Are Dish HD PPV Movies more often than not in OAR & DD 5.1 (i.e. as good as or better than the same movie later shown on HBOHD, SHOHD, STARZHD and MAXHD) for recording and archiving?

Yes. They are OAR and have a higher bit rate than any of the other channels. This is the absolute BEST video quality I have seen from Dish and I've been with them for several years now (I used to have the 6000U). I have DVR'd The Island and Over the Hedge and they are not quite Blu-Ray quality, but pretty dad-gum close.

Yes. They are OAR and have a higher bit rate than any of the other channels. This is the absolute BEST video quality I have seen from Dish and I've been with them for several years now (I used to have the 6000U). I have DVR'd The Island and Over the Hedge and they are not quite Blu-Ray quality, but pretty dad-gum close.

Are the HD PPV's always at least DD 5.1 as opposed to DD 2.1?

Do you have a 1080P display on which you watch these PPV HD movies upconverted from 1080i?

Are the HD PPV's always at least DD 5.1 as opposed to DD 2.1?

I can't say "always", because I've only seen two HD-PPV's, but the two I watched were very good and in DD 5.1.

Do you have a 1080P display on which you watch these PPV HD movies upconverted from 1080i?

No. My TV is 1080i. Why would this matter?

Yes. They are OAR and have a higher bit rate than any of the other channels. This is the absolute BEST video quality I have seen from Dish and I've been with them for several years now (I used to have the 6000U). I have DVR'd The Island and Over the Hedge and they are not quite Blu-Ray quality, but pretty dad-gum close.

Always OAR?

I had recorded / watched Casino Royale a month ago off of Dish HD PPV and it was broadcast in 1.78. I thought the original aspect was 2.35.

On the other hand, I also watched Deja Vu and I recall it was 2.35 on Dish HD PPV.

Regardless, I'm glad we now finally have some titles worth watching on Dish HD PPV.

Always OAR?

I had recorded / watched Casino Royale a month ago off of Dish HD PPV and it was broadcast in 1.78. I thought the original aspect was 2.35.

Yes, I did the same and can confirm it was in 1.78 on Dish HD PPV. It was originally 2.35.

I definitely think that films should be shown in OAR.

However, I can say that since I had previously seen the movie in a theater with a quite large screen, I actually preferred the 1.78 for a repeat viewing. This is because a 2.35:1 movie only uses 820 lines of the 1080 screen.

It's an interesting new dilemma, because the picture is still wide when it is 1.78, so one does not lose much originally included picture elements...

PS Definitely DD 5.1 as well.

Last I checked (which was actually quite awhile ago), the bitrate was better coming from 148W than from 110W. Its the same exact channel, just a different mux.

The best HD recording I've got came from the HD PPV channel off 148W. It was The Island. I compared it recently with some of the showings of The Island on MAXHD, and it blows the mpeg4 maxhd feed out of the water.

I need to trim some trees to regain 148W though to verify this :)