DIRECTV HD Revolution Begins

[DanLee]

With all these additions, how many have any HD content at all? It is funny for me to see Speed HD on their list when they made an announcement last month that they would begin broadcasting in HD in Feb. 2008. How much HD programming does USA, Bravo, Sci-Fi, Cartoon Network, CNN, FX, and Speed actually have. I am sure it looks better than SD versions, but do they really have HD (by definition)?

[regman]

DanLee is correct - not all of the HD channels are broadcasting HD all of the time and many go to "paid programming" late at night and that's all SD, but the HD content overall offers many more choices. I will count them tonight and report back later. I have always had the HD package as well as all of the premium channels (Total Choice Platinum) I think they call it. They added additional HD versions of 3 Showtime, 2 HBO, 3 or 4 Starz and a Max as well. And I have been getting all of the locals channels in HD for some time. But most of the channels in his first post, he asked about, are broadcasting some HD anyway.

One thing I have been noticing are more commercials in HD. I really like the "Target" commercials. Very forward thinking. THAT's how to get people from not fast forwarding.

Competition is good for the economy and we will ALL benefit from Dish and Direct TVs competition (and subsequently forcing the cable companies) to add more HD content. It is win-win. When ATT finally has FO drops directly into everyones house it will change everything.

The H20 DVR works exactly like my old TIVO H10 box incidentally... (only without the H10's unreliability ).

[akirby]

Sorry but those 38 Dish national channels include 5 premiums (HBO, Showtime, etc.).

This is a chicken/egg thing - you can't broadcast HD without a DTV channel. If you go out and procure HD shows without a DTV channel you're wasting money. This is easier for some stations that show mostly film based shows - those can easily be converted to HD while video must be filmed in HD from the beginning.

They can't magically create HD shows from SD sources. They'll catch up - be patient. Remember when we only got 2 or 3 HD football games per week? Now they're all HD.

[Homeron]

You said the Dish HD channel list I mentioned included Pay channels such as HBO sorry you are incorrect here is the list. The total HD channels on Dish at this time is 36, I was off a few because I was counting local Sports networks.
I still remember when TV stations would make a big deal if the show was in color. So it is fun to see such a big change come to TV once again. Baseball is almost unwatchable in Standard TV now that I have watched it in HD.

A&E HD
Animal Planet
Animania HD
Big Ten Network HD
Discovery HD
Discovery HD Theater
Equator HD
ESPN HD
ESPN2 HD
Family Room HD
Film Fest HD
Food Network HD
GamePlay HD
Gallery HD
Golf/Versus HD
HDNet
HDNet Movies
HDNews
HGTV HD
History Channel HD
Kung Fu HD
MHD
Monsters HD
National Geographic Channel HD
NFL Network HD
Rave HD
Rush HD
TBS in HD
The Science Channel
TLC
TNT HD
Treasure HD
Ultra HD
Universal HD
World Cinema HD
WorldSport HD

[zuuser1]

Sounds like Dish and Directv are pretty equal now. They have a similiar amount of channels. Dish has some channels Directv does not and vice versa. But there is still the issue of quality. Why does it seem to me that Dish HD quality is so much better than Directv HD? Am I wrong about this? What are the formats they use? Are they different? After all the hype about Directv HD over the past year I'm not very thrilled about this "revolution". There is no revolution. All Directv did is barely catch Dish, and I'm not even sure about that. Competition is good.

[regman]

The only quality issues I can think of were the old SD compression issues which have been improved dramatically with the new version decoders. 1080i is 1080i. Some stations don't do as good a job upconverting but I am sure that Dish has the same issues there. Direct TV is not done launching new channels either. There is supposed to be 25 more before year end. The fact is that they have 4 satellites in orbit now. I am sure that Dish will increase their offerings as well. I think it's good for the consumer that there are choices. Who knows? Maybe there will be a price war and costs may decrease, especially when cable and FO become contenders.

I should also add that I have an external Seagate FreeAgent 750G eSATA drive on my H20-100S so with the 320G internal drive my total storage capacity is over a terabyte.

At the time that I subscribed to Direct TV they had the best offerings and that has see sawed back and forth as Dish is obviously competitive so I am confused by the animosity from either camp.

[akirby]

Those are not the same channels that are listed on the Dish website under the title 38 national HD channels. That list does contain 5 premium channels (National Geographic HD, HBO, Showtime, Starz, Max) but actually adds up to 36 without the 5 premiums. The sports and local channels are separate.

I'm not bashing Dish - I'm just saying that DirecTV is not the evil empire that all the Dish owners seem to think it is.

I keep hearing HD Lite about DirecTV but I think that was based on the old mpeg2 channels before they launched the new satellites and should not be an issue on the new HD channels. Then again I've never noticed any problems with any of the DirecTV HD feeds although I have not done a valid A/B comparison. And neither have 99% of the DirecTV bashers.

[Homeron]

Instead of just saying someone is wrong please go and look at the actual site here http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/our_ ... ndex.shtml
I posted the list without the premium channels. I get National Geographic with out paying extra !

[akirby]

That is exactly the site I was using.
Why don't you actually read what you're posting before saying I'm wrong.

This is what is listed:

National Geographic Channel HD*

*Denotes Premium Channel - only available with select packages.

Dish calls it a premium channel. I assume you have whatever package it requires. I'm just repeating what Dish says. You can call them and tell them they're wrong.