# We want more HD programming



## nabuch (Aug 24, 2006)

Wth DTV promising over 100 HD channels by 3rd quarter, as if that will really happen, when will we start seeing more. Where is INHD and Cinemax HD, and Movie Channel HD for starters.
I switched from D about 2-3 months ago, and would never return, and love DISH, but they seem to be dragging their feet on HD programming right now.
Anyone have any info or comments?


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

While I would like to see more channels exist, and then those channels be carried by Dish... until more channels exist there's not much to do but wait and enjoy what we have. There are a handful out there that Dish could get, that they do not currently have... but I expect they are also waiting to see what is coming "soon" to see if it would be better to wait than load up now.

As for DirecTV's "promise" of 100 channels this year... until that many channels exist, I really wouldn't worry trying to compare Dish and DirecTV because it is vaporware.


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

nabuch said:


> ...they seem to be dragging their feet on HD programming right now.


Yeah, well join the club -- you have a lot of company. No matter how many HD channels any provider ever has
it will never be enough. But with more than 3x the number of HD channels as D*, and more than any other MCVP
to my knowledge, how can you even _think_ that E* is _"dragging their feet", _as you say?


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## killzone (Dec 27, 2006)

Nick said:


> how can you even _think_ that E* is _"dragging their feet", _as you say?


Well, they still don't have CW or MyNetwork. Even Fios offers those in HD. They're certainly not running full stride.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

killzone said:


> Well, they still don't have CW or MyNetwork. Even Fios offers those in HD. They're certainly not running full stride.


To say "even Fios offers those" isn't really much of a statement. Fios is only available in a VERY small part of the market in the US. Time Warner cable, as a comparison, in Raleigh does not have CW or MyNetwork in HD either so no option there to compare to in this area.

CW really is not a big network at this point. I watch Smallville in HD OTA, and that's the only thing I watch on CW, for example. Personally, while having locals in HD via satellite is cool for the multi-tuner ViP622 recording options... I would much rather see more national HD than locals in HD for markets like mine where I can get crystal clear HD OTA for free.


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## Steve H (May 15, 2006)

I would also like to see more movie channels in HD *BUT *before that happens I think Dish needs to gets all of their local market networks up and running in HD


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## dbconsultant (Sep 13, 2005)

We would love to see TMC HD added. We like the old movies (watch the old 30's movies more than new ones) and have been enjoying the quality of the older monster flicks on voom's monster channel and would like to see the same with TMC HD.


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## kdwebsol (Jan 29, 2006)

Steve H said:


> I would also like to see more movie channels in HD *BUT *before that happens I think Dish needs to gets all of their local market networks up and running in HD


Do not forget our RSNs! That is were E* is really drooping the ball.


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## rlu929s (Aug 9, 2006)

I would be happy just getting USA/TBS/SciFi etc to go along with TNT.

Don't see a need to pay for the movie channels at this point.


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## bobukcat (Dec 20, 2005)

HDMe said:


> CW really is not a big network at this point. I watch Smallville in HD OTA, and that's the only thing I watch on CW, for example. Personally, while having locals in HD via satellite is cool for the multi-tuner ViP622 recording options... I would much rather see more national HD than locals in HD for markets like mine where I can get crystal clear HD OTA for free.


A bit OT but I got hooked on Smallville watching it on HDNET but now CW in my area is only on a sub-channel of the CBS affiliate and it's not HD so I'll just wait for it on HDNet. Since there isn't a local CW HD E* (or anyone else) couldn't carry it if they wanted to. I do agree that I would rather see more national HD instead of hundreds of locals consuming all the bandwidth - except for Monday night when Heroes, Studio 60 and 24 are on at the same time. If I didn't have two 622s to handle this I would have to decide what to miss (I wouldn't bother recording it in SD).


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## dbconsultant (Sep 13, 2005)

dbconsultant said:


> We would love to see TMC HD added. We like the old movies (watch the old 30's movies more than new ones) and have been enjoying the quality of the older monster flicks on voom's monster channel and would like to see the same with TMC HD.


Oops - I always get TMC confused with TCM - I got excited because I thought TCM exists as an HD channel. Bummer, I thought maybe we'd get to see all of our old movies on HD. My bad.:whatdidid


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## Wicker 54 (May 7, 2006)

THAT,s a BIGG 10-4


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

bobukcat said:


> A bit OT but I got hooked on Smallville watching it on HDNET but now CW in my area is only on a sub-channel of the CBS affiliate and it's not HD so I'll just wait for it on HDNet. Since there isn't a local CW HD E* (or anyone else) couldn't carry it if they wanted to. I do agree that I would rather see more national HD instead of hundreds of locals consuming all the bandwidth - except for Monday night when Heroes, Studio 60 and 24 are on at the same time. If I didn't have two 622s to handle this I would have to decide what to miss (I wouldn't bother recording it in SD).


Yeah, I've been fairly lucky in regards to OTA HD... not only being in a good location to receive them, but having all my locals go HD for a while now. I think my local CW (formerly local WB) went HD 3-4 years ago and they were the last channel not in HD at that time.. MyNetwork isn't HD (and formerly UPN it wasn't HD either) but I don't feel like I'm missing much there.

So far I've been lucky too and not had too many conflicts of things I wanted to watch OTA... I watch Heroes, but never got into 24 despite hearing good things and liking Kiefer Sutherland as an actor... only conflict I really had was with Monday Night Football, but that moved to ESPN and solved the problem for me before I got my HD DVR!


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## screen1st (Dec 13, 2006)

Are there any details on what the new channels are by DTV? Are they mainly locals? Also, what HD channels are in the pipeline for Dish, other than the RSNs?


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## fsquid (Aug 30, 2006)

Heck, I don't even know what other HDs are out there that DISH doesn't have. BravoHD?


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

fsquid said:


> Heck, I don't even know what other HDs are out there that DISH doesn't have. BravoHD?


There isn't a whole lot really... What used to be BravoHD sort of died and was sort of replaced by UniversalHD back in the Voom days... though rumors are that there *may* come another BravoHD in the future.

Actual existing HD channels (national ones) aren't that many right now, but there are a few.


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## Hunter Green (May 8, 2006)

InHD.


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## kenglish (Oct 2, 2004)

The "HD Color Bar Channel", the "16by9 HD Registration Channel", the "Dolby Digital Test Channel", the ................


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## Yes616 (Sep 6, 2006)

Patience my friends. E* has just done something very interesting. They have now put 6 HD channels on one transponder on both the 61.5 and 129 birds. The channels are:

9425 - ESPN2 HD
9426 - NFL HD
9429 - National Geographic HD
9435 - StarzHD
9461 - HGTV HD
9462 - Food HD

Before the best they could do was about 3. These are now true MPEG-4 channels and I think they look as good or maybe even better than before even though each channel is using about half the bandwidth used before.

Now seeing as E* has gotten the MPEG-4 act together, there is a good chance that more HD is just around the corner. We may even be in for a pleasant surprise as early as (dare I say?) February 1. That would be something.


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## gjh3260 (Mar 19, 2006)

Yes616 said:


> Patience my friends. E* has just done something very interesting. They have now put 6 HD channels on one transponder on both the 61.5 and 129 birds. The channels are:
> 
> 9425 - ESPN2 HD
> 9426 - NFL HD
> ...


That would be sweet if there were more HD channels added on 2/1. I subscribe to 4 of the 6 HD channels above and i do think the PQ has improved.


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## archer75 (Oct 13, 2006)

What makes you think they would add more HD on 2/1 specifically? If they were going to I would have thought they'd be advertising it like crazy.

Are there any more HD channels that could even be added? It seems alot of the studios won't have HD content broadcasting until the end of the year.

If Dish can double up with HD on each transponder how many transponders are now free for more HD content?


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## Yes616 (Sep 6, 2006)

archer75 said:


> What makes you think they would add more HD on 2/1 specifically? If they were going to I would have thought they'd be advertising it like crazy.
> 
> Are there any more HD channels that could even be added? It seems alot of the studios won't have HD content broadcasting until the end of the year.
> 
> If Dish can double up with HD on each transponder how many transponders are now free for more HD content?


I only went out and "dared to say". Dish seems to like Feb 1. Remember last year?

Also, A&E HD is uplinked already to channel 9419. Maybe, again I said maybe we will see that one. I am just being hopeful.


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## archer75 (Oct 13, 2006)

Yes616 said:


> I only went out and "dared to say". Dish seems to like Feb 1. Remember last year?


I don't remember. I am a direct tv subscriber currently and have not been following dish. What did they do last year?


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## Yes616 (Sep 6, 2006)

archer75 said:


> I don't remember. I am a direct tv subscriber currently and have not been following dish. What did they do last year?


Last year Dish launched about 10 new national HD channels and also launched local HD's for NYC & LA on Feb 1. More local HD's came soon after. It was a good day.


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## Hunter Green (May 8, 2006)

Locals locals, we want locals!


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## sNEIRBO (Jul 23, 2006)

I would like to see DISH combine or scrap some of the VOOM channels. 

They could combine Monsters, Kung-Fu and Film Fest into 1 channel.
Animania, Family Room and GamePlay into another.
Treasure, Gallery, Ultra and Equator could be combined 
Rush and World Sports could be combined

That would free up 8 channels, then scrap HDNews - 9 HD channels to add better programming to.

Within a couple of months I was noticing a LOT of repeats on the VOOM Channels. - combine them and reduce the repetition.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

killzone said:


> Well, they still don't have CW or MyNetwork. Even Fios offers those in HD. They're certainly not running full stride.


When a majority of the CW and MNTV stations are broadcasting in HD and have negotiated agreements for carriage, we'll probably see them. To assume that Dish (or DirecTV) has chosen not to carry them ain't necessarily so.

Dish Network seems to be a little more given to gaging interest in a particular channel. I would think that in most markets, there's much more to be gained from adding PBS HD than the MNTV channel. Simply calling themselves a network doesn't justify setting aside the bandwidth for only a few hours of HD content a day.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

sNEIRBO said:


> I would like to see DISH combine or scrap some of the VOOM channels.


Dish has little or no control over what Voom does. What Voom does is up to Voom.

Dish obviously isn't complaining because nobody else seems to have the bandwidth to carry all of the channels. This isn't likely to change until October at the earliest (unless AT&T is hiding something up its sleeve). It is notable that of all of the Voom channels, BEV chose to carry just TreasureHD.

The big problem that happens going forward with your proposition is that at some point they'll need to break the channels back out. As more people subscribe to Voom, it is likely that they will increase the size of their library.


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## Yes616 (Sep 6, 2006)

If you look around all these forums and the http://www.dishchannelchart.com you will find that those 2 blank channels in the 6300 and 6400 range are planned for 2 future local HD's for each city.
Ever notice that? 6300, 6301, 6302 and 6303 are NYC HD's. Nothing on 6304 and 6305. Then comes 6306, 6307, 6308 and 6309 for LA HD's. Nothing on 6310 and 6311 and this pattern continues.
The speculation from those who are "in the know" say that these 2 reserved channels will be for CW and PBS HD but not until many more HD cities are added. Then Dish will go back to fill in the blanks. There is no talk about MyTV.

I am in the NYC DMA and the MyTV station here is WWOR. Many national folks know of this channel because it is in the Superstation Package.
WWOR (formerly WOR-TV, an RKO station) has always been the "ho-hum" channel. I never cared for much there all the way back to to 1960's and I beleive it was always the least popular of all NYC VHF channels. Recently they fired the popular long time NYC weather icon Storm Field (son of another NYC weather icon, his dad Dr. Frank Fields). Don't worry about Storm, he will be back in a better place very soon.
I think MyTV will not survive for long and CW will pick up their most popular shows. WWOR will survive in NYC as there are enough potential viewers to keep it going but MyTV affiliates in smaller markets (and many of these channels are fairly new) may not survive unless their local management teams turn these channels into some real smart independents.
Enough about WWOR & MyTV.

I think E* (and I have posted this thought around here before) should take the Superstations and get them up in HD. Many of us nationwide can then enjoy CW and MyTV in HD for now. I would like new episodes of Smallville in HD. Right now I watch 1 year later on HDNet and I won't look at the CW episodes. I am so good at that I didn't even know Jonathan Kent died last year until just a few weeks ago. I hope some big-wig at CW just heard that! lol

Superstations in HD would be a great fix now. I know PBS-HD now is another story. Too bad most of us (like me) can't get a national feed for PBS (on channel 249) but those that qualify should be able to get it in HD as well.


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## killzone (Dec 27, 2006)

harsh said:


> Simply calling themselves a network doesn't justify setting aside the bandwidth for only a few hours of HD content a day.


Unfortunately this is true of almost all HD channels. For the NYC locals at most 1/3 of the programming is actually in HD. For the Voom channels (which I don't get), people are saying it's an endless sea of repeats.


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