When will SD "go away"?
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There is no mandate for that, so cost would be a factor if you are talking about the actual programming. As for Dish, if their receiver can down convert HD content to SD then whenever.
Remember, first you would be surprised how many homes do not have an HD receiver, or a Digital one. And I bet almost every home that has one, still has one or two good older TV's they will not be replacing for awhile, especially in a bad economy.
Remember, first you would be surprised how many homes do not have an HD receiver, or a Digital one. And I bet almost every home that has one, still has one or two good older TV's they will not be replacing for awhile, especially in a bad economy.
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As soon as the SD TVs everyone currently owns quit working. I noticed last month when I was buying a new TV for my Living room that Neither BestBuy, Walmart, Sams or Sears even sell SD TVs any more. In fact if you want one go to Craigs list you can find many 20" tvs in good shape for $20 and if you want a 36" that would have cost over $500 new just a couple years back you can find them daily for $50 and I have even seen some for free. I new they were loosing favor but I really did not know they were gone. What is frustrating about Dish Network is that they should have seen this coming and had a way to get HD out of the second out put of the HD DVRs long before now
No... you can downconvert HD to SD with ease.
My father has a HD receiver from Comcast attached to a tube TV via composite cables. Most of us have TV2 of our HD receivers attached to tube TV's in kids rooms, kitchens, etc. So, that's a weak argument. It's just the cost of all the bandwidth to go HD only that prevents sat, cable and programmers from going all HD.
The problem here is that the chipsets don't support multiple HD outputs. While some are happy to run 10meter or better HDMI cables, this is not a practical expectation.
SD will be around for as long as there are programmers who only bring their goods to market in that format. It isn't something that the carriers can do much about or should be blamed for.
The problem here is the crybabies with their <26" direct view (or any size projection CRT) 4:3 TVs screaming bloody murder because everything is letterboxed (or worse yet in the case of 4:3 programming, vignetted).
One of the theories behind 16:9 is that they no longer have to tinker with "pan and scan" but "pan and scan" is a decidedly manual process and it is unreasonable to expect that a consumer device could automatically process a 16:9 stream.
I know on eastern arc dish 1000.4 setup I can see the sd channels that have hd counterparts, are nothing more than down converts of the same hd channel. I tested it last night and BBC America was showing the same exact show simultaneously on the hd channel as on the sd channel. I used pip on my 722k and there was no lag time at all . I tested this on the rest of the hd channels and sd channels and they were all the same. So there is no duplication of sd channels , like on western arc , using the eastern arc. I don't know if this means that Eastern arc isn't using as much bandwidth as western arc , but I am betting it does.
When people stop realize that stretching SD content on an HD TV is not the same as actually watching an HD program on that same TV
It is also possible that what you noticed is a result of the channels on Eastern Arc using the same MPEG4 encoder. They shjould take the same amount of time to reencode the feed that Dish gets in HD and SD. Also, "The List" on this site shows that there are separate uplinked channels for BBCA in HD and SD on the 72.7W satellite. I think it is just a product of the MPEG4 encoders used by Dish.
When companies like Dish start emphasizing the quality of their HD channels over the quantity then more people will actually know the difference.
I always thought that to do the move from SD / HD to HD they would have to replace all the legacy SD receivers in people's homes that do not have HD tvs. I would imagine many older receivers cannot receive an HD channel and downconvert to SD, they just don't have the correct hardware to handle and convert the HD signals. So for them to move to all HD these receivers would have to be replaced, free of charge, to all current subscribers with these receivers. Probably be mighty expensive and in the process the confusion and trouble would cause some subscribers to leave.
I would think when Dish goes to all MPEG4 they will get rid of the SD counterparts of most channels. I see no reason why they would waste bandwidth transmitting SD when all recievers are capable of recieving HD. It seems many of the SD channels are just cropped HD transmitted in MPEG2.
Don't know why Dish still leases and gives new subscribers MPEG-2 receivers like the 311, 512 and 625 since they are already obsolete.
My guess would be because that's what the customer wants. There are still a lot of people viewing SD TVs and they have no urgent desire to switch to HD. Besides, is it hurting you?
While there are still people viewing SD TV’s/programming, that number is constantly dwindling. For the past several years, the TV’s sold were LCD, DLP, and Plasma. Different technologies but they shared a common trait which is they all were HD/widescreen TV’s.
As noted by other posters, if one wanted to purchase a CRT TV, they would have to search for a store still carrying them (I saw them in a Dollar store).
Yes, SD will be around for some time to come but increasingly it will be relegated to 2nd rate TV stations and infomercials (and Charlie’s view of the earth) as even the shopping channels are going HD.
As noted by other posters, if one wanted to purchase a CRT TV, they would have to search for a store still carrying them (I saw them in a Dollar store).
Yes, SD will be around for some time to come but increasingly it will be relegated to 2nd rate TV stations and infomercials (and Charlie’s view of the earth) as even the shopping channels are going HD.
You do realize that over twice as many people with Dish have SD only receivers and programming than have HD, right?
That is not the point as Dish even said that they they will be turning off MPEG-2 soon on the western arc. The eastern arc is already all MPEG-4. Even if they are watching on there SDTV's they still should have MPEG-4 receivers.
Fine, how about you call Dish and have them send everyone who still has a 510, 522, 625, etc, a new MPEG-4 receiver as a replacement and then we'll see them shut down MPEG-2.
DISH doesn't put SD locals up on the eastern arc sats at all if they have hd counterparts, so why would they put sd versions of hd channels up there too? I am betting that the hd version is the same as the sd version but in down converted letterbox version. Especially since I see no lag time at all . Someone needs to try this with western arc hd/sd versions of channels and see if you see any difference in lag time.
Did I say they should get rid of SD channels. No I did not. All I am saying is that why do they bother still giving MPEG-2 receivers to new and existing members when in a few years they would be obsolete. The MPEG-4 receivers work fine on a SDTV and they still have many of those channels in SD but in MPEG-4 on the Eastern Arc.
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