw me with HD-Lite then I wish to take my business elsewhere

I was with Dish for quality, their HD quality is going down the tubes and the SD has gotten so bad it is nearly unwatchable

-Gary
 
I think a lot of the problem is that Joe Blow Consumer can't tell the difference, and could care less if they get an HD feed or not. I have been to peoples houses that have bought the latest must-have HD tv, ordered HD cable (only because I had told them that the old cable wouldn't be HD) and been very happy the day the new "HD DVR Cable box" was delivered and installed by the cable company. They called me that day and boasted how good the picture was now that they had HD tv like me.

Two weeks later I was invited over to their house for a party. A few moments with the remote and I figured out that there was something drastically wrong with the picuture. All channels were being stretched from 4:3 to 16:9 on all channels, including the "HD Enhanced" ones. I checked the cable. It was hooked up with S-Video. I asked where the other cables were. The technician only gave them what was hooked up. I made a quick trip to the store and picked up an HDMI cable and returned. 15 minutes later I had everything hooked up and put back in place. The picture was still wrong, but they were wetting themselves because the picture looked "so much better" with the new cables. I found the system set up options and finally changed the output from 480p to 1080i. When I switched to Discovery HD they really went ballistic. I switched to something on ABC HD and they couldn't believe the difference.

Why do people pay the cable company for HD and receive crappy SD for that price? Because NO ONE can tell the difference. As long as Joe Blow Consumer is an idiot, we will all pay the price.

Someone needs to list which providers are providing which channels at which resolution. Nobody knows where they can go to get true HD quality.

I googled "Dish vs Direct HD picture quality" and the results didn't list any true side by side comparisons of picture quality. They all just focus on the channel counts (SD at that) in the various channel packages that can be purchased from each provider.

I am frustrated that I live in a world with morons. It seems the only people that share my passion for HD all reside here in this forum.
 

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