The DISH's competitor, DirectTV, has said that it aims to offer 150 HD channels by the end of the year. Regardless of which provider one chooses, both satellite providers have a significant advantage over cable TV providers, which currently only offer a very limited selection of HD channels. As more consumers purchase HD Ready TV sets, particularly now that the terrestrial analogue switch-off is just 7 months away, cable providers are already in the process of launching more HD channels, but still need to do a lot of catching up.
The successful launch of this EchoStar XI satellite was very important for DISH, as besides its limited capacity for HD channels on its existing satellites, its EchoStar2 satellite had experienced a major technical problem, which forced the company to move the few channels it had over to the EchoStar 1 satellite. EchoStar2 functioned mainly as a back-up satellite.
The dish network's hd offerings are far from ideal. I get distorted audio on several channels, video drops, and other problems such as excessive dropped frames making the picture extremely bad. Dish acknowledged that they were having problems with several channels and that there was nothing that they could do. Their 100 dollar rebate on the HD receiver is very slow in coming. I still haven't gotten it and I have had HD now since January 2008. If I didn't have a 18 month agreement I would disconnect the service. Hopefully, this new satellite will give them more bandwidth allowing them to correct these problems.
CDan are you still on Dish? I was thinking of jumping ship from Dish back to DirecTV- because I like their DVR a lot better. But, now with the new Dish satellite...maybe I should hang on? I wish I knew what channels would be added....
I can't wait to get "The Fishing Channel", "The Bagel Channel", the "The Rusty Bolt Channel", "The Platypus Channel", "The Apathy Channel" and many other niche channels in HD!!!
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. – July 10, 2008 – DISH Network (NASDAQ: DISH) today announced plans to launch 17 national HD channels, surpassing its goal of reaching 100 national HD channels five months ahead of schedule.
The new HD channels that will be added are:
· ActionMax HD (DISH Network Ch. 313)
· CBS College Sports HD (Ch. 152)
· Lifetime HD (Ch. 108)
· Lifetime Movie Network HD (Ch. 109)
· Planet Green HD (Ch. 194)
· Encore HD (Ch. 340)
· HBO 2 HD (Ch. 301)
· HBO Comedy HD (Ch. 307)
· HBO Family HD (Ch. 305)
· HBO Latino HD (Ch. 309)
· HBO Signature HD (Ch. 302
· HBO West HD (Ch. 303)
· HBO Zone HD (Ch. 308)
· Starz Comedy HD (Ch. 354)
· Starz Edge HD (Ch. 352)
· Starz Kids & Family HD (Ch. 356)
· Starz West HD (Ch. 351)
Dang! It looks like all my would-be favorite niche channels must already be on satellite.
I already get most of those listed above in SD from my cable company, except for Planet Green and ActionMax. I have a hard time finding much worth watching on them. But you know that the plots and acting are always better on HD movies than on SD ones.
"But you know that the plots and acting are always better on HD movies than on SD ones."
Yep- especially when it's Will Ferrel or any of the Saturday night Live cast that have made the move to the Big Screen.
Whilst watching Deuce Bigelo..American Gigolo in HD, I nearly wept with emotion after *finally* being able to see the subtle facial expressions of Rob Schnieder...he's truly a dramatic genius. 
"I nearly wept with emotion after *finally* being able to see the subtle facial expressions of Rob Schnieder...he's truly a dramatic genius."
Snort - yeah, it's like how you can see the emotions on the faces of Chris Christofferson and Kevin Costner in HD when you cannot see them in SD, and hear the subtle variations in their vocal intonation in HD sound that you can't hear in regular Dolby Digital.
That's something you just can't get from SD. It makes all this Blu-ray stuff worth the extra expense.
Chris Kristofferson?!?!??! Ha! Dude....meet the master of emotion- Steven Segal. This guy has it down.
http://www.damnfunnypictures.com/html/Steven-Segal-Emotional-Chart.html
OK. Sorry to hijack this thread with references to bad acting and bad movies, but speaking of excellent plots and excellent acting, I just watched a movie (or at least as much as I could stand) on Netflix, called "SuperStarlet A.D." It's available in the "Watch Instantly" section, if you're a member. This movie makes "Plan 9 From Outer Space" look like Academy Award material. It's the kind of movie the Internet was made for!
Happy Birthday to you 
