DISH added 10 new HD stations on May 1st

RAF · 04-29-2005, 11:04 PM

Dish is adding 10 additional HD stations this Sunday to the 8 (or 9 if you get CBS-HD) already in the line-up. By 2006 they expect to add at least 11 more (from the former VOOM offerings). The press release can be found here.

PerryD · 04-30-2005, 08:26 AM

This is good news, especially if they include the channels in their HD pack for no additional cost.

Unfortunately, I dropped Dish about a year ago when they didn't offer Starz-HD and my local cable company did. What is stopping Dish from offering Starz-HD right now?

Scott-S · 04-30-2005, 10:01 AM

I am actually getting a little woried with all this adding. I have recently started using Dish network and they have some serious issues with compression artifacts already. Nearly every channel I watch looks like it is streaming over the internet. When watching the Masters (or any golf) the greens look terrible due to the compression. I was watching a dark scene in a movie (first blood - in the cave) and it was completly un-watchable due to the compression.

If they want to add HD channels that is fine, I just hope they can do it without turning down the bandwidth on all the channels to make room.

Shane Martin · 04-30-2005, 01:03 PM

Perry,
Voom is upping the rate $5 a month to cover this. These new channels will be at the 61.5 location.

From what I can tell these won't be Dish exclusives. They offered them to Directv and cable. A comment on the dbs forums seems to indicate that Directv will add them after they send up the next satellite this year.

RAF · 05-01-2005, 08:10 PM

I can confirm that DISH charges $5/month for the newly offered (by DISH) VOOM channels and that they are on the 61.5 satellite. I've never had an issue with Dish "artifacts" as some others have claimed. And the fact that Dish is using the VOOM 61.5 satellite they purchased should mean that it won't impact the bandwidth/space already available. At 50 cents/month/channel (with no time commitment) it's well worth it to me to check out the additional HD programming. While I probably won't watch all the channels on a regular basis there are already several that look intriguing. And with what appears to be 5.1 sound on all channels, and correct aspect ratios all around this is definitely a step in the right direction.

VOOM may be offering their software to other vendors, but with DISH purchasing the VOOM satellite they have a leg up for now on the competition. Of course a lot of this changes when the MPEG2 -> MPEG4 transition takes place and everyone has more room for programming.

**HTF Ads**

Quentin · 05-02-2005, 12:32 PM

Wonder when DirecTV will wise up? I just cancelled my HD subscription. I'll fire it up again come football season, but ESPN is the only thing really worth it for $10 a month.

They currently only offer ESPN, HDnet, DiscHD, UniHD, and I think one other. Yippee.

I get the HBO, Showtime, and networks for no extra cost (other than subscribing to HBO/Show).

John_Lee · 05-02-2005, 01:06 PM

Quote:

I can confirm that DISH charges $5/month for the newly offered (by DISH) VOOM channels and that they are on the 61.5 satellite.

So is this in addition to the $10 I have been paying for the [supposed to be expanding] HD package. I only see the $10 package on their website, but my receiver shows them as subscription channels I don't have.

RAF · 05-02-2005, 03:39 PM

Quote:

my receiver shows them as subscription channels I don't have.

Yes, that's exactly what happened to me. I subscribe to the $10 HD package and assumed that the new channels would be added to that package. Even the people at DISH that I contacted earlier in the week when the VOOM announcement was made didn't know anything about a $5 surcharge. When I first saw the "red" designation on my program guide for the 10 VOOM channels (which means I'm not authorized to receive them) I thought that it was a case of having to call to tell DISH to switch them on for me. The customer service rep (CSR) told me that she had just received a memo a few minutes earlier that stated that there was an extra charge for the 10 stations. I decided to try them out (50 cents/channel/month) since there is no long term commitment.

I agree that DISH could have promoted this a lot better than they did. It's almost as though the left hand didn't know what the right hand was doing. Eventually, when the other 11 VOOM channels are added and a few other changes take place I would think that they will restructure the HD package a little better. Right now it appears that you pay $10 for the HD content from the 110 and 119 satellites and that you pay $5 for the content from the 61.5 satellite.

At least DISH is upgrading its HD content so that I now have over 20 channels of HD. As I said, the new content is all 5.1 DD and appears to be in the correct aspect ratio. Some of it looks intriguing. Time will tell if there is a lot of repetition or enough programming to make it all worthwhile. Now if DISH would expedite the promised network HD additions (all I get now is CBS-HD) then I'll be a very happy camper. Charlie Ergen promised something in the Fall, 2005 timeframe, I seem to recall, on one of the Charlie Chats.

We'll see. So far, so good.

Gregg Loewen · 05-02-2005, 06:24 PM

This is way kewl, thanks for posting RAF!

I got a call on Thursday telling me what was going on. Since I already had the 61.5 dish I was quite happy. After 2 phone calls on Sunday I was Vooming once again!!