Regarding bit rate and resolution, I would like to hear anyone's explanation as to why increased resolution would not result in a better HD picture. (And I'm not talking about some artsy explanation that soft, fuzzy pictures are better, which I would not believe even for one second.)
Regards,
Fitzie
Of course higher resolution is better. The problem is the bitrate or the amount of bandwidth that is made available for each channel. When there's no motion, the full resolution is shown but as soon as movement occurs, there's a point that there is more data needed than the set bitrate can provide. Then the MPEG algorithm will lower the resolution to lessen the bitrate to fit the available bandwidth. The tradeoff is that with higher base resolution, you hit the bitrate limit quicker during motion and resolution gets lowered more often.
Bottom line is that the bitrate is what really determines resolution. If the base resolution is too high for the bitrate, the nice clear picture gets ugly faster with increasing image movement. Hopefully with the new satellites, Dish can provide enough bandwidth for full HD resolution.