What happens Nov 14th?

[M Sparks]

Hey, for a month or so, I've seen people say that DISH's MPEG-4 plans will be announced November 14th.

What's going on that day that everyone's so certain. Some convention? Was there actually some kind of announcement to dealers? Or is that just when the next Charlie Chat is on and people are passing speculation off as fact as per usual.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Its the night of the Dish Network Tech Chat, where Charlie has said inthe past details of MPEG4 would be talked about.

Will all the plans be announced? I highly doubt it. I would expect more info at CES on Dish Networks MPEG4 plans.

DirecTV is now running LIL HD in MPEG4.

Dish Network has some catching up to do.

 

[riffjim4069]

I'm not so sure we won't hear something about MPEG-4. D* appears to be so far in the lead I feel they have to at least address the issue.

 

[Cyclone]

I'm sure that we will all be underwhelmed by whatever they "announce".

 

[BobMurdoch]

My prediction Tech Guys "We'll have information about the new Mpeg4 technology in our January Charlie Chat!"

 

[datwell]

My prediction Tech Guys "We'll have information about the new Mpeg4 technology in our January Charlie Chat!"

Yes!!! Exactly!
--Doug

 

[Grandpa J]

My prediction they will say - "we are working on our MPEG 4 receivers and we hope to have them available "shortly" (but no date will be given).

 

[Purogamer]

Would you guys die if either of them said "What's MPEG-4?"

omg...

 

[Cyclone]

Just remember, if they say "by the holidays", that they mean April. If they say "available in the Spring", they mean September.

Oh, and "early next year" is June.

 

[JoeSp]

Who cares. I have said this in the past, whoever puts the Raleigh HD's up first will get my money. I have watched everything VOOM has to offer at least once and unless they get something new on those channels I am seriously thinking about dumping those channels!

Charlie needs a hole shot right now -- no more messing around. He needs to bring out the big guns now!!

 

[Stacy A]

I told you people and I told you people... When Dish said earlier this year that they would start their MPEG4 rollout by the end of this year...they were lying through their teeth. No one, absolutely no one, will see MPEG4 from Dish until at least next June. Oh, there will hoopla at CES, and afterwards there will great discussions. Everyone will hang on the edge of their seats waiting for the release of the new MPEG4 receivers. I urge all you optimists to go re-visit the 921 debacle. Look up the archived posts starting with the pictures and reviews from the CES in (was it 2001? or 2002?) and follow the long and painful road to the release of the poor thing. Dish has duped us before, and they are duping us now.

 

[goaliebob99]

I thought being duped was a good thing

 

[Stacy A]

I thought being duped was a good thing

Well...yeah...If the lady that's doing it is one you paid for.

 

[riffjim4069]

I have only been with E* for 6 months so my naive inner-child has not been beaten, used, abused, or lied to often enough (YET!) for me to abandon all hope of E* announcing something significant involving MPEG-4 in the near future; I still have a single ounce of hope remaining.

 

[boba]

I have only been with E* for 6 months so my naive inner-child has not been beaten, used, abused, or lied to often enough (YET!) for me to abandon all hope of E* announcing something significant involving MPEG-4 in the near future; I still have a single ounce of hope remaining.

The problem is DISH announces a lot but RARELY carries through in a timley manner. If DISH announces the 411 will be available on Nov. 15th that really means you can buy it sometime in January 2006 and by January 2007 they will have software that almost works. Of course they discontinued the product in December 2006.

 

[BobMurdoch]

E* has a split personality. The things they DO promise need to have 6-18 months added to the ETAs. Then on the flip side, they blindside you out of the blue with no warning on other blockbuster announcements (NFL Network, Voom, the Rainbow 1 purchase).

Then again, all those pleasant surprises are all on the programming front. Their hardware forecasts always are way too optimistic.

Given that they can't release a fully baked product on time as it is, I'm in no rush to make them hurry up. As they have Rainbow 1 finally approved, they can add a few more MPeg2 HD channels until they can get their act sufficiently together.

 

[SimpleSimon]

Well, consider these tidbits:

• A 411 is a 311 or 811 with a MPEG-4 chip
• A 962 is a 942 with a MPEG-4 chip
• The chip software comes from Broadcom

Therefore, we have a fighting chance that the new boxes won't be any wrose than the existing ones.

Not that that's saying much.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

There's no disputing that Dish has a terrible history of bringing new technologies to market on schedule. They do surprise on occasion, like when they brought out the Dishplayer 7100 DVR and even the 942.

Clearly they are working on mpeg-4 as there are reports of mpeg-4 channels being tested right now on 129. And then there was that wire story about the single-chip and two-chip mpeg-4 chipsets that reported Dish as having purchased a large stock of the two-chip sets a few months ago.

They are in a position to say something on 11/14, but I would not be surprised if they waited until Jan and were further along in the process. It would be great if they addressed the topic on the 14th.

 

[Purogamer]

Can you guys see the first bug thread for the 411? I see 15 pages by day 5...

November 14th, the show starts with "Huge Tech News on tonight's show...Name Based Recordings coming to the 5XX boxes before thanksgiving!!!"

 

[Smith P.]

<skip>
Clearly they are working on mpeg-4 as there are reports of mpeg-4 channels being tested right now on 129.
<skip>

What was reported ? This //www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?p=451395 ? I don't see any MPEG-4 channels there.