Dish Network HDTV - Page 66

The more blown up the picture, the more evident any compression artifacts, softness, lack of detail in the source.

I'm viewing Dish on a 65" DLP set. I only watch HD programming.

Quality is a nice improvement over my local Comcast offering. Comcast pq was much softer.

Glad to be getting some of those "wow" moments back from a good HD broadcast. That had disappeared from Comcast, once they started adding phone and internet to their offerings. Guess they had to save some bandwidth somewhere.

Thanks guys. Forget to mention I have a 118" screen

The pixels are bigger. Presumably you'll sit farther away.

New HD channel is live: RFD-TV 231

Any other Dish America Gold subscribers here? Cooking Channel HD is listed as included on that package, but missing from my channel guide. Either it's outright false advertising or Dish has no grasp on how to update their website properly. Can't be that difficult to correct. Besides, people use that info to choose their subscription level

Anyone else subscriber to Gold - are you missing this channel?

Has anyone recently gone from U-verse to Dish? I had Dish a few years ago, but I went to Time Warner for various reasons, mostly outtages during rainstorms. Then I went from TWC to U-verse last year because of cost and equipment issues. I like U-verse--especially the user interface--but the cost is high, and the picture quality is not what I remember from Dish.

We don't seem to be getting as many rainstorms the last couple of years, so I'm considering Dish again. Any thoughts?

Try to find someone in your area. I think the problems vary from one place to another. I had Dish for 2 1/2 years and had very few rain problems, but we don't get a lot of rain anyway. This thread has been fairly quiet lately. You might get more feedback on satellite guys forum.

Wow, that's not all I get more of on that forum. That site is just plain hard to look at. much less read.

Maybe I didn't express myself clearly enough. Yes, I'm concerned about weather outtages, but I'm more curious about PQ differences between U-verse and Dish, especially HD. I'm also curious about the user interface.

HD PQ will be better on Dish since they have more bandwidth on average. Interface isn't as pretty, but very functional and better than cable and that other satellite service. There are also other Dish benefits like more HD nationals, OTA integration, Sling integration for remote viewing and a great web interface for managing your DVR. The remote is better too since it's learning and RF is built in to the DVR, not an add-on like U-verse.

My intial 2 year committment with Dish is up in April and I was wondering about any deals they might make to keep you on after. I am reasonably happy with Dish and sort of mentally playing with getting a sling adapter for the TV Anywhere since we have iPads. It is just tough to stay full price when the local cable company and the other sat network are offering all kinds of deals to switch.

I just dropped mine and they are offering virtually a new customer deal to restart. If you call in to cancel they will transfer you to customer loyalty and you can negotiate with them then. If you don't get what you want and go ahead and cancel they will sweeten the offer. At first they may try to call your bluff, but be prepared to actually leave.

It was easy in my case since I didn't care what they offered. I left because their sports coverage sucks and that's the only reason I'd have cable/sat anyway. I've been on OTA and Internet for 2 months and don't miss it a bit. I'll have to go to cable for 6 months when college football starts, though.

Has anyone noticed a change in picture quality one way or another? I wasn't completely impressed with the HD picture quality when I first got Dish last fall, but the picture quality seems like it suddenly got better a few weeks ago. Are my eyes playing tricks on me or could there be something to it?

Dish image quality has improved over the years, but I hadn't noticed any particular jump up in quality recently. It probably depends most on how much they compress your favorite channels.

Or if they reduce the resolution.
Are they still doing it.

not sure if this is a good or bad thing

Yes, I have trouble seeing what they can do with Blockbuster that is really going to be helpful. The interesting note is that they keep talking about the brand as being valuable not anything else.

Not sure if this is the correct place to post this or not, but I lost SYFY in HD about a month ago. I just figured it was a problem with SYFY until I typed in the channel number manually, and Dish informed me that I could add this programming to my package for a fee. SYFY HD is on the lowest package they sell, and I have the top 200 package, so what gives? Is there anything I should try before I call them up and deal with tech support for an hour?

That sounds like an authorization problem, then... so you'll pretty much have to call them and ask them to re-authorize your receiver for the programming package you already subscribe to.

Reelz channel (299) now in HD.

After much research I have come to think Dish might be the better choice for my programing wants/needs than DTV.

Programing aside,,, my concerns are with Dish pricing and customer service.

As far as pricing, Dish has their "price lock" promo untill 2013,,, are they sticking to that, or are they being sneeky and jacking up prices ?

If I have a tech problem am I going to be on the phone for hours with no help or is their customer service Ok.

Ok,, those are my two main concerns.

Thanks in advance for any help and opinions.

Cheers
Davyo

Thanks for the link, and I did do a search prior to posting my thread, the thread you linked is all about programing and tech related subjects for the most part.

I have read much of that thread already and it didnt really address my questions as to pricing,,,, price lock untill 2013,,,, and CS.

Cheers
Davyo

I just moved from Comcast to Dish a couple of months ago. Overall, very pleased with the service, pq, and reliability of the system.

I assumed that the install guys would just plant the dish and hook into my existing wiring that my cable used. Not so.

Appparently they need to replace all the signal splitters in an existing cable run. The install guy said that using the existing ones will burn them out for some reason. My cable was run when the house was built, so no telling what was in the walls.

Ran the new cable for the install and put the Dish in the ground, using cement to keep it in place properly. Did this in deep snow!! No extra charge.

I was really happy that my local allowed this placement as I didn't want anything bolted to my roof.

Rest of the install hid the wires as well as could be expected. Wires only visible onwhere they connect to the dish itself.

PQ was my main concern. It is considerably better than my Comcast feed. Comcast seemed to be much softer in HD and had gotten worse over time. I suspect them cramming phone and internet down the same pipe caused them to throttle back the HD bitrate.

I have a 722 HD DVR, replacing the standard Comcast model. It has significantly more storage capacity and the guide options are great.

With Comcast, you got what they gave you in a 4x3 format. With Dish, the Guide is full 16x9 and you can customize it to give you several guides that you pick. For example, you can set up a guide for movie channels, news, sport channels, locals etc. I think you can have 5 different guides in all. Very nice.

PQ is sharp and colorful. Good detail. Pay channels look to get a higher bitrate and look excellent.

You can look at your bill on the system and pay it there, if you aren't auto paying. Their Pay per View prices are about what Comcast was, although I don't use that.

Only had one opportunity to call Customer service. Had to make some equipment changes right before installation. Call goes straight to India. Conversation is all read by some script on their end and somewhat slow due to my need for them to repeat things a couple of times.

Overall, they got everything right on the order and it went fine from there.

I have heard nothing but horror stories about Directv's strategy of getting your credit card number and charging it for whatever they want. While Dish has the same contract requirements, I didn't feel that I was dealing with outright crooks.

One advantage that Directv seems to have is in the whole house DVR concept. The install guys said that Direct uses existing house wiring for their install, so they have it easy compared to the work Dish installers have to do. The DVR interface apparently works through this single cable connection, making it easier to leverage one DVR throughout the house. Dish is behind in this area. Although I have multiple TVs, the DVR content is only usable on the one set I have it connected to. I can connect a 2nd set to the DVR, but only get SD output.

HOpe this helps.

These claims are usually greatly exaggerated. It does happen from time to time but it is usually pretty easy to fix. Most of the time this is caused by the customer either forgetting/refusing to send the receivers back when they are supposed to, however sometimes it is DirecTVs fault for not correctly getting the returned receivers checked back in to their system. If you make sure to keep the tracking information for the receivers that are sent back, then you can show that to DirecTV as proof that they were returned and they are usually pretty quick to refund the money to your card.


Whole Home DVR is great. I have had it for a couple years now (I beta tested it before it was widely available) and couldn't go without it anymore.

DirecTV will try to re-use existing cabling if possible. However they too must make sure the splitters in your home are rated high enough (3Ghz I believe) and the cable is good enough (they prefer RG6 with solid copper core, but I believe they can still use RG59 if it is in good shape). Otherwise they will rewire the house. Free install is running the wire on the outside of the house and drilling in through the exterior wall. If you want wall fishes to interior walls they will charge extra.

Old splitters will not "burn out" they will just block the signal so it is unusable.

As far as your questions about Dish's price lock-in, the way I understand it is they have promised not to raise package prices on you, but they can still raise the fees that they charge for DVR/receiver rental, and stuff like that. So they can theoretically still raise your bill.

Former DirecTV sub here. So far no surprise increases on my bill. I don't expect them to sneak around the 2 yr price lock since they essentially hit us with 2 years worth of price increases up front before the lock. Customer service is just as inept as DirecTV's, but I've always gotten through quickly and gotten my problems solved. Unlike DirecTV, Dish has tech reps on the forums (dbstalk and satelliteguys) that are fantastic. I can just PM them and get most anything changed or fixed very quickly.

I do miss MRV. But I gained a ton of HD, responsive DVR, and sling capability. So I don't regret switching at all and wish I'd done it sooner.

Topics merged.

Dish, EchoStar to pay $500 million TiVo settlement

Dish Network Corp. and EchoStar Corp. will pay TiVo Inc. $500 million to settle a patent lawsuit over digital video recorder technology.

The Associated Press

ALVISO, Calif.
Dish Network Corp. and EchoStar Corp. will pay TiVo Inc. $500 million to settle a patent lawsuit over digital video recorder technology.

TiVo, based in Alviso, Calif., first sued Dish and EchoStar in 2004 for infringing on patents covering its "Time Warp" digital video recorder technology.

The recorders allow users to digitally record television programs and then play them back, as well as pause, fast-forward and rewind.

Under the settlement, Dish and EchoStar will initially pay TiVo $300 million. The remaining $200 million will be distributed in six annual installments between 2012 and 2017.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...ettlement.html

Game Show Network (116) is now in HD. Still waiting for IFC