two dish 500 verus superdish

[kael]

hi i am new at this forum stuff but i have a question?instead of getting two dish 500 to get voom and the hd package would it be better to get the superdish instead? Iheard that e is going to switch all or most of their hd programing to 105 satellite. e right now has a deal on the superdish for a $50 upgrade on their web site. oh yea I am using the 921 connected to a jvc hd-idla set. thanks for any help or thoughts

 

[danielle_s]

as far as we know dish has no plans to put any HD programing on the 105. There are RUMORS that dish may put HD programing on the 129 slot. As of today it has been verified that the VOOMHD programing has been uplinked to the 129 but is not yet available to customers. Today, the only way to get the VOOMHD programing is to have 2 dishes. Sometime middle of next year, my guess, when dish finally implements the mpeg4 switchover we may some hd programing broadcasted on the 110 or 119 but I'm not holding my breath.

 

[kael]

Thanks for the info. now what is this mpeg4 switch over? I just have gotten HDTV and still new to all the terms.

 

[danielle_s]

mpeg4 is a compression utility. If you spend some time on the forum you'll hear a term called mpeg2. This again is another compression utility that currently dish and directv both use. The major difference between the 2 is that mpeg4 can compress more without video/audio loss. So for example with mpeg2 dish can only put 3 HD stations on one transponder. With mpeg4 they should be able to put 5 to 6 channels on one transponder.

 

[mwgiii]

You will also have to have all new receivers to get MPEG4 channels. None of the current receivers can be upgraded to MPEG4.

 

[navychop]

At the earnings call they announced they will start broadcasting the new Voom channels in MPEG-4 shortly after the new year starts. All receivers will need to be replaced over about 3 years (HD first). Many if not most of us will need new antennas- but we might get the Dish 1000 and not need a second dish. Also, I think 105 turned out to not cover CONUS entirely- anyone know for sure?

 

[danielle_s]

unless your locals are being broadcasted on the 110 or 119 then yes you will need a second dish if you sub to both locals and HD programing if they put the HD on the 129

 

[dfergie]

And Welcome to SatelliteGuys kael...

 

[kael]

my locals are on 110 and 119 . So I guess I'll have to wait and see what the new satellite that dish is sending up next year will bring me.