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Jimbo said:
These Videos look like they are from the 60's !!!

Hers hoping the picture we use to watch was better than that (Before HD)
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We used to watch VCR videos in the early 80s all the time and it wasn't even 480i. Think it was 240p. It was not very good. But we didn't know that back then. We were just happy we could record something and watch it later. It did look some better when it went to 480p. I can honestly not see a difference between full HD and 4k. Even 1080p looks fine to me.
 
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I believe you had to be 480i to make typical NTSC TVs sync up at all. However, VCRs only recorded a portion of the of the horizontal resolution of NTSC - which was determined by the frequency response that could be recorded. I think that was effectively around 240 horizontal lines for the average (decent) VHS VCR and around and around 250 for the average Beta VCR. (i and p numbers are vertical resolution.)

On top of that they were analog, full of noise and dropouts, and there were plenty of time base errors - meaning the scan lines didn't all exactly line up due to variations in when the tape appeared to the playback head. And when tapes were duped, the frequency loses, time base errors and noise got massively worse.

And, to the shock of many of the VCR engineers, most customers recorded everything in the slowest speed available, and the engineers only added those slow speeds because marketing made them. (So Americans could record football games.)

The NTSC standard itself was pretty good for 1941. Home VCRs didn't come close to it though.
 
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Juan said:

View: https://youtu.be/dbp7X5NKj3c?is=jQZ0h2L1hruamnIu
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I never pirated Dish, but throughout most of the 1990s and into the early 2000s when I had cable I also had a de-scrambler that got me all of the PPV and premium channels. Just subscribed to the basic plan and the de-scrambler did the rest. Then it all went digital with much stronger encryption and that turned my de-scrambler into a paperweight.
 
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MikeD-C05 said:
We used to watch VCR videos in the early 80s all the time and it wasn't even 480i. Thank it was 240p. It was not very good. But we didn't know that back then. We were just happy we could record something and watch it later. It did look some better when it went to 480p. I can honestly not see a difference between full HD and 4k. Even 1080p looks fine to me.
Click to expand...
It seems like things only make a difference after a certain size for a TV as I wasn't able to tell a difference between VHS and SVHS on a 20" or less CRT. Then ofcourse when seeing the same VHS tapes on a larger TV like 27" Sony XBR and 43" Pioneer Plasma, then one could see how bad lower resolution sources was.
 
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About a decade ago, DISH did go after companies that pirated content they also provided.

www.hollywoodreporter.com

Dish, Chinese Broadcasters Sue Streaming Service for Piracy

They claim the TVpad network streams Chinese programs in addition to content from HBO, BBC and CNN, all unauthorized.
www.hollywoodreporter.com www.hollywoodreporter.com

DISH NETWORK, BROADCASTERS SEEK $326 MILLION JUDGMENT AGAINST ALLEGED PROGRAMMING PIRATES

This is the reason people with IPs in the U.S. could no longer connect to sites where one could watch it online for free.
 
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When Radio Shack transitioned from free installation kits to free installation there were still customers who were in a hurry and wanted to do it themselves. I always told them "If you try to do it yourselves I'm not taking it back if you have no line of sight or any other issues". I knew I'd get back some half disassembled missing lots of pieces pile of crap.
One of the company reps said they found professional installation helped with retention. For example when a customer installed they tended to stop as soon as they got a picture whereas a pro would peak the signal making it more resistant to rain fade.
 
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fmj77 said:
Customers had to do their own installs back in 1996?
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Yup. My dad bought a 2 unit 301 setup and I installed it.
At the lake house had to install the dish (of course that day Hell was cooler temperature wise ;). 2 dual LNB's and a SW21 to combine 110 & 119.
There was no Twin LNB for either install. It was 2 duals and SW21s to combine them,
 
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tanman said:
When Radio Shack transitioned from free installation kits to free installation there were still customers who were in a hurry and wanted to do it themselves. I always told them "If you try to do it yourselves I'm not taking it back if you have no line of sight or any other issues". I knew I'd get back some half disassembled missing lots of pieces pile of crap.
One of the company reps said they found professional installation helped with retention. For example when a customer installed they tended to stop as soon as they got a picture whereas a pro would peak the signal making it more resistant to rain fade.
Click to expand...
That was a potential money stream for you, if you knew how to peak the dish ...
 
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