I am confused about how Dish relays programming to us and how they label stations (in the guide) as HD or not. I would appreciate a short tutorial or being pointed to a web site that clearly explains all this stuff. As you can see below, I have a whole lot of questions.
For local stations, I thought Dish just relays the station's signal to us. For channels not available from Dish in HD, I thought that just meant they are relaying (after digitization) the station's analog signal, and for the so-called HD channels they relay the digital signal, perhaps compressed. If that is true, then after the digital conversion is complete all local stations obtained via Dish will be HD (using Dish's terminology---I know that just being digital doesn't make a show HD). So if, as an example, my local station KCAL-9 broadcasts news in HD, won't everybody who has an HDTV see it in HD, whether they are getting it OTA or via Dish or any other provider? Shouldn't Dish's distinction between HD locals and non-HD locals disappear?
What does the Dish receiver do? Only the VIP series has HD capability. So, through some sort of magic, even after the transition people with SD-only receivers will not see HD shows in HD on locals they get from Dish, even if they have an HDTV? How does that work? (I admit, people with HDTV's who subscribe to Dish but use an old SD-only receiver are probably few and far between.)
Another possibility---if my understanding is right, might many locals go dark on Dish because Dish doesn't have enough equipment in each city to handle all small stations as digital?
Meanwhile, what happens for the national channels such as ESPN, CNN, etc.? Do the ones which have HD capability actually send Dish two feeds, one for HD and one standard? That would seem to increase costs for them. Or is Dish splitting the signal and then doing some sort of conversion?
It seems to me that the desire for backwards compatibility is creating an ungodly mess. The distinction between service with HD and service without HD needs to disappear, and I am wondering what are the technical hurdles delaying this?
For local stations, I thought Dish just relays the station's signal to us. For channels not available from Dish in HD, I thought that just meant they are relaying (after digitization) the station's analog signal, and for the so-called HD channels they relay the digital signal, perhaps compressed. If that is true, then after the digital conversion is complete all local stations obtained via Dish will be HD (using Dish's terminology---I know that just being digital doesn't make a show HD). So if, as an example, my local station KCAL-9 broadcasts news in HD, won't everybody who has an HDTV see it in HD, whether they are getting it OTA or via Dish or any other provider? Shouldn't Dish's distinction between HD locals and non-HD locals disappear?
What does the Dish receiver do? Only the VIP series has HD capability. So, through some sort of magic, even after the transition people with SD-only receivers will not see HD shows in HD on locals they get from Dish, even if they have an HDTV? How does that work? (I admit, people with HDTV's who subscribe to Dish but use an old SD-only receiver are probably few and far between.)
Another possibility---if my understanding is right, might many locals go dark on Dish because Dish doesn't have enough equipment in each city to handle all small stations as digital?
Meanwhile, what happens for the national channels such as ESPN, CNN, etc.? Do the ones which have HD capability actually send Dish two feeds, one for HD and one standard? That would seem to increase costs for them. Or is Dish splitting the signal and then doing some sort of conversion?
It seems to me that the desire for backwards compatibility is creating an ungodly mess. The distinction between service with HD and service without HD needs to disappear, and I am wondering what are the technical hurdles delaying this?
