DISH HD Subsribers...Please Reply  

If you subscribe to the SD version of the channel you will get the HD version. Dish will not lose the VOOM channels.

If your one-fouth to one-half into your contract agrement you have not much to fear.

IMO, it's very simple. Right now is a great time to have Dish Network. You have the most HD content and you can see what the next 12-18 months holds for DirecTV.

If Dish steps up and adds HD content to compete with DirecTV, or DirecTV's HD content/quality/pricing/timeline aren't what you want, then you can stay with Dish. Otherwise, you and me and thousands of others will be calling DirecTV in 2008 to switch.

Your first sentence says it all....

Well, when it comes to D*'s "dance of 100 channels" I can only tell you this:

1) nobody is going to just wake up one morning in 2007 and see 100 new channels. Its going to happen sloooooowwwwllly. First the networks themselves need to actually provide the channel, not just talk about it. D* needs to have have actual agreements for those channels, not just 'agreements in principle', and the actualy heavy lifting needs to be done to uplink those channels and get them broadcast. IMHO, D* was rather bold making that comment so I will believe it when I see it. It doesn't just 'happen' overnight...

2) I don't see Voom channels disappearing from Dish under any circumstances...(unless Charlie has a hissy-fit over pricing again). Voom, like any other content provider wants their channels to be seen.

3) E* is launching another bird this year...don't know the specifics, but its doubtful they are going to just lie there and 'let' D* take over. They haven't yet.

In conclusion...you have plenty of time to worry about who is going to have 100 channels or not. D* loves cranking the hype machine and getting meaningless rah-rahs out of their subs and getting the attention of everyone else, good and bad. In the end, its still going to be realistically a long time before the reality of the D* promises actually hit.

From one E* sub to another, just enjoy your HD as it is. Regardless of all the pomp and circumstance its still more HD than anyone else is watching at this time. E* is going to be offering many new hardware enhancements for its ViP622 so try and resist buying them so you don't marry yourself to a proprietary hardware purchase at this time. By the time D* starts delivering on its hype for you to get a clearer picture (no pun intended) of whats 'really' going on with D*, 12-18 monthes of your agreement would have past...no HD viewing lost...and you'll be in a much better position to make the switch if its worth your while.

You can relax...

What he said Great comments

No company watches their rival lap them for over a year and does nothing to compete...not if they hope to survive. I just don't see E* sitting there.

And as far as the vip622 goes, D* is going to need all 150 channels of HD for me to get rid of my vip622. Such a nice box...

I stopped recommending E* last August (especially if you had to sign a contract longer than 12 months) and with what they did to HDNET and HDNET movies it was evident what would happen. E* does not have the bandwidth to compete. As things look on both of them now, neither is a great option. With E* you still get a few HD channels that they haven't screwed up yet - but they will have no choice later this year.

Why do you think they want to "team" up? MONEY

Teaming up would take over 2 years to happen - the equipment isnt compatiable and cannot be made compatiable. Dish would have to change out all their HD equipment and essentially give up their platform they sell to systems outside the USA.


Again, E* will have to switch to equipment compatiable with D* equipment and also receive their SD Broadcast - in other words - its 2+ years before it can happen - thus E* customers can hope but don't expect to see any fruits of that until 2009 or beyond.

They're sharing sats for HD.

Echostar XI will be an in-orbit spare. E* will not be increasing capacity on their core orbital locations this year.

http://www.space.com/spacenews/archi...ho_032006.html Some background

As GeorgeLV correctly states, the Echostar XI is essentially a spare. There is talk about additional Spotbeams in the 110W position, however, if transponders are converted from Conus to Spotbeam (and logically moving some HD LIL signals off 129W which is in Conus), they still must put those SD signals on another Conus beam.

Furthermore, E* has to give up a number of transponders they have on 129W next year - thus contracting their tightening their capacity even more.

E* wanted a license at 114.5, which they were not granted.

They were granted a permission to build a bird for 86.5W, but obviously that does not fit on a Dish 500 or Dish 1000 arc - thus making more of a nightmare and expense for them.

Charlie Egan has played fast and loose with the law - with little to no long term strategic thinking and time has essentially run out for him to where he is literally out of options.

In retrospect, one must suspect that he thought eventually the 2 systems would merge and thus did not put the capital needed towards the coming crisis in place to improve his bottom line in earlier years.

To the OP,

I would not worry too much. The HD war is far from over....

E* is winning now, it looks like the pendulum will swing back in D*'s favor in Q3/Q4 of this year.

After that is anybody's guess.

Enjoy what you have and when your contract runs out, evaluate your options. The HD landscape is changing so much that worrying about what you should do 9 months from now isn't worth it.

Would anyone care to expand on this a bit (or point me to a thread that has more info)?

New pocketdish products and the external harddrive for archiving DVR content.

You mean "HD programming" right??


NGHD is the only (non-premium) HD channel that E* offers that isn't on the Bronze package. Perhaps, given what the rep said, it will be moving to that package...or perhaps the rep was just spewing false information. I'd hope for the former, don't be surprised if it's the latter.

Sure they have, are you f$%king kidding. Why don't they pony up the money for NFL ST?

DirecTV will be the HD leader. Many people consider E* to be the leader now but all they have over DTV is Voom, and we all know Voom is junk.

Ah yes...Sunday Ticket...the end-all be-all of human existance...

Sorry...theres more to life than football...(I am SO sick of this discussion with the football junkies who think the buck stops there...)

If your an Art History professor or student, any provider than doesn't give you GalleryHD is worthless, and Sunday Ticket is junk...got it?

sheez...D* is like a religion to some people...

What I can afford and what is actually worth paying for are two different things...

Now drop the personal comments or I will report you...this is not the forum for you to start a petty rant...we've had enough of those around here...

When you say rep, do you mean customer service rep? If so, please disregard everything he or she said.

Some of the Voom channels are awesome. I would take Monstershd over a channel like hdnet anyday. Depends on what you like.

Lets not forget the James Bond marathon on FilmFestHD...

I don't understand why this comment is so common. Voom is 15 channels of HD, and there is also FoodHD, HGTVHD, NGHD, and StarsHD. I happen to like Voom, but E* has several other HD channels not on D* and better HD resolution (no HD-LITE) on the non-Voom channels.

I like most of the Voom channels and wouldn't pay a dime for NFL Sunday ticket, even though I like NFL football, but get plenty to watch on broadcast TV, ESPN. and NFL net.

see attached PDF for Pricing changes for Dish HD

 

Pricing%20Update[1].pdf 44.953125k . file

I'll this forum as an opportunity for a quick question.

Once E* starts offering its free HD-DVR, I am considering a switch from Comcast to E*, especially considering that E* will be much cheaper, from what I noticed. But before I make this change, I'd like to know if E* offers NFL and NBA HD channels. I believe I read somewhere that they did offer NFL in HD, but I couldn't find it on the channel list on dishnetwork.com web site, hence the question.

Do we? Really?

No we don't. In fact many of us, football fans included, think ST is junk.

Willie
W.C. Fields was right.