New mpg4 dish channels in HDLITE!

[goaliebob99]

Here's the report

NFL HD
Uplinked at 1440x1080i.
h.264 video.
Only sharing with StarzHD so tons of bandwidth for now.
Currently pegged at 14Mbit/s. (seems like constant bitrate shaping)

Starz HD
Uplinked at 1440x1080i.
h.264 video.
Exact same bitrate as NFL HD. SD programs are pillared with gray sidebars.

So far I have not seen a channel uplinked 1920x1080i in h.264. Maybe a problem with their encoders? It at least appears dish is trying to put the channels up in native resolution, as evidenced by universal hd and now HGTV.

 

[riffjim4069]

If HD LIL is any indicator (1920x1080i), I suspect E* is having a rough time with the encoders...

 

[Poke]

Lite is not the best thing.. But Im not going to complain atleast we are getting more HD which is better than nothing. In the long run I think they will address the issue right now it seems their just trying to get more content out there which is what most folks want 1st. Then you can tweak things later to get them where you want.

 

[ScottChez]

HD LIte?

======chart=========
True 1080i 1920x1080i: 1920x540x60 = 62,208,000 pixels/sec
720p 1280x720p: 1280x720x60 = 55,296,000 pixels/sec
HD-Lite 1280x1080i: 1280x540x60 = 41,472,000 pixels/sec
DVD 720x480i: 720x240x60 = 10,368,000 pixels/sec


True 1080i: 6X DVD quality
720p: 5.33X DVD quality
HD-Lite: 4X DVD qualit

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

National Geographic is also not HD Lite, that is its native resolution. (720P)

 

[ChetK]

So NFL HD and Starz HD are the only two that will be HD-Lite? To bad too. I was going to subscribe to Starz HD until I heard this news.

 

[BrianB]

This doesn't seem like lite to me - 14Mb/s? The bandwidth is more important than the resolution.

 

[Poke]

Yeah I never subscribe to HBO Showtime or Starz due to they show movies that are old and play over and over. Heck movies come out on DVD much quicker now like every Tuesday of the month. Also the movie companies are talking about releasing the movie on DVD at the same time that it goes to the theater.. Due to they make just as much money on DVD Sales as they do at the theaters. Folks are staying home more to watch movies due to its cheaper plus you get extra bonus material and overall it’s just better. Also more and more folks are building their home theaters so there is no real reason to mess with theaters. I would say in next 5-10 years there will not be many theaters left. Anyway this link here has a list of movies that come out every Tuesday of the month..

http://www.joblo.com/releases.php?mode=dvd

 

[Gary Murrell]

I gave up on Dish HDTV months ago cancelled the entire service, I decided to check back in today and see whats up

seems the same old same old, what a joke

sorry guys, I don't think HD from Sat will ever be what it should, get HD-DVD and be happy and tell Dish to shove their HD-Lite

-Gary

 

[Endorphin]

Are these channels active right now?

 

[gutter]

I gave up on Dish HDTV months ago cancelled the entire service, I decided to check back in today and see whats up

seems the same old same old, what a joke

sorry guys, I don't think HD from Sat will ever be what it should, get HD-DVD and be happy and tell Dish to shove their HD-Lite

-Gary

Gary, Glad to see you post again. We missed your opinion and if it wasn't for you technology we wouldn't have been as aware of the HDLITE issue. We all saw it but wasn't sure what had happened until you enlighted us. I for one hope you continue to post.

 

[Cyclone]

I'm guessing that they have reduced the resolution on the MPEG4 streams to lessen the load on MPEG-4 encoders. I know that my DC locals (especially the 1080i channels) have problems.

I do not complain since I know I'm an early adopter, and that I didn't really pay any extra for those HD LIL channels. But this can't last forever before it becomes a joke.

 

[Ilya]

Actually, this is not too bad. Out of the four channels, two are delivered in True HD resolution and two are 1440x1080i, which although is not True HD, is still much better than HD-Lite at 1280x1080i.

The difference between 1280 and 1440 is significant, perhaps more significant than the difference between 1440 and 1920 especially for many of us who have LCD and DLP-based displays with 1366 x 768 native resolution.

 

[goaliebob99]

Actually, this is not too bad. Out of the four channels, two are delivered in True HD resolution and two are 1440x1080i, which although is not True HD, is still much better than HD-Lite at 1280x1080i.

The difference between 1280 and 1440 is significant, perhaps more significant than the difference between 1440 and 1920 especially for many of us who have LCD and DLP-based displays with 1366 x 768 native resolution.

Ilya I 2nd that but they could have easly moved national geographic hd to mpg 4 and starz hd to a mpg 2 channel and we would have only had one in "hd lite"

 

[psumattDE]

Christ, the channels aren't even active yet and you're all bitching about it.

 

[Ilya]

Ilya I 2nd that but they could have easly moved national geographic hd to mpg 4 and starz hd to a mpg 2 channel and we would have only had one in "hd lite"

I agree. I would definitly prefer StarzHD in 1920x1080i! I am just glad they are not adding any more channels in 1280x1080i!

 

[Tom Bombadil]

One needs to complain at "first light" on topics like this. In order to let Dish know that quality on HD is more important than quanity.

Otherwise we will be led merrily down the same path that SD tred, compromising picture quality for more channels. Which means you might as well buy a low-end, low-quality HDTV set, because it won't make much difference.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

I'll echo the earlier statements that hopefully this is just a temporary artifact from Dish not having much success with efficient H.264 encoding.

Otherwise it is very BAD news that premium movie channels will be broadcast in sub-HD formats. For if E* decides that 1440x1080i is good enough for a premium movie channel, then certainly the lower tier channels are fair game for down-rezzing.

 

[riffjim4069]

Oh great...we Dish Network customers are so beaten, bloodied, and brain-washed we're now grateful to Charlie for only reducing their HD channels to 1440x1080i and not 1280x1080i. We've even coined a new phrase to add to HD-Lite... HD-Not-Quite-As-Eye-Gouging-As-HD-Lite.

 

[grb]

Actually, this is not too bad. Out of the four channels, two are delivered in True HD resolution and two are 1440x1080i, which although is not True HD, is still much better than HD-Lite at 1280x1080i.

The difference between 1280 and 1440 is significant, perhaps more significant than the difference between 1440 and 1920 especially for many of us who have LCD and DLP-based displays with 1366 x 768 native resolution.

Good point! Even the high-end plasmas are 1366 x 768, so the 1440 x 1080i would be fine for most HD viewers.

Everybody moaned about how the Voom channels were down-rezzed when Dish got them, but Voom was already sending most of them out at 1440 x 1080i.

I do object to 1280 x 1080i, however. As you have pointed out, it is far inferior, probably because it is below the capabilities of most HD sets.