Mr. Cuban,
If you are out there, I am currently watching "The Best 25 Years of Pop" on HDNet (which I'm thrilled includes a performance by a great mix-up of Yes) and, since I'm watching it on D*, the quality is not as great as I know it can be. There have been confirmations recently that D* upped the resolution on DiscoveryHDTheater (from 1280x1088 to 1920x1088). Although bit-rates factor into the equation, I believe that DHDT on D* looks better than it did a few weeks ago.

I know that you want your networks to deliver the best possible HD experience. Any chance that your networks might be the next to benefit from an increase in resolution on D*?

Thanks for all you do for HDTV and for your participation in this forum.

You have his e-mail?

I'll send one too

Not gonna happen. Its out of his control.

Not gonna happen. Its out of his control.


I just wonder how he feels about another HD channel being sent at a higher resolution than his nets.

Not gonna happen. Its out of his control.
- Exactly. Mark's posted a few times about this and has been on a few "Insiders" shows discussing this. He can't dictate what bit rate and resolution that providers broadcast at.

Of course it would benefit but he's just going to tell you its out of his control. Hell, he's even defended it in the past.

- Exactly. Mark's posted a few times about this and has been on a few "Insiders" shows discussing this. He can't dictate what bit rate and resolution that providers broadcast at.

It could be written into carriage agreements that a certain signal be passed to the subscribers. HBO indicated that when they go HD for all their channels that minimum resolution and bit rates will be required. I don't see why HDNet couldn't do the exact same thing.

I seem to remember reading several times that Mark accepts the providers decision to lower resolution and bitrate as needed. He seemed to show some contempt about the whole HD-lite thing (and so many being upset about it). Don't quote me on this....

You might as well ask him for a 60" HDTV while you're at it.

It could be written into carriage agreements that a certain signal be passed to the subscribers. HBO indicated that when they go HD for all their channels that minimum resolution and bit rates will be required. I don't see why HDNet couldn't do the exact same thing.
There's a big reason: popularity. HBO has a much bigger customer demand than HDNet.

Of course, it's ironic that HBO would have such a stipulation seeing as they actually send a reduced bit rate signal to providers in the first place.

There have been confirmations recently that D* upped the resolution on DiscoveryHDTheater (from 1280x1088 to 1920x1088). Although bit-rates factor into the equation, I believe that DHDT on D* looks better than it did a few weeks ago.

Sure it does .... as long as nothing is moving on screen ... otherwise (read very often) it looks pretty bad to me. Maybe they can bring back "Insectia" to placate our "FullHD" cravings. ;) :D

I suppose it's kind of like repeatedly flooring the gas then stomping on the brakes vs. driving in the slow lane at a constant 35mph. :)

might be easier to get his attention if you spell his name right

I seem to remember reading several times that Mark accepts the providers decision to lower resolution and bitrate as needed. He seemed to show some contempt about the whole HD-lite thing (and so many being upset about it). Don't quote me on this....Your memory is correct. He pretty much told the HD Lite challengers that unless they had professional HD playback equipment they weren't watching true HD anyway, no matter what broadcast format or provider they have.

It's all about the money.

Scott

Your memory is correct. He pretty much told the HD Lite challengers that unless they had professional HD playback equipment they weren't watching true HD anyway, no matter what broadcast format or provider they have.

It's all about the money.

Scott

It's still too bad. He could have set a standard that would have ultimately paid off.

It's still too bad. He could have set a standard that would have ultimately paid off.Agreed.

I'm really surprised how quickly so many are to dismiss this issue as "been there, done that," and "it's been settled before." The situaiton is not the same today as it was a year ago.

D* has been reducing the rez on HD to 1280 horizontal for a long time. Now, all of a sudden, they've upped the horizontal rez on DHDT. No one can seem to explain why they did it, or from where they got the "capacity" to do it. Still they did it. I figured that HDNet, with its strict focus on quality presentation might be next in line, if anyone is in line at all.

Never hurts to ask about what the future prospects are. Things are changing, especially with the change to MPEG4 so there's no reason not to believe that HDNEt and HDNet Movies might not get improved treatment from D* either now, or in a month or so.

If anyone would know the prospects of this, it would be Mark, I would think.

Frankly, I can understand Marc Cuban's position here. I believe he has said (and I don't mean to misstate if I do) that being on the air is more important to him than quibbling over the resolution to the level that some folks have been debating.

I appreciate full-resolution HD, and I miss it too... but I realize the necessary evil to get more quality channels like HDNet on the air with available bandwidth... and am not ready to throw my TV out the window just for the lower-than-perfect resolution we are getting sometimes.

Your memory is correct. He pretty much told the HD Lite challengers that unless they had professional HD playback equipment they weren't watching true HD anyway, no matter what broadcast format or provider they have.

It's all about the money.

ScottSo what is true HD? 1080/24P has full vertical resolution, so does interlaced 1080 still qualify since it drops to half vertical on movement? How about recorded images? Does compression in professional formats like HDCAM SR and D5 still qualify as true HD? How about the resolution drop to 1440x1080i in HDCAM? Then there is 720P with its 1280 horizontal pixels, is this true HD? Also, most film transfers use a fixed pixel device like the Spirit which requires electronic zoom for framing and loses some fine detail -is this true HD? The consumer optical disc formats use 4:2:0 which lowers the vertical chroma resolution in half. True HD?

The fact is that there really isn't a hard line between what's true HD and what's not. I'm sure we can all agree that a lower bitrate stream that's rate shaped or re-encoded can suffer enough damage to make it HD-Lite.

There is some truth to the anti-HD-Lite argument. Many here will state that anything lower than 1920 pixels does not qualify as true HD. At the same tme, members will praise the high quality of Discovery HD, who is using (unless something changed) HDCAM with 1440 pixles. I've been told (and trying to confirm) that HDNet also takes delivery on HDCAM. Both NBC and CBS take delivery on HDCAM SR, which is a true 1920 pixel format.

The fact is that a full bandwidth ATSC HD channel with a good modern encoder will create images that are very close in apparent resolution to the original source. There are limitations with the some material that will stress the encoder into significant degradation at even the best ATSC bitrates, such as strobe lights and very fast motion. While I understand that there's little one can do to control what happens downstream, I think the reasoning that if it's slightly mutilated already at the source then who cares if it gets alot worse by the time it gets home is a bit of a rationalization.

If this sounds like HDNet bashing, it's not. I greatly appreciate Mr. Cuban's efforts of creating a high quality HD channel and programming, and am impressed that he cares so much about the quality of the source material. I too wish there was a way that channels could control the providers, but it's not reality.

I don't currently see those problems with HDNET on DISH. I dropped D* a while back and at first DISH had some of those same problems but as soon as they went to MPEG-4 the quality was back to normal.

I don't currently see those problems with HDNET on DISH. I dropped D* a while back and at first DISH had some of those same problems but as soon as they went to MPEG-4 the quality was back to normal.

HDNet is not in MPEG4 on Dish. It is one of a handful of channels that will still be in MPEG2 even after events this week.

HDNet is not in MPEG4 on Dish. It is one of a handful of channels that will still be in MPEG2 even after events this week.
What "events" are happening this week?

What "events" are happening this week?

All Voom is being converted to mpeg4 so E* can add more HD channels: MHD, Golf/Versus, Discovery, TLC, Animal Planet, and Science Channel are coming Aug 15. History is coming Sept. 1.

All Voom is being converted to mpeg4 so E* can add more HD channels: MHD, Golf/Versus, Discovery, TLC, Animal Planet, and Science Channel are coming Aug 15. History is coming Sept. 1.
Sounds good, thanks for the info. :)

What "events" are happening this week?

GeorgeLV beat me to it... about the Voom channels going MPEG4 this week to help make room for more HD and move some more ViP receiver upgrades for Dish.

I don't think Voom had to move to make room for this week's new channels, but it was as good of a time as any to encourage more folks to go MPEG4 for Dish's plans next year.

I seem to remember reading several times that Mark accepts the providers decision to lower resolution and bitrate as needed. He seemed to show some contempt about the whole HD-lite thing (and so many being upset about it). Don't quote me on this....I remember that, but I hope it was just that Marc realized that they were in a tough position with their satellites at the time. But with the new one up, I would hope that when they really get things rolling they will either improve the quality for HDNet themselves, or Marc will ask them this time. I wonder if they'll have an MPEG-4 version. It would be nice if they could either get an MPEG-4 version from Marc at a reasonable bitrate, or start with something like a 45Mbps MPEG-2 stream from Marc and then convert that to whatever MPEG-4 bitrate they are going to use (even if variable). I would be reasonably happy (and surprised) if they would send us say 14Mbps with MPEG-4 that they converted from a high bitrate (not 19Mbps) MPEG-2.

And I hope HBO does something like doing their own MPEG-4 from earlier in the stream or the same thing I described with a high bitrate MPEG-2 source to DIRECTV that they convert. HBO's PQ for boxing could use a whole lot of improvement, from what I've seen.

--Darin

Everyone - It's Mark Cuban - not Marc.

Everyone - It's Mark Cuban - not Marc.
who cares? :rolleyes:

who cares? :rolleyes:
I would imagine Mark does...

...besides, he might take you more seriously if you know how to spell his name.

who cares? :rolleyes:Sorry, vurbando. NetworkTV got it right. :D

Whether its Mark or Marc, I'm pretty sure he'll notice the thread if he's looking. Notwithstanding my mistake, my attempt to edit the title failed.

If an Mod wants to correct the misspelling, please feel free to do so.

how about Marck Ckuban?

Or Kram Nabuc?

Ah Voom! Once there was greatness, then the majors said no.
Still have my receiver and dish - Dead Soldiers in the war on Terror :) We can't have any bandwidth in DisneyLand now can we?

Cuban is going to have to overhaul both HDNet and HDNet-Movies. Once all of these other channels go HD, his channels lose their appeal a great deal. They were great for awhile when there was little else in HD. HDNet has a few good things and a lot of lousy things. Watching old canceled series upconverted to HD isn't my cup of tea. Some of their music shows are good. Most of HDNet-Movies isn't that great either.

He was ahead of the curve but he'll need some major changes to stay that way.

I think they are going to soon start focusing more on original content instead of cancelled series from other networks.

Mixed Martial Arts in HD (for free) is great! Although I am bummed the WEC contract with HDNET ended when the UFC bought them.

I think there is plenty of room for HDNET even after all the other channels turn to HD.

Cuban is going to have to overhaul both HDNet and HDNet-Movies. Once all of these other channels go HD, his channels lose their appeal a great deal. They were great for awhile when there was little else in HD. HDNet has a few good things and a lot of lousy things. Watching old canceled series upconverted to HD isn't my cup of tea. Some of their music shows are good. Most of HDNet-Movies isn't that great either.

He was ahead of the curve but he'll need some major changes to stay that way.

they're not upconverted..ugh

i think we're going to see gold rush for HD and someone else will probably buy HDNet from Mark for an obscene amount of cash..

I think there is plenty of room for HDNET even after all the other channels turn to HD.Super Hi-Vision ! C'mon Mark, what's taking so long? :D