Charlie Chat Summary for 6-14-04

[Chris Blount]

Summary written by Chris Blount. Text is Copyright 2004, DBSTalk.Com.

Welcome to the Charlie Chat. Hosted by Charlie Ergen and Jim Defranco.

The Charlie Chat is in a new studio tonight!

Dish Network has reached 10 million subscribers. Charlie says thanks. A couple of videos were shown of various celebrities saying thanks. Dish Network congratulated Dwayne Dragon, the 10 millionth customer, with a free HDTV system, surround sound, and free programming for 10 years.

Existing customers are entered into a contest to win HDTV equipment in celebration of 10 million customers. 750 systems will be given away; 25 each day until July 13th. Go to Dish Network website for details or CLICK HERE (http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/customerCare/10million_sweepstakes/index.shtml).


Programming Update:

131 locals now available; 90% of the US is covered.

Upcoming launches:

Amarillo, TX
Augusta, GA
Charleston, SC
Greenville, NC
Joplin, MO
Macon, GA
Montgomery, AL
Myrtle Beach, SC
Puerto Rico
Toledo, OH
Youngstown, OH
Wichita Falls, TX

G4 and Tech TV have combined (but we already knew this). :)

Sirius Satellite Radio has been added, channels 6001-6099 (but we already knew this, too). :)

Starting June 16, TV Guide channel will be on channel 102.

Trivia Question:

What was the full name of the Echostar subsidiary in 1995 that designed Dish Network’s first satellite receiver, the model 2000?

Question Time:

E-mail from Scott: Will the phone line connection still be required for pay-per-view? I would like to go wireless if possible.

Answer: Technology has not been developed. The requirement will not change for now.

Call-in from Karen: Is it possible to have satellite TV in the car?

Answer: There are systems available, but they are very large and expensive.

Call-in from Brad: Will the 921 be available in the HDTV package anytime soon?

Answer: 921 is shipping now in the thousands. The 921 is 60 days backordered. Unit not quite perfect, but people are pretty satisfied. Get your name on a waiting list.

Someone answered the trivia question correctly; the answer is Houston Tracker.

E-mail from Miguel: Why does Dish claim to have more HD with Voom out there?

Answer: Voom’s programming is repetitive. We have more “original” hours.

E-mail question: When will you be offering more Portuguese channels?

Answer: We are looking into that.

E-mail from the Marks family: When will we qualify for free DVR service with our Everything pack?

Answer: If you have a DVR, you should not have the fee.

E-mail from Peter: Are there any plans to bring Air America to Dish?

Answer: We will carry it when Air America’s future is more stable.

E-mail question: Wants to know about Fox Sports Network in HD.

Answer: We are looking at ways to carry those local networks in HD.

Call-in from Chris: What are plans for new HD channels over the next few months.

Answer: First priority is to deliver differentiated content, meaning more true HDTV. Not upconverted from SD content.

Charlie starts a rant about the satellite taxes. Kentucky has proposed a 7.62 sales tax on satellite TV. Call the governor of Kentucky at 502-564-2611, or the state legislator at 502-564-8100 to let them know you are against any satellite tax. Utah is also getting more tax. Call the Senate at 801-538-1035 or the House at 801-538-1029.

More international channels introduced.

KTV, channel 796
UDAYA, channel 803.

Call-in question: Will Dish Network be carrying the Horror channel that is set to launch in October?

Answer: We have never heard of that channel, but we’ll look into it.

E-mail from Kevin: Why do I have to pay to upgrade to a DVR as an existing customer?

Answer: Subsidizing customers is very expensive, so in order to try to keep costs down, newer customers usually get a better deal. Changes are coming though.

Call-in from James: Why can’t I get Bingo TV in Ohio when there are bingo parlors here?

Answer: Laws vary by state so certain states don’t get Bingo TV despite having local bingo parlors.


Next Charlie Chat: July 12th.

[whassup]

In regard to the HDTV giveaway the website says that tier 3, tier 2, and founder customers are given 301 entries. What qualifies one as a tier 3, tier 2, or founder customer?

[Scott Greczkowski]

Where are the two VOOM questions?

Charlie had the line of the night when he said "We do not carry VOOM yet"

[Darkman]

Upcoming launches:

Amarillo, TX
Augusta, GA
Charleston, SC
Greenville, NC
Joplin, MO
Macon, GA
Montgomery, AL
Myrtle Beach, SC
Puerto Rico
Toledo, OH
Youngstown, OH
Wichita Falls, TX



Just to add - They said to approx. expect those in June/July (or over next next 60 days.. ...or something like that)

[mainedish]

Bingo TV . OH BOY!!. I want that!!!......

[rh26]

Charlie had the line of the night when he said "We do not carry VOOM yet"
You know, the way he phrased it (not exactly as Scott quoted it, but I can't get any closer) I immediately thought, "I wonder if Charlie is thinking about buying Voom?"

[rh26]

Call-in question: Will Dish Network be carrying the Horror channel that is set to launch in October?

Answer: We have never heard of that channel, but we’ll look into it.

At first, I was bemused that Dish had never heard of it but then I thought, "If I was launching a new channel, the first thing I should do is call Comcast, DirecTV, and Dish Network and pitch my plan to them!"

Really, how do you plan to launch a network and not secure somebody to carry it?

[Darkman]

hehe - with my English being poor - it sure sounded as "the whore channel" at first...
LoL .. had to guess the dude said Horror :)

even thought at first www thewhorechannel dot com :)
Geeze....

[SimpleSimon]

hehe - with my English being poor - it sure sounded as "the whore channel" at first...
LoL .. had to guess the dude said Horror :)

even thought at first www thewhorechannel dot com :)
Geeze....
It's not your English, or my bad ears - that's what everybody thought! :)

[James Long]

hehe - with my English being poor - it sure sounded as "the whore channel" at first...
LoL .. had to guess the dude said Horror :)
Many thought SHE said whore ... I had no trouble figuring out it wasn't a dude.

TVGC tomorrow ... can't wait. Something new to mock. :D
(And it raises AT60 to 75 channels ... or about 80 +/- if you have locals. :rolleyes: )

JL

[Art7220]

BTW, the answer to the Trivia Question was Houston Tracker Systems. I seem to recall what the C-Band rcvrs. used to look like. They used to run ads in STV Magazine (anyone remember that?).

Anyway, I had a good question that wasn't answered so I'll post it here. Why does the Charlie Chat run at 6pm PT when Monday Night RAW airs? Thank goodness for TSN on Expressvu.

-A- :)

[Darkman]

SHE..? sounded like HE to me :)

[mindwarp]

At last, Puerto Rico!!!

[Nick]

Oh, Darn, I missed the CC. Maybe I'll catch the reruns.

Thanks for the recap, Chris. I'm glad to hear that E* has more HD "original hours" than Voom - at least the way Charlie figures it. He's sounding more and more like a politician. So far, I have 32 HD channels - 25 from Voom, and 7 from Dish. ESPN-HD, Discovery-HD, and TNT-HD are duplicated.


Anyway, I had a good question that wasn't answered so I'll post it here. Why does the Charlie Chat run at 6pm PT when Monday Night RAW airs? Thank goodness for TSN on Expressvu. -A- :)That's a really good question, Art. It's so viewers will have a choice - highbrow intellectual reparté -or- lowbrow violence. It's always good to have choices, don't you think? :lol:

Here's something Charlie didn't mention. Rumor has it that the "Wrestling 24/7" channel is coming soon. Thing is, you may have to move because it will only be beamed into Alabama and Arkansas.

Not sure why. :shrug:

[Mike D-CO5]

Did anyone else notice that the picture was poor during most of the show? It was out of focus on most of the videos they showed and twice the picture turned completely flourescent green . I guess the new studio was having problems with the picture quality.

[TonyM]

At first, I was bemused that Dish had never heard of it but then I thought, "If I was launching a new channel, the first thing I should do is call Comcast, DirecTV, and Dish Network and pitch my plan to them!"

Really, how do you plan to launch a network and not secure somebody to carry it?

Ask Victory Sports in MN that...oh, wait...you can't....they ceased operations less than 6 months after starting :)

[Bob Haller]

Did anyone else notice that the picture was poor during most of the show? It was out of focus on most of the videos they showed and twice the picture turned completely flourescent green . I guess the new studio was having problems with the picture quality.

:D They use the same programmers as the 921? :)

[REK108]

Existing customers are entered into a contest to win HDTV equipment in celebration of 10 million customers. 750 systems will be given away; 25 each day until July 13th. Go to Dish Network website for details or [B]CLICK HERE (http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/customerCare/10million_sweepstakes/index.shtml).

Take the DISH Network Customer Survey. Entrants will gain additional entries by going to the DISH Network website (www.dishnetwork.com) and completing the customer survey. Click on the survey button from the My Account area and answer the questions. For each survey completed the entrant will gain 400 entries. One survey per customer.


Customer Survey? What Customer Survey? Can anyone tell me how to get to the Customer Survey on the Dish Website? I looked in the My Account area and can't find any link to any survey. There's no button. I searched the entire site for "survey" and came up blank. It would be nice to get an additional 400 entries for a few minutes time answering questions.

[ThingOne]

E-mail from Scott: Will the phone line connection still be required for pay-per-view? I would like to go wireless if possible.

Answer: Technology has not been developed. The requirement will not change for now.


My household has not had a phone line since 2000. I do not miss it one bit. I have been told D* Tivo would not work without a phone line, and E* charges me extra $5 dollars a month for not having a phone line (522 receiver). I wish there would be a push to get these receivers off the need for a phone line. I have talked to several customer reps, and even emailed Charlie about it. I know I am not the only one in this situation.

[Cholly]

A few thoughts after watching yesterday's chat:
I just wish that Charlie would do away with the gushy promotional videos in the chats. I know that he can't divulge everything that's in the works, but I alredy know that there are HDTV packages available, and that "interview" with the couple that upgraded to the HD package was an insult to anyone's intelligence.Shame on Echostar's marketing department and ad agency for that one.
For the folks interested in international packages, the info provided on that subject was probably useful.
10 million customers -- okay, fine. But to watch 5 minutes of self congratulatory crap, puleeze!
Did you ever notice that Charlie and Jim don't really seem to know just what Dish has to offer?

[Capmeister]

E-mail from Miguel: Why does Dish claim to have more HD with Voom out there?

Answer: Voom’s programming is repetitive. We have more “original” hours.

As a Dish customer who also gets VOOM, this answer pissed me off. :mad:

It's BS.

[Mike Gavasheli]

Customer Survey? What Customer Survey? Can anyone tell me how to get to the Customer Survey on the Dish Website? I looked in the My Account area and can't find any link to any survey. There's no button. I searched the entire site for "survey" and came up blank. It would be nice to get an additional 400 entries for a few minutes time answering questions.The link for survey I found is

http://www.dishnetwork.com/sweepstakes

It takes you to some third party company but the page says "Coming Soon".

[invaliduser88]

Call-in from Chris: What are plans for new HD channels over the next few months.

Answer: First priority is to deliver differentiated content, meaning more true HDTV. Not upconverted from SD content.

Then how the heck to TNT-HD get on Dish!

Hey Chris, tearing apart the summary is getting to be more fun than actually watching CC's now!

[Cyclone]

TNT-HD likely got bundled in with the rest of the Turner channels when they had negotiations in April. While I do have beef with TNT-HD, I'm still glad that Dish at least has it in the line up.

It would be one thing to try to get TNT to improve itself,
Its another thing to try to get TNT to improve itself, and then also have to get Dish to carry it.

The way I see it, we are least half way there. Just need to shame TNT into getting their act together.

[ypsiguy]

As a Dish customer who also gets VOOM, this answer pissed me off. :mad:

It's BS.
Yeah, Charlie seemed to get hammered on HD last night. His answers left a lot to be desired.
1. They are not the leader in HD, Voom is, admit it.
2. Don't disparage Voom's service, it doesn't make you look good doing it.
2. Get off the compelling content crap - its a "red herring".

Charlie just needs to be honest like he almost was and say "Hey, the bandwidth just isn't there right now, we got caught with our pants down on this one and we need another satellite up there. We are working on getting FCC approval for that."

If HD were really that important to me right now, I would have been really upset after last night. Even though I have an HD set, I am happy with SD services for now. Charlie, just shoot straight with us, c'mon.

[oldanbo]

Did anyone else notice that the picture was poor during most of the show? It was out of focus on most of the videos they showed and twice the picture turned completely flourescent green . I guess the new studio was having problems with the picture quality.Yep, I called and asked what was going on. I was forwarded to tech support. The response was sorry about that. :confused:

[Jaspear]

Then how the heck to TNT-HD get on Dish!

A requirement with the new Turner contract?

Apparently, contract negotiations take precedent over actual HD content.

[BobMurdoch]

hehe - with my English being poor - it sure sounded as "the whore channel" at first...
LoL .. had to guess the dude said Horror :)

even thought at first www thewhorechannel dot com :)
Geeze....

Somewhere..... Roger just poked his head out of a gopher hole and was heard to exclaim "Charlie is pushing MORE PORN??!?!???"

The Whore Channel. ONLY available in Nevada.

OK, that was SO wrong....... but it was too good of a joke to let slide.

[garypen]

hehe - with my English being poor - it sure sounded as "the whore channel" at first...
LoL .. had to guess the dude said Horror :)

even thought at first www thewhorechannel dot com :)
Geeze....
I thought they already carried multiple whore channels. :D

(I'll leave it to you guys to figure out if I'm referring to Shopping or Porn.)

[Chris Blount]

Then how the heck to TNT-HD get on Dish! Hey Chris, tearing apart the summary is getting to be more fun than actually watching CC's now!

I don't mind. :)

BTW: If I do miss any key points then please let me know and I will add it to the summary. Paraphrasing some of Charlie's long winded answers can get frustrating at times. ;)

[Bobby94928]

I don't mind. :)

BTW: If I do miss any key points then please let me know and I will add it to the summary. Paraphrasing some of Charlie's long winded answers can get frustrating at times. ;)

Especially if you add the "uh"'s :)

[stonecold]

The whole bandwith issue is getting old. Charlie still does have more Availble bandwith than any other DBS provider in the states plain and simple.

[Jim Parker]

The Horror channel will not last long. You know what they say, "Horror today, gone tomorrow."

[BobMurdoch]

The whole bandwith issue is getting old. Charlie still does have more Availble bandwith than any other DBS provider in the states plain and simple.

That's IF he cranks the compression way up on 110 and 119. Yes there is more bandwidth available on the higher altitude birds, but he is trying tokeep them for internationals and locals for now as they can't make the Superdishs fast enough and the 4+4 switch is just starting to trickle out.......

[cyberized]

Did anyone else notice that the picture was poor during most of the show? It was out of focus on most of the videos they showed and twice the picture turned completely flourescent green . I guess the new studio was having problems with the picture quality.

I'm GLAD that you posted the above observations because I have a NEW HDTV set and kept tryng to adjust the TERRIBLE picture and then at least twice it flashed black and f. green - as you point out. Thank God! I thought it might be something wrong with my new set. BTW - was my last Charlie Chat, after 7.5 years with DISH - I have sold out to Comcast - they come on the 24th and take my DISH eqipment away and I receive about $500 discount on programming over the next year. Will sure miss my 508 and many things about DISH too - but it's time for a change and some cheaper HDTV!

BYE! Michael

[Jason Nipp]

- I have sold out to Comcast - they come on the 24th and take my DISH eqipment away and I receive about $500 discount on programming over the next year. Will sure miss my 508 and many things about DISH too - but it's time for a change and some cheaper HDTV!

Where do you live? Comcast in my area is not cheaper than DBS.

Jason

[Mike D-CO5]

A requirement with the new Turner contract?

Apparently, contract negotiations take precedent over actual HD content.
I am glad it wasn't just me. It looked awful on my 721 and even worse on my 811 receiver. Ironic, they have 10 million customers and they can't get the picture to look good on their own Dish Charlie Chat. :lol:

[Mike D-CO5]

I'm GLAD that you posted the above observations because I have a NEW HDTV set and kept tryng to adjust the TERRIBLE picture and then at least twice it flashed black and f. green - as you point out. Thank God! I thought it might be something wrong with my new set. BTW - was my last Charlie Chat, after 7.5 years with DISH - I have sold out to Comcast - they come on the 24th and take my DISH eqipment away and I receive about $500 discount on programming over the next year. Will sure miss my 508 and many things about DISH too - but it's time for a change and some cheaper HDTV!

BYE! Michael
Sorry to see you go. I hope that Comcast has a dvr for you. Oh the good thing is , in 6 months if you want to come back Dish will let you with the digital home advantage plan and you can get the latest receivers they have to offer complete with any software bugs for free. :lol:

[Neutron]

To me Voom would rate #1 on HD content, then Directv with their plans for more HD soon especially with D7S functional now, then DISH.

I really hope Charlie doesn't buy Voom. Voom will go to crap if that happens.

[Nick]

The Horror channel will not last long. You know what they say, "Horror today, gone tomorrow."I thought it was "Whore today, gonorrhea tomorrow". :D

[Bobby94928]

I thought it was "Whore today, gonorrhea tomorrow". :D

Nick, Nick, Nick...... ;)

[Mike Richardson]

BTW - was my last Charlie Chat, after 7.5 years with DISH - I have sold out to Comcast - they come on the 24th and take my DISH eqipment away and I receive about $500 discount on programming over the next year. Will sure miss my 508 and many things about DISH too - but it's time for a change and some cheaper HDTV!

BYE! Michael

You probably could have gotten more than $500 by selling your DISH equipment on eBay or something. Your loss.

[garypen]

IF they insist on taking your Dish equipment, just give them your 2nd dish and the cheapest receiver, and sell the 508, Dish500 LNB, and any switches you have. Sometimes, they don't even take the stuff, and when they do, they don't take all of it. Heck, they don't know what you have.

[Geronimo]

I thought it was "Whore today, gonorrhea tomorrow". :D


Thanks Nick. I popped a stitch thanks to you. :mad:

[SimpleSimon]

IF they insist on taking your Dish equipment, just give them your 2nd dish and the cheapest receiver, and sell the 508, Dish500 LNB, and any switches you have. Sometimes, they don't even take the stuff, and when they do, they don't take all of it. Heck, they don't know what you have.
Heck half the time, the Dish installers don't know what the stuff is let alone a "Cable Guy". :lol: :D :hurah:

[larrystotler]

Phone line: Since Dish and D* dishes are Receive only, the phone line is currently the ONLY way to verify that all the receivers are ACTUALLY in your residence. Plain and simple: They don't trust you and you can't blame them.High Definition: When they can actually have 24 straight hours of High Def, I'll upgrade. Considering that unless a movie was FILMED in HD, IT will NEVER be a true HD movie, that will be a long time. And since even now all movies are NOT being filmed in HD, once again, it will be a long time. Panavision is NOT HD. The camera still has a focus, and Up-converting SD to HD is not compelling to me. As for Voom, their receiver sucks compared to Dish, having installed everything out there. And, I'm sorry, but Anime is not HD. 21 Channels of HD? Who are they kidding. Of course, the people paying all this money for Plasma TVs that will be useless in a few years.................

[James Long]

BTW: If I do miss any key points then please let me know and I will add it to the summary. Paraphrasing some of Charlie's long winded answers can get frustrating at times. ;)
Especially if you add the "uh"'s :)
Two months ago I tried to transcribe Charlie's answer to the unexpected Sirius question. Half an hour to parse a couple of minutes of talk. If a picture is worth a thousand words, an unexpected question is worth a million!

I believe the video problems were in the link between the new studio and the uplink center. JohnH posted the bandwidth used during the online chat. It appears that they encoded the whole show (commercials and all) into a 1.4mb stream (just enough for a T1?) and dropped that stream on 101. The channel jumped way up in bandwitdh when they returned to the normal loop.

So it APPEARS that instead of Charlie Chat being available in HighDef they are now broadcasting it in LowDef. :lol:

JL

[SimpleSimon]

... Considering that unless a movie was FILMED in HD, IT will NEVER be a true HD movie, that will be a long time. And since even now all movies are NOT being filmed in HD, once again, it will be a long time. Panavision is NOT HD. The camera still has a focus, and Up-converting SD to HD is not compelling to me. ...
I gotta disagree. There's a huge amount of picture content on IMAX celluloid, and several other formats. The MANNER of HD conversion is generally where it goes wrong.

Don't understand about "camera still has a focus". All optical devices that register an image have a focal point or surface - even our eyes.

[garypen]

Simon - You took the words out of my mouth. This is the second time we've been in complete agreement lately. Maybe the end of the world really is coming.

[SimpleSimon]

Simon - You took the words out of my mouth. This is the second time we've been in complete agreement lately. Maybe the end of the world really is coming.
Must be end of the world. I saw a post of yours in a POLITICAL :eek: thread that I agreed with. I didn't post anything - don't even remember what it was now.

Scary thing is that that kwajr freak was also in agreement.

[larrystotler]

I gotta disagree. There's a huge amount of picture content on IMAX celluloid, and several other formats. The MANNER of HD conversion is generally where it goes wrong.

Don't understand about "camera still has a focus". All optical devices that register an image have a focal point or surface - even our eyes.

True, but this isn't really what is being pushed as HD. I'm talking about how you see 10 year old movies on the HD channels when it is not HD filmed. There IS content. Just not enough. And keep in mind that the FCC rules state that all Over the Air Broadcasts must be of a digital signal, not an HD signal, as of 12-2006. And this was supposed to happen in 1996. HD is just the standard that was finnally settled on for the next generation of TV. Don't get me wrong, it is better TV. But a computer monitor is still worlds better in picture quality than HD.

HD takes away MOST of the point of focus of the camera. True HD filming gives you an almost crystal clear picture anywhere on the screen. It's not pefect, but it's definately better than SD. You can always tell an SD from an HD picture because the HD is so much sharper and the entire scene is so much clearer. You don't get that with SD. Regardless, there still isn't enough content to justify it to the majority of viewers(Especially me. I have 4 kids to worry with. A $4000 TV is just not in the budget anytime soon). You know how many non remote TVs I come across in a week?

[Cholly]

Regardless, there still isn't enough content to justify it to the majority of viewers(Especially me. I have 4 kids to worry with. A $4000 TV is just not in the budget anytime soon). You know how many non remote TVs I come across in a week?
Larry: You DON't have to spend $4000 (sounds like your'e referring to flat panel receivers ) to enjoy HDTV. (Witness Dish's promotion of the $999 HDTV package). Tube type 32 inch HD monitors can be had for under $800 (actually, Wal-Mart is selling a 32 inch 4:3 HDTV set with dual built-in HD tuners for under $800). A wide screen 47 inch projection receiver can be had for around $1200. People coughed up $500 for 21 inch round screen color TV's back in the late fifties, when the dollar was worth far more!

[garypen]

You can get a Philips 30" HDTV at Costco for $599 during a $100 off promo. Even at $699, it ain't bad.

[SimpleSimon]

...HD takes away MOST of the point of focus of the camera. True HD filming gives you an almost crystal clear picture anywhere on the screen. It's not pefect, but it's definately better than SD. You can always tell an SD from an HD picture because the HD is so much sharper and the entire scene is so much clearer. You don't get that with SD.
I think you're mis-stating what you're seeing. It's not HD itself that "takes away ... point of focus", or that gives you the "crystal clear picture".

The term you want is "depth of field" which has to do with the aperture of the lens (f-stop). the higher the f-stop, the more depth of (focused) field you have. The other side of the coin is, the higher the f-stop, the smaller the aperture, and therefore less light reaches the imaging device (or film).

So, you either need more light, or better CCDs (film). HD cameras are top-of-the-line with corresponding CCDs to capture more light - allowing a smaller aperture and greater depth of field.

Elementary (photography), my dear Watson. :)

[Spruceman]

Larry: You DON't have to spend $4000 (sounds like your'e referring to flat panel receivers ) to enjoy HDTV. (Witness Dish's promotion of the $999 HDTV package). Tube . . . was worth far more!

Is that Dish $999 deal only for new customers; or can those of us who have shelled out over $100/mo for programming for the past six years eligible for this as well? Any reviews on the monitor they provide in this package?

[ahecht]

Any movie that was shot on film can be shown in true HD, as the resolution of film is about the same, if not higher, than a 1080i picture. It just requires scanning in the film at HD resolution. Panavision has nothing to do with HD, they make lenses and camera bodies, not film or CCD chips. In fact, the HD cameras first used to film Attack of the Clones used Panavision lenses. Saying that Panavision cameras aren't really HD is like saying that my reading glasses aren't really HD.

[rigor]

where did you read that from? i thought wwe was going to have
wrestling 24/7 nationwide? i also heard that just about everything
on that channel is going to be on demand, so i guess that means its
all pay per view?


Here's something Charlie didn't mention. Rumor has it that the "Wrestling 24/7" channel is coming soon. Thing is, you may have to move because it will only be beamed into Alabama and Arkansas.

Not sure why. :shrug:[/QUOTE]

[Big Bob]

I'm talking about how you see 10 year old movies on the HD channels when it is not HD filmed.

A 10 year-old movie shot on film can be shown in true HD. It just needs to be transfered in HD.

The resolution of film is more than high enough to match the resolution of any HD broadcast.

Me thinks you don't quite have your terms or understanding of the process quite right

[larrystotler]

We have the 40" rear projection version of the Dish HD package at the office. It's made by RCA(I believe). It's not a bad unit.

I could be wrong, but that is how it was explained to me. I will do some checking. However, most of the "HD" movies I have seen on the HD channels are not scanned in as HD, but upconverted. If I am not mistaken, DISH's info screen will say HD if it is an HD movie, and the few times I have checked ours, it was not always there on the HD channels.As for spending the cash for an HD set, I'll stick w/ my 46 and 60" sets that were given to me and that cost me about $300 to fix both. And don't forget those 4 kids..............

[James Long]

Even if a network has an HD film transfer camera, access to an excellent quality print, and uses the technology to make an excellent 1080i scan there will be a lag time before everything is converted to HD. Frame by frame scanning and conversion from 24 to 30 fps, then compressing into 1080i ... and for good measure add in digital enhancement of the picture so it doesn't look like a film print.

Films made in the last few years should have good prints or quality negatives available to get the excellent print needed. Some films may have even been digitally mastered and IF the studios kept the master data a 1080i HD "print" could be made for distribution. Older films will probably need more digital remastering just to keep up.

I do wish that 1080i/24fps was used for transmitting motion pictures filmed at 24fps. It is a waste of a standard not to use it. Then again, most of the HD formats are being ignored.

JL

[Cholly]

Is that Dish $999 deal only for new customers; or can those of us who have shelled out over $100/mo for programming for the past six years eligible for this as well? Any reviews on the monitor they provide in this package?
The info on the offer at Dishnetwork.com seems to indicate that it is for new customers only. If you are an existing customer, call 1-800-333DISH and talk to one of the CSR's.

[garypen]

I do wish that 1080i/24fps was used for transmitting motion pictures filmed at 24fps. It is a waste of a standard not to use it. Then again, most of the HD formats are being ignored.

JL
I don't know if that's possible. I know at one time it wasn't. It had to be 30fps due to the NA standard electrical standard of 60Hz. (Maybe NTSC standard, as well?) That is why so often in movies, when a TV is in the shot, you see a horrible roll on the TV screen. The film camera is shooting at 24fps, and the TV is running at 30. In movies where you don't see that roll, such as big budget sci-fi, they use special monitors running at 50Hz.

[Mike123abc]

I do wish that 1080i/24fps was used for transmitting motion pictures filmed at 24fps. It is a waste of a standard not to use it. Then again, most of the HD formats are being ignored.

JL

It is already done. There is a field repeat flag in the MPEG-2 encoding, so just a bit is transmitted rather than the entire field. 3:2 pull down is used so for 24fps film you get 48 fields, 12 of the 48 fields are shown 2 times to make 60fields per sec, and every so many of the extra 12 are dropped to get to the 59.94 actual rate.

[SimpleSimon]

I don't know if that's possible. I know at one time it wasn't. It had to be 30fps due to the NA standard electrical standard of 60Hz. (Maybe NTSC standard, as well?) That is why so often in movies, when a TV is in the shot, you see a horrible roll on the TV screen. The film camera is shooting at 24fps, and the TV is running at 30. In movies where you don't see that roll, such as big budget sci-fi, they use special monitors running at 50Hz.
Entirely possible that the NTSC standard includes it because of our use of 60Hz.

As for TV roll, what you say is true, but not the entire story. Just for completeness, there's also content that is shot direct to video where you may or may not see the 'roll'. There the difference is whether the camera and the display are "gen-locked" which means start-of-frame synchronized.

[joshhyde]

E-mail from Kevin: Why do I have to pay to upgrade to a DVR as an existing customer?

Answer: Subsidizing customers is very expensive, so in order to try to keep costs down, newer customers usually get a better deal. Changes are coming though.


Anyone have the scoop of what changes Charlie's talking about?

[SimpleSimon]

Basically, it's the same concept that the cellphone companies have finally started to figure out (50 spikes in the ole brain bucket sometimes help).

That is, especially now that phone number portability is in effect, the cellular carriers have got to treat their existing customers at least as good as new ones - or the existing customer here will become a new customer over there.