[kucharsk]

I know their receivers have no ability to pass through a "native" signal, forcing you to choose 1080i or 720p, but does DISH also modify the format at the head end when they down-res the originating signals, say forcing everything on the bird to 1080i or 720p?

 

[James Long]

DISH passes 720 as 720 and 1080 as 1080. They don't uplink 720 as 1080 and vice versa.

 

[Bobby H]

It would be nice if they would do a firmware upgrade on the ViP 722 to enable that signal pass through feature. I read something somewhere that the feature was "coming," but there apparently isn't any timetable on it.

 

[garys]

It would be nice if they would do a firmware upgrade on the ViP 722 to enable that signal pass through feature. I read something somewhere that the feature was "coming," but there apparently isn't any timetable on it.

This should be done on all the Vip series receiver, not just the 722.

 

[Bobby H]

According to the Echostar Knowledge Base receivers page, the HD signal pass through feature is "coming" for the ViP 622 and ViP 722 receivers. The feature table doesn't have it checked for any other receiver model.

 

[dmspen]

I sure hope it's soon! I have a video processor and using it with DISH is a compromise. If I set the DISH output to 720p, then my DISH box does the downconverting from 1080i and upconverting from 480i/p. I'm sure they didn't spend any bucks on putting in good upscalers. If I set the output to 1080, then the DISH box is doing all the upconversion. If I set the output to 480, then I lose HD!

Currently I use 720 and my video processor to upscale/upconvert to 1080p.

According to the Echostar Knowledge Base receivers page, the HD signal pass through feature is "coming" for the ViP 622 and ViP 722 receivers. The feature table doesn't have it checked for any other receiver model.

 

[Slordak]

I know their receivers have no ability to pass through a "native" signal, forcing you to choose 1080i or 720p, but does DISH also modify the format at the head end when they down-res the originating signals, say forcing everything on the bird to 1080i or 720p?

They don't fundamentally convert one into the other, but it's not the case that they leave the signal completely unmolested, either. You should see the lengthy discussions about "HD Lite" and/or MPEG4 recompression...

 

[kucharsk]

They don't fundamentally convert one into the other, but it's not the case that they leave the signal completely unmolested, either. You should see the lengthy discussions about "HD Lite" and/or MPEG4 recompression...

Right, which is why I asked if they converted the signals to another format when they "downres" them.

Since they're already recompressing the signal (and throwing away resolution), it wouldn't be difficult for them to convert everything to 1080i or 720p at the same time, prompting my original query.

 

[TBoneit]

Well in a sense E* & D* both convert from one format to another.

They take MPEG2 HD and convert it to MPEG4 HD, That is a true format conversion. Changing resolution IMHO doesn't count as a format change.

They also take SD analog signals currently and convert them to MPEG2 SD signals.