I’ll be honest. I’ve never met anyone in real life who subscribes to DISH Network, but I’m fairly convinced that the company does exist and probably turns a profit. If you happen to be a DISH subscriber and you have one of the HD packages, then you, my friend, are in for what appears to be some sort of treat. Tomorrow, DISH will start rolling out a big, fat update to all of its MPEG-4 HD DVR boxes. The update will allow the boxes to display high definition content in glorious 1080p resolution. Says DISH, “By early August, all DISH Network customers with MPEG-4 HD DVR receivers will have the only set-top boxes in the nation enabled to display 1080p content, allowing them to maximize the full potential of their 1080p-compatible HDTV sets.” So if you’re really into HD, this might get you a little boner-y. The update is set to dovetail with DISH’s TurboHD service, which is an “all-HD suite of programming packages” and the recent launch of the company’s Echo XI satellite. DISH currently offers 114 national HD channels and plans to have 150 by year’s end. → Read More
Tough times for Los Angelenos wanting to watch HDTV. Apartment dwellers in the city are, apparently, fed up with Time Warner’s foot-dragging when it comes to expanding HD content, especially those who aren’t allowed to install a DirecTV or Dish Network satellite dish. Right now, Los Angeles ranks dead last in HD channel availability in the top five TV markets in the country. (LA has 16. Compare that to San Antonio with 38.) Charlotte, NC has more HD channels than it! I think Los Angelenos need to calm down a bit. Lots of those HD channels they’re missing out on are merely upconverted hotbeds of junk that you’d never want to watch anyway. Yes, it’s the principle of the matter, but they’re really not missing much. Aside from ESPN in HD and the occasional nature show, there’s not too much in the way of quality HD on cable. → Read More
Dish Network people were excited on Monday when it was announced that 22 new HD channels would be added to the HD package, bringing the total number of HD channels the satellite TV carrier offered up to 95, putting it on par with competitor DirectTV. What Dish forgot to mention was that just hours later it would be dropping 15 older HD channels, mostly Voom related, to leave it at 80 channels. That didn’t stop Dish execs from quoting the 95 channel score in a press release. It’s possible one hand didn’t know what the other was doing, such as the execs not knowing a drop was going to happen. Or it was a case of generating good PR for PR’s sake. We haven’t heard back from Dish yet, so we don’t know the story, but either way, we smell a rat. → Read More
Father’s Day and graduation season is upon us, readers. And what better way to celebrate than getting your dad or grad a My DVR Expander USB edition external drive from Western Digital. Of course, they’ll have to own a DISH network VIP Series HD DVR and the 500GB drive only retails for $150. It’s also a low power-consuming hard drive that has a no-fan passive cooling system that keeps things quiet and reduces energy by 30 percent. → Read More
San Francisco, CA
