Is dish getting rid of HBO soon?

[Jack White]

The HBO Bitrate Cops have declared WAR against the Evil Forces of the Overcompressors(Chaz Ergen, Rupert "The WMD's are just well hidden" Murdoch"), and others. You know Chaz is just dying to drop the HD Mpeg4 channels to 2.5 Mbps. I was starting to wonder why Fiostv, Comcast, etc have a bazillion Cinemax channels while Dish has like 2. Now I know that Chaz can't afford to waste that bandwidth on a MERE 10 Cinemax channels when he could get 40 other channels for the same bandwidth.





HBO to use MPEG-4 and mandate a minimum bit-rate
Posted Jun 22nd 2007 2:46PM by Ben Drawbaugh
Filed under: Industry, HBO-HD, Cable, Fiber, Satellite

In a world where almost all HD channels are distributed with MPEG-2, HBO has just announced that all 26 of their new HD channels will be MPEG-4. The stream will be 8 Mbps, and HBO has mandated that the provider not reduce the bit-rate. What they didn't say is, what the minimum will be for all those MPEG-2 networks that will no doubt transcode the signal rather than upgrade their entire network (including all the STBs). This is an obvious advantage to satellite providers who are already planning on deploying their new HD channels with MPEG-4; and for HBO who won't have to spend as much cash on bandwidth to distribute their feeds.
Tags: HBO, MPEG-2, MPEG-4

http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/06/22/hbo-to-use-mpeg-4-and-mandate-a-minimum-bit-rate/

[James Long]

The HBO Bitrate Cops have declared WAR against the Evil Forces of the Overcompressors(Chaz Ergen, Rupert "The WMD's are just well hidden" Murdoch"), and others. You know Chaz is just dying to drop the HD Mpeg4 channels to 2.5 Mbps. I was starting to wonder why Fiostv, Comcast, etc have a bazillion Cinemax channels while Dish has like 2. Now I know that Chaz can't afford to waste that bandwidth on a MERE 10 Cinemax channels when he could get 40 other channels for the same bandwidth.DISH can run it's transponders at 41200 kbps Uncoded Data Rate. They are currently running six HDs per transponder (it appears that HD locals may get squeezed a little more ... Detroit and Flint are assigned 8 channels per transponder). But if pushed DISH could do five per transponder and give HBO the 8 Mbps they asked for.

Not everyone gets what they ask for ...

BTW: Your math is offensive and derogatory. Try to use real numbers please.

[Stewart Vernon]

I would pose a question, if I were Dish, back to HBO... and ask if ALL of the content on their HD channels will actually be HD. There's lots of stuff on HBO and Cinemax that is not HD, including some of their in-house shows. Also lots of stuff not in OAR and some without 5.1 surround... and this is just for the existing MAXHD and HBOHD.

It would be quite ironic for HBO to "demand" 8 Mbps rate but not supply 24/7 HD content.

And while I'm on the subject... do they really need 26 channels? There's a lot of duplication and overlap... if they are going to forcefeed the whole 26 channel package and mandate bitrates, I think Dish (hopefully DirecTV and cable as well) should demand more variety of programming as well as 24/7 HD programming.

[Mikey]

If they were going to do that, wouldn't it be done already? That story is over a year old now.

[Kevin78]

I don't think Dish has a good relationship with HBO or they would have HBO Zone and Thriller Max on the lineup.

[James Long]

I don't think Dish has a good relationship with HBO or they would have HBO Zone and Thriller Max on the lineup.Like DirecTV?

Oh, right, they don't have those two channels either. They don't even have HBO Comedy, HBO Latino, Five Star Max and Action Max (although they do have a west HBO Family feed).

I don't see missing the Zone and Thriller channels as a sign of a bad relationship.

[Zero327]

The HBO Bitrate Cops have declared WAR against the Evil Forces of the Overcompressors(Chaz Ergen, Rupert "The WMD's are just well hidden" Murdoch"), and others. You know Chaz is just dying to drop the HD Mpeg4 channels to 2.5 Mbps. I was starting to wonder why Fiostv, Comcast, etc have a bazillion Cinemax channels while Dish has like 2. Now I know that Chaz can't afford to waste that bandwidth on a MERE 10 Cinemax channels when he could get 40 other channels for the same bandwidth.





HBO to use MPEG-4 and mandate a minimum bit-rate
Posted Jun 22nd 2007 2:46PM by Ben Drawbaugh
Filed under: Industry, HBO-HD, Cable, Fiber, Satellite

In a world where almost all HD channels are distributed with MPEG-2, HBO has just announced that all 26 of their new HD channels will be MPEG-4. The stream will be 8 Mbps, and HBO has mandated that the provider not reduce the bit-rate. What they didn't say is, what the minimum will be for all those MPEG-2 networks that will no doubt transcode the signal rather than upgrade their entire network (including all the STBs). This is an obvious advantage to satellite providers who are already planning on deploying their new HD channels with MPEG-4; and for HBO who won't have to spend as much cash on bandwidth to distribute their feeds.
Tags: HBO, MPEG-2, MPEG-4

http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/06/22/hbo-to-use-mpeg-4-and-mandate-a-minimum-bit-rate/

The point is moot. Content providers don't get to decide the encoding specs.

[rjsam2000]

DirecTV has had HBO Latino for several years. I thought this was the Dish Forum, why bring up DirecTV?




Like DirecTV?

Oh, right, they don't have those two channels either. They don't even have HBO Comedy, HBO Latino, Five Star Max and Action Max (although they do have a west HBO Family feed).

I don't see missing the Zone and Thriller channels as a sign of a bad relationship.

[James Long]

DirecTV has had HBO Latino for several years. I thought this was the Dish Forum, why bring up DirecTV?HBO Latino is not available in Premier ... only in their Latino packages (unlike DISH Network).

I bring it up as an example that "missing a couple of channels" of HBO does not mean that there is bad blood between HBO and DISH. DISH is actually delivering more SD channels of HBO than DirecTV. It is worth pointing out.

And then moving on ...

[Kent Taylor]

DirecTV has had HBO Latino for several years. I thought this was the Dish Forum, why bring up DirecTV?

Trolls.

[Greg Bimson]

The point is moot. Content providers don't get to decide the encoding specs.Sure they do, just like they negotiate for tier placement, they can negotiate for bitrate.

[FTA Michael]

Everything is negotiable, and negotiators love leverage. But when you get down to it, HBO makes a lot of money for Dish, and Dish makes a lot of money for HBO. Until that changes, I think they'll stay together.

[Richard King]

Since this is almost a year old and was discussed at the time of the announcement I am closing this thread and refer those interested to here: http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=90595&highlight=HBO+Bit+Rates