What does E* have that D* doesn't?

XStreamHD is PPV movies, big deal. Netflix is still way cheaper. XStreamHD will fail.

 

If PPV were not such a big deal everyone would not be offering some type of service to cater to that market.

Sure they may fail, every other venture of this type has failed before so it won't surprise anyone if that should happen.

Currently there are many unknowns concerning this particular service, the least of which may be if what they broadcast is of a higher quality then is available on disk. There seem to be some who believe this to be the case.
The possability of this one thing alone is enough cause for some folks to want this service, or at the very least, willing to give it a try.

This may or may not describe what you are looking for. When the cost of the rental is of primary concern, Netflix may very well continue to be the way to go.
There is simply no way to know if this service is worthwhile or not since so little information is actually available at this point, with no one having had any first hand experience with the product.

 

A blurry picture quality.

 

From another online source

"With XStreamHD the consumer will be able to see the movie in the exact specifications that the studio shot the particular movie in, so that will vary by title".

So, I think it's still open to interpretation whether or not at least some of their content will be provided in "better then blu-ray" quality.

None-the-less, I think this thread has drifted well beyond my first rather simple statement here and any further discussion on what XStream may or may not turn out to be is probably better suited for the XStream forum.

 

I was responding to like, u know, "the actual thread title".

 

I though it was all about me :lol:

You posted a couple of words that could have been a response to just about anything. I never would have related it to the actual topic

 

I just switched to E* from D* yesterday. Several factors played into this but it ultimately came down to D* not wanting to save me as a valued customer. I think the rep last night (and the one last week) was a little shocked that I was cancelling; but I guess that shows that they weren't taking me serious about me shopping around for new service. I wasn't looking to switch at first, but when I called about getting a new DVR and asked for promos and didn't get offered anything, I decided to give E* a look. I was impressed with the guide speeds I was seeing compared to my D* receiver, and I would say the VIP922 is currently tops right now. This has plagued my D* receiver for the past year and have recently since 10' have issues with the remote channel signals lagging causing the wrong channel to be selected. I'm not sure why everyone is saying the HD quality is different. I went to the most reputable local dealer and asked them about compression and they disagreed with me on the subject. In the store, the two top receivers of both were running on the same model Pioneer plasma screens and I couldn't notice a difference in the HD quality; nor have I noticed any difference between the two on my Samsung. As for total HD channels, I think it's really a toss-up between the two: you get some here and lose some here for both providers. It just depends on which channels you want.

I will gladly comeback to D* if something better 'for me' comes available.

 

The (HD-Lite on Dish) vs (HD on DirecTV) argument is similar to the (WAV vs MP3) or (FLAC vs MP3) debate.

MP3 is a lossy compression method, and yet most people can't tell the difference with songs compressed with a good VBR / 256bit+ MP3 codec when compared to CD/WAV quality at a much larger file size.

Specs are important, but they don't always tell the whole story.

 

E* dropping HD channels.
D* adding HD channels.

What else do you need to know. The choice is obvious.

 

HD-Lite vs HD is the same as crap vs not crap.

The fact remains that Dish Network does not offer a single 1080i channel in its full resolution. You cannot alter both the resolution and the bitrate and expect positive results. Dish Network HD does not measure up. Most people agree and it is one of the many reasons why Dish recently even had trouble giving away their service for free. If you don't understand facts...you are beyond any assistance we can offer you here. If the performance of your display(s) and/or your physically ability to notice the differences in picture quality fail you, congratulations on being a loyal and satisfied Dish Network customer. Dish Network has obviously cornered the market on folks who prefer quantity over quality.

Uncompressed and/or Lossless is actually better than lossy by the way.

 

Yet D* has still not gotten up with what E* is offering in HD in the way of national channels.

 

Yet Dish has still not gotten up with what Directv is offering in HD in the way of sports channels. Each provider has something the other doesn't.

 

Full time HD channel... Yes they have

 

There are a number of reasons that Dish network is having trouble signing new subs, but HD quality is not one of them. Most likely the biggest deterrents to Dish Network are their ridiculous multi-receiver fees, the lack of sports packages like MLB:EI and NFL:ST, and their inability to broadcast the full schedule of HD games on the RSNs.

Tell that to all the folks who participated in the various double-blind listening tests and were unable to distinguish the difference. I'm not arguing that uncompressed isn't better, I'm arguing that that overwhelming majority of people are unable to discern enough of a difference to care.

If you're one of the folks that are hyper-sensitive to that sort of thing, my condolences to the great dissatisfaction you must face with life on a constant basis.

 

Prove it.

You like HD-lite. You enjoy paying monthly for subpar picture quality. We get it. Troll on back over to the Dish Network threads and enjoy the rest of the day.

 

I like how you assume I'm not a DirecTV customer; an assumption that is incidentally not correct.

I just don't feel the need to felicitate DirecTV over trivial "advantages" that the average sub simply doesn't care about.

 

Picture quality is "trivial" when paying for HD service from a provider? Got it! :lol:

 

If it were an obvious difference, it would be important. But it's not. There are a number of other reasons that DirecTV is a better service than Dish, to focus on "HD-Lite" is missing the point.

 

Uh, no they haven't. A number of channels available nationwide (non-sports) are available on E* that aren't on D*.

BBCA for one, the Epix, RetroPlex and Indie channels also. And a few more.

D* still has the edge in sports, especially if you are willing to pay for the sports add on packages.

 

The reason you don't see ads from D* touting better HD PQ is because to almost everyone except those with big magnifying glasses up close, you can't tell the difference between the two services HD.

Reading spec sheets can be fun, but when it comes to HD PQ, the eyes tell the story that actually matters.