Dish Network's HDTV Channels Complement High Technology

There are a lot of things to get excited about when it comes to home entertainment technology, but high definition television, or HDTV as it's more often referred to, is perhaps the most exciting. That's because few if any other technologies so expertly use such a variety of incredibly sophisticated technologies to provide such a high level of entertainment to their users. The variety of technologies used to deliver high definition television is also extremely impressive. For example, high definition television screens use LCD, Plasma screen, or Digital Light Processing technologies. There's even a technology called Laser TV on the horizon which actually uses lasers as a source of light! All of these technologies are a far cry from the old fashioned cathode ray tube technology that most standard definition televisions were limited to until relatively recently.
Satellite technology is also a good alternative when it comes to delivering high definition television programming. That's because, unlike the cables used by cable TV providers, the electromagnetic waves that carry satellite TV transmissions have an incredibly high bandwidth that can carry a massive amount of information. This ability to transmit a massive amount of information makes satellite TV perfect for the data intensive high definition television format, and as more and more people demand more and more high definition television channels, cable will become less and less adequate to meet their demands.
Right now Dish Network appears to the best satellite TV provider when it comes to providing high definition television. That's because Dish Network has more channels than any other TV provider whether it's satellite or cable. In fact, even the minimum number of channels available from a high definition television programming package from Dish Network is larger than the total number of national high definition television channels offered by any other provider. The total number of national high definition television channels offered by the largest high definition television programming package from Dish Network is a full thirty channels. Of course there are even more high definition channels available in many areas in the form of local high definition television channels.
The high definition television channels offered even in Dish Network's most basic programming package are pretty impressive in and of themselves. While movies are an obvious choice for high definition television programming with their wide screen format and high resolution pictures, the high def channels provided by Dish Network cover a lot more subjects than just movies. Dish Network also has a wide variety of high def channels devoted to special interests. For example, Game Play HD provides all of the latest news on video gaming. Home and Garden Television also has a high definition version of its channel that's provided by Dish Network. Ultra HD provides an up close and personal look into the world of fashion and style. Gallery HD gives you insight into the world of visual arts and the artists who produce it. Treasure HD covers the world of antiques and antique auctions. Rave HD brings you your favorite concert experiences in all of the same kind of sensation as being there in the crowd (only without the sweaty bodies all around you!).
HDTV is a great technology, and Dish Network is an excellent choice when it comes to a source of the programming that will make the most out of it.

Dish Network has Better Value, Better Service than Cable TV

When you look at the typical cable TV provider side by side with a typical satellite TV provider like Dish Network, it becomes clear that Dish Network is a much better television service when it comes to supplying a huge variety of people with the best possible television service at a fair price.

The most obvious difference between Dish Network and the average cable TV company is the number of channels they each offer. Dish Network has over five hundred channels streaming down from its satellites at any given time and has programming packages ranging from a very economical thirty channels all the way up to a grandiose two hundred and seventy channels. When you compare this to the on hundred or so channels that the typical cable TV provider offers, there really isn't much of a comparison when it comes to variety of choice.

This difference between what each can offer becomes even more apparent when you look at the high definition television offerings of each one. Dish Network is the leading television service provider when it comes to high definition television with its ability to offer over thirty channels. While there are a very few cable TV providers that offer twenty two or twenty three channels (in a very limited geographical area and at a huge premium, no doubt), the typical cable TV provider probably doesn't offer more than one or two token high definition television channels. This really doesn't bode well for the future of cable TV considering that high definition television is widely regarded to be the TV format of the future. It just shows that the cable TV industry as a whole is very unprepared for the coming switch to high definition television that will likely take place over the next few decades.

High definition television isn't the only technology that the cable TV industry has been slow to adopt. Digital television is a format that has huge benefits and is easier to implement than high definition television. For one thing digital television is extremely easy to cleanse of the interference present even in underground cables that can robe a television picture of the clarity that it was meant to have. Thats why the old analog signal that most cable providers still use produces a fuzzy picture. Dish Network has completely adopted digital television as its minimum standard for programming and now uses it on all of its programming on all of its channels. Digital Television also makes it easy to implement a number of interactive features like on screen program listings and software that can prevent children from accessing inappropriate programming. These are features that cable TV providers who haven't bothered to implement digital television yet simply can't provide.

There's also a big difference in value between cable TV and Dish Network. While Dish Network programming packages start under twenty dollars, most cable TV companies' rates start at about seventy dollars. That means that you can get a Dish Network package for less than a third of the cost of a cable package. Dish Network is clearly a better value and all around better service than cable TV.

Dish Network Is An Excellent Option For HDTV Programming

There are a number of advantages of high definition television, but with all of the misinformation circulating about it you may be somewhat confused as to what exactly those advantages are. Some facts are needed to clear up the confusion.

First of all, there are three standards that television programming has to meet for it to be considered high definition television. First it has to have a wide screen 16:9 aspect ratio just like you'd find in a movie theater or when you play a DVD in wide screen format. Second, the picture has to have a resolution of 720p, 1080i, or 1080p; though the 1080p resolution isn't widely supported by high def equipment or programming. Third, high definition television utilizes Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound as its sound format.

There are a number of implications of all of these features of high definition television. The first one is that, because of the higher resolution picture, the wide screen aspect ratio, and the Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, high definition television is a completely different television format from the normal standard definition television format that's been the norm for over five decades. Because it's a completely different television format, you need special high definition television programming that meets the standards mentioned above.

Another implication of the differences between high definition television and standard definition television is that you need special equipment in order to watch it. Most obviously, you need a special high definition television set. High definition television sets have 16:9 aspect ratio screens and enough pixels to render the high resolution picture mentioned above. Though less obvious, you also need a special high resolution receiver in order to process the unique high def programming. One other thing that you need to get the most out of high definition television- though it's not completely necessary to watch high definition television- is a sound system capable of doing justice to the Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound that should be a part of all high definition television programming. This means having a sub woofer that sends vibrations through the floor in addition to two speakers positioned behind the audience and two speakers in front of the audience near the TV screen. The sound combines with the realistic wide screened picture in order to make the audience feel more involved with what's happening on the screen.
While this may seem like a lot of things to sort out in order to have high definition television in your home, you can simplify it substantially by getting a high definition entertainment package from Dish Network. That's because, in addition to having a comprehensive line up of high definition television programming, you'll also get a high definition satellite receiver at no extra cost to you.

Dish Network offers four different high definition television entertainment packages with a minimum of twenty five high definition channels and eighty standard definition channels The maximum number of standard definition channels offered in the packages is two hundred and forty, and the maximum number of high definition television channels depends on what your local high definition offerings are, but the largest package won't have any fewer than thirty high definition channels. This is pretty impressive when the most high def channels that any of Dish Network's competitors can offer is twenty two.

All of these features make Dish Network an excellent choice for high definition television programming.

Dish Network Spells Doom for the Cable TV Industry

In a lot of ways, the cable TV industry would be very happy right now if satellite TV had never become the low cost option for getting a huge number of high quality channels anywhere in the country. That's because before satellite TV companies like Dish Network came along in the early nineteen nineties, the typical television viewer thought that the one hundred channels that most cable TV providers were supplying to them was a lot of channels. Then, when Dish Network arrived on the seen, the sky was the limit for the number of channels that could be provided for television viewers. In fact, Dish Network had such an incredibly high bandwidth for transmitting television programming that new channels were created just to fill it up.
Needless to say, this revolution of satellite technology put the entire cable industry at a huge disadvantage. Customers were demanding more channels, but the cable companies were already delivering all of the television programming that their cable networks could carry. Unable to keep up with the new demand for channels, the cable companies lost customers in droves to the satellite TV providers like Dish Network. Now, while some cable companies have made valiant efforts to upgrade their networks to bear more traffic, the vast majority of them are still struggling along at that one hundred channel mark.

To make matters worse, Dish Network has only increased the number of channels it offers over the past decade. It's also begun to offer a greater variety of programming packages so that people with a variety of budgets and programming needs can find the exact package that they need. These programming packages can range in size from thirty channels all the way up to two hundred and seventy. The large number of channels provided by Dish Network also allow it to offer additional channels that can be used to customize the programming packages that it offers its customers. Cable TV operators just don't have the flexibility to do that.

There's also a new challenge in the form of high definition television which poses and even larger threat to the cable industry than Dish Network did back in the nineties. That's because each high definition television channel requires as much bandwidth as ten normal channels. This creates a serious problem for cable TV providers who are already running at capacity with all of their normal channels. They're stuck in the difficult position of driving away subscribers by eliminating tens of channels just to provide a few high def channels or driving away subscribers by refusing to provide high def channels. It's really a no win situation and as more programming makes the switch over to high definition and more television viewers decide that they want to watch television in high def, it's only going to get worse. Dish Network has more than enough bandwidth to handle all of the high definition channels currently in existence and will easily be able to add even more bandwidth when the need arises as it surely will in the future.
All of this is having an adverse effect on cable TV rates too. Cable TV has been more expensive than Dish Network from the beginning, and as cable companies scramble to catch up to Dish Network technologically, those rates keep getting even higher.

Dish Network was a death sentence to the cable TV industry. It's only a matter of time until the sentence is carried out.

PocketDish Vexes Portable Electronic Device Makers

Electronic gadgets are all the rage these days and so many electronics companies are making them, that for any one device to really stand out ahead of any of the others, it needs a real edge over the competition. This is especially true among portable video devices. Some portable video devices rely on being trendy. Others imitate the trendy ones. Some rely on being ridiculously big (one hundred and sixty gigabytes) while others rely on being ridiculously small (who's really going to be able to put one gigabyte to use for video?). Out of all of these imitators and competitors trying to get an edge on each other, a completely new portable video device with a completely new concept has come from a completely unexpected source. The portable video device is the PocketDish and the source is the satellite TV provider Dish Network.

There are actually three models in the PocketDish lineup, and they all superficially resemble other portable video devices. They can play MP3's and other sound files in addition to video. They can also store and display digital photos. They display video and photos either on their built in color LCD screen or over just about any television monitor. They can also serve as portable video game platforms which may or may not be that common among portable video devices. It's hard to tell. They also have batteries that can play video for hours or music for as much as half a day.

The feature that sets the PocketDishes a step above their competitors is the fact that they can download video from Dish Network satellite receivers that have digital video recorders built in. All you have to do is program the digital video recorder to record the TV shows or movies that you want to download to your PocketDish. When the video is recorded, you can plug the PocketDish into the USB 2.0 port on the digital video recorder and tell it which programs you'd like to download. The two machines will then work together in order to transmit the videos to the PocketDish at a rate of about one hour of video for every five minutes of download time. The PocketDishes can hold up to twenty, thirty, or forty hours of video downloaded from Dish Network depending on which model you opt for.

As an added bonus, the two more advanced PocketDishes can record video from a wide variety of other electronic devices. This includes just about anything that can play video over video out jacks that the PocketDish can connect to. This makes the PocketDish a great way to collect video from a variety of sources. It can even serve a repository for someone who likes to shoot video on a camcorder. The fact that all of the video recorded this way is stored in MPEG-4 format means that you can store up to one hundred and twenty hours or up to one hundred and sixty hours on your PocketDish, depending on which model you get.

When an electronic device that has this many distinguishing features enters the market, the competition needs to look out!

PocketDish Upsets The Apple Cart

In the electronics industry getting the edge on the competition can be the key to everything. Apple's iPod is a great example of this. When people think about MP3 players, and more recently portable video players, the iPod is what comes to mind. The success of th iPod is a fragile thing though because it's built mainly on a combination of the facts that the iPod was the first MP3 player to really get attention and that it's made by a trendy company like Apple computer.

The fact that the iPod's success is built on such a fragile premise means that anything could upset that success, and other portable video device manufacturers have been trying. There's one new comer to the market though that has an excellent chance of stealing Apple's dominance of the market and this new comer is coming from an unlikely place: Dish Network.

Dish Network is a satellite television provider, but it's recently decided to take a foray into the portable video device market with its line of PocketDish portable video devices. Unlike Apple and its competitors Dish Network has a tangible advantage over other portable video devices that comes from how it gets its video. While most portable video devices display video that's been downloaded from the Internet, PocketDishes display video that's been downloaded from Dish Network Digital Video Recorders.

While this may not sound like a significant difference, the implications to the average users of portable video devices can be staggering. For one thing, mainstream TV shows and movies that require you to pay a fee before you download them from the Internet. With the PocketDishes you just need a subscription to dish network and the necessary hardware, and beyond that the video is free. Considering that there's a good chance that many people have subscriptions to Dish Network and Digital Video Recorders anyway, the PocketDish is the only additional cost, and it costs about as much as any other portable video device. Another major advantage is that anyone who has a PocketDish and a Dish Network subscription can download almost all of the programming they'd watch at home. This isn't always the case with on line video stores which can be hit and miss when it comes to the programming that they have.

The two more advanced models in the PocketDish line have another advantage over the competition because they have another unusual way to acquire video. They have digital video recorders built into them. That means that both of these two models can record video from a variety of devices that can play it. Unfortunately, it requires the source of the video to play it in real time, in other words it needs one minute of recording time to record every minute of video. They offset this disadvantage somewhat with their ability to store video acquired this way in MPEG-4 data compression format. MPEG-4 data compression technology allows the thirty gigabyte model to store up to one hundred and twenty hours of video and the forty gigabyte model to store up to one hundred and sixty hours of video.

All of these extra features make the PocketDish line big contenders in the portable video device market.

A Rundown of Dish Network Receivers

When you go to sign up for an entertainment package from Dish Network, you'll also be given a satellite receiver at no extra charge. This is a huge benefit because it makes people more likely to sign up for Dish Network's service, but it's also a good business move on the part of Dish Network. For one thing, the fact that Dish Network supplies satellite receivers means that it can encrypt its signals to keep people form stealing them, but can guarantee that its subscribers will have the right equipment to decrypt those signals. Supplying satellite receivers also allows Dish Network to offer optional features on the receivers which it can then charge additional money for.

What kind of receiver you get will probably be determined by what you tell the Dish Network customer service representative when you first sign up. For example, if you're signing up for a high definition entertainment package and want to be able to watch satellite TV in two rooms of your house with digital video recording, Dish Network will provide you with its most sophisticated satellite receiver, the ViP622 DVR. The ViP622 DVR can decode high definition satellite signals delivered using the MPEG-4 data compression format as well as standard definition satellite signals which come in the MPEG-2 format. It can also record up to two hundred hours of standard definition programming or thirty hours of high definition programming on its built in hard disk. Of course it can also supply a separate TV signal to a second TV in a completely different room of your house so that you can watch TV in each room as if you had two separate satellite receivers. The only disadvantage to this dual TV capability is that the ViP622 DVR will down convert high definition programming to standard definition before sending it to the second TV.

If you tell the customer service representative that you want high definition television without all of the bells and whistles, you'll receive the ViP211. The ViP211 delivers standard definition and high definition television to a single TV set without. It also doesn't have a digital video recorder.

If it's clear that you want digital video recording, but don't care about high definition television, you'll be given the Dish Player-DVR 625. This satellite receiver can record up to one hundred hours of standard definition television programming for you to watch when you want rather than when the networks think you should watch. The Dish Player-DVR 625 also has dual television capability.

If you want to watch TV in two rooms, but don't want a digital video recorder, Dish Network will give you the Dish 322. The Dish 322 has the same ability to send separate television signals to two different TV's at the same time, as more advanced models without the bells and whistles. It even comes with a second remote control that can send its signal through walls.

Finally, if you tell Dish Network, that you just want a satellite receiver capable of handling standard definition television and sending it to one TV in one room of the house, without the ability to record video, you'll get the entry level, but fully functional Dish 301.

HDTV Misconceptions Effectively Cleared Up

Even if you consider yourself something of a guru when it comes to home entertainment, you may still find yourself confused about High Definition Television. If so, it's not your fault. It's understandable that a subject as complex as high definition television could cause a lot of confusion and misconceptions. It's also not surprising that the subject of HDTV is muddled considering all of the misinformation on the Internet. Fortunately, the introduction of a few facts are all that's required to make things a lot clearer.

First of all, we need to go through the basics of what characterizes normal television so that we have an intelligent place to start from. Normal television, which is also called standard definition television or SDTV, has four hundred and eighty horizontal lines of resolution and is shown on a screen with an aspect ratio of 4:3, which is almost square. This is the same aspect ratio of most older televisions and computer screens.

High definition television, or HDTV, is a little more complicated. High Definition Television can have either seven hundred and twenty horizontal lines of resolution or one thousand and eighty. Either of these resolutions will result in a much more detailed picture than the four hundred and eighty lines of resolution of standard definition television. High definition television also features a screen with a 16:9 aspect ratio which is almost twice as wide as it is tall and is the same format used in movie theaters. In addition, HDTV also requires sound to be in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, which relies on having a special arrangement of speakers to produce its full effect.

All of these differences between high definition television and standard definition television means that in order to enjoy high definition television, you need a special television set, a special receiver box, and programming in the high definition format. The television set has to have a 16:9 aspect ratio screen that has enough pixels to display a picture with one thousand and eighty lines of resolution. The receiver has to be able to handle high definition and standard definition television formats. The programming has to have the high resolution, wide screen picture, and the Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound.

Fortunately Dish Network can provide you with the receiver and the programming. Dish Network is an especially good choice for high definition television programming for two reasons. First, Dish Network has more high definition channels than any other television service provider. Second, Dish Network provides a high definition satellite receiver at no extra charge when you sign up for a high definition programming package.

Dish Network has four high definition programming packages to choose from and all of them have more high definition channels than the competition. They start out with the Bronze Level High Definition Entertainment Package and rise all the way up through the Platinum Level High Definition Entertainment package. The Bronze package has twenty five high definition channels and eighty standard definition ones. The Silver package increases the number of standard definition channels to two hundred while the high definition selection remains the same. The Gold level package has twenty six high definition channels and two hundred and forty high definition ones. The Platinum package has a full thirty high definition channels and the same two hundred and forty standard definition channels from the Gold level.

Hopefully you now have a better idea of what exactly high definition television is and how to find what you need in order to enjoy it.

The Shortcomings Of Cable TV

Although your cable TV provider is praying that you don't realize it, there are a huge number of reasons why your cable TV service can't measure up to a satellite TV service like Dish Network.

Dish Network has the ability to provide a lot more channels than any cable TV company. That's because while there are a few cable TV companies that can provide as many as one hundred and fifty channels to their customers, most can only provide about ninety channels. By contrast, Dish Network has access to over five hundred channels and has numerous entertainment packages with well over one hundred channels. Dish Network's largest entertainment package currently offered has two hundred and seventy channels. That's three times as many as the typical cable TV operator can provide.

Cable TV's shortcomings become much more apparent when you look at high definition televisions. High Definition Television has a wider screen and higher resolution picture which makes it a much more data intensive format than normal television. Because it's more data intensive, it would overwhelm most cable TV operators. Most cable TV companies offer only one or two channels of high definition television if they've found a way to free up enough resources to offer it at all. Dish Network on the other hand has a whopping twenty five high definition television channels as its base number and thirty available in its premium HDTV entertainment package. In areas where local high definition channels are available, they can also be added on to Dish Network's high definition entertainment packages for a small monthly fee.
Another disadvantage of the cable TV industry is that while all of Dish Network's programming is in the Digital Television format, digital television is very rare in the cable TV world. Digital television supplies an incredibly clear picture and sound quality that the analog signal that most cable TV programming is delivered in just can't equal. While some cable companies do provide digital programming, it's rare and they charge extra for it.

You would think that with the shortcomings of the cable TV industry, it would at least give you a bargain when it comest to rates, but apparently that's too much to ask for too. The typical entry level cable television package starts at seventy dollars a month. Dish Network's entry level satellite TV package starts at about thirty dollars a month. That's less than half the cost of the cable TV package. If you want to save even more money, Dish Network also offers an economy package that costs a mere twenty dollars a month. That's less than a third of the cost of the cable package. You can even get a high definition television entertainment package from Dish Network for less than the cost of the entry level cable TV package.

So why does cable have so many shortcomings compared to Dish Network? It really comes done to the fact that cables don't have nearly as much bandwidth as the electromagnetic waves that satellite TV uses to deliver its programming. Despite intense effort to make upgrades this situation isn't likely to change any time soon.

An End To Satellite Receiver Confusion

If you've ever taken a look at the features included on Dish Network high definition satellite receivers, you're probably blown away by all of the technical terminology and the lack of explanation that accompanies it. While it's frustrating to try to sort through the information in those brochures, you you should keep in mind that the people who wrote them are probably engineers who are trying to put a lot of information into a small space. We don't have the disadvantages of a small amount of space or being engineers, so this article should be able to clear some things up that those brochures don't make clear.

One of the most confusing things that high definition satellite receivers are supposed to deal with are different TV resolutions. For example, some brochures say that the receiver can display TV resolutions of 480i, 480p, 720p, and 1080i; which is meaningless if you don't know anything about how televisions produce pictures on their screens. In the case of these resolutions, the number defines the number of horizontal lines of resolution and the letter designates how those lines are scanned onto the screen. The higher the number higher the resolution and the more detailed the picture. As far as the letters go, the "i" means that those lines of resolution are scanned onto the screen in an interlacing pattern, and the "p" means that the lines are scanned onto the screen in a progressive pattern. With an interlacing pattern the odd numbered lines are scanned onto the screen from top to bottom and the even numbered lines are scanned on a thirtieth of a second after that. Because the process happens so fast, it looks like a complete picture is formed on the screen all at once, but an interlacing picture is subject to visual defects under certain conditions. Those visual defects are eliminated with the use of progressive scanning in which all of the lines of resolution- even and odd- are scanned onto the TV screen in one pass.

As to how those resolutions translate into which kinds of programming you can watch using a Dish Network High Definition satellite receiver, it's actually pretty simple. Standard definition television, or SDTV for short, is the kind of television that we all grew up on, and has a resolution of 480i. High definition television can have resolutions of either 720p or 1080i, though many high definition television sets will up-convert 1080i programming so that it's displayed on the screen in a progressive pattern instead of an interlacing one. The 480p resolution is an in-between television format called enhanced definition television, or EDTV.

Another thing that many people find confusing about high definition television receivers is that they can display both MPEG-4 and MPEG-2 Dish Network programming. Both MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 are data compression technologies that are necessary because of the huge amount of data needed to transmit television programming. MPEG-2 is an older data compression technology that's typically used to compress standard definition television programming so that it can be managed more easily by the hardware that makes up Dish Network's transmission equipment, the satellites themselves, and the receiver equipment. Because high definition television has a higher resolution picture and a wider screen, it's a much more data intensive television format than standard definition television and therefore needs to be further compressed using the newer MPEG-4 data compression technology so that the equipment can handle it. The fact that a receiver can decompress both MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 formats, just means that it covers all of the bases needed to handle both high definition television and standard definition television programming.

Hopefully this article clears of some of the confusion with the details of high definition satellite receivers.

PocketDish Is A Competitive Portable Video Device

Every once in a while a new technology comes along that really attracts attention. This type of technology could be something revolutionary that the world has never seen before. The computer, the airplane, and the automobile would all fall into this category. It can also be a new and innovative way of combining existing technologies. For example, computers are now installed in cars to make them more fuel efficient and environmentally friendly.

The PocketDish from Dish Network is an example of this latter type of technology. Not only does it combine a digital music player and a portable television to make it a portable video device- that had already been done- but the PocketDish combines portable video device technology with digital video recording technology. It combines digital video recorder technology and portable video device technology in two separate ways.

The first way the two technologies are combined is in the PocketDishes' ability to download video from any Dish Network Digital Video Recorder. That means that the Digital Video Recorder is essentially responsible for capturing movies and TV shows off of Dish Network's satellite signal. Then that programming can be downloaded to the PocketDish so that it can be watched anywhere.

This method of getting video has a number of advantages over the traditional method of buying and downloading video from on line stores. First of all, the video that you'd get from an on line store costs money to download, but if you a Dish Network subscription with a Digital Video Recorder and a PocketDish, you can download as much video as you like to the PocketDish without spending any additional money. Also, since all of the programming that you can receive through your Dish Network subscription (with the exception of high definition programming) is available for download, you can always find the TV shows that you'll want to watch on the PocketDish. That's not always the case with on line video stores.

The other way in which digital video recording and portable video device technologies are combined in the PocketDish is with the inclusion of a digital video recording feature in the two more complex models of the PocketDish line: the AV700E and the AV500E. These two models can record video from almost anywhere. As long as another device can play video over compatible jack, the AV500E and the AV700E can record it. This makes a wide range of other devices including DVD players, satellite receivers, cable boxes, VCR's, camcorders, computers, and even other portable video devices, all source of video for the AV700E and the AV500E. As an added bonus, both models can record video in MPEG-4 format which allows them to store up to four times as much video as the MPEG-2 programming that they download from Dish Network Digital Video Recorders. That means that both models can store well over one hundred hours of video!

In addition to all of these video capabilities, all PocketDishes can play digital music, display digital photographs, and serve as gaming platforms for video games that can be downloaded from Dish Network. All of this functionality makes the PocketDish extremely competitive among portable video devices.

Dish Network Receivers Have Diverse Features

Among all of the benefits to signing up for satellite TV service with Dish Network is the fact that it provides you with a satellite receiver at no extra cost. While this may seem like a benevolent gesture on Dish Network's part (and it is) there are a lot of other reasons why Dish Network does it. First of all, if you don't have to foot the bill for a satellite receiver, it makes you a lot more likely to subscribe to an entertainment package. It also means that Dish Network can save itself time and money by not having to deal with equipment that it's not familiar with, but subscribers insist on using in an effort to save money. Providing its own receivers also means that Dish Network can provide you with very specific features that are designed to enhance the way you watch TV.

One feature that comes standard on all Dish Network satellite receivers and is probably the most widely used is the Electronic Program Guide. The Electronic Program Guide is an on screen listing of all of the programming offered by Dish Network. It's essentially a table that you can scroll through in order to see what's showing on different channels and what will be showing in the hours or even days to come. Not only will you be able to see what programs are available for you to watch, but you'll also be able to get information about each program so that you can decide if it's something you want to watch. This makes the Electronic Program Guide indispensable when it comes to choosing what to watch because it eliminates the time that you would otherwise be forced to waste on channel surfing which would just be too frustrating with all of the hundreds of channels you might have access to with Dish Network.

Another feature that's common on Dish Network receivers is an ability to send two separate television signals to two separate televisions at the same time. This allows two people to watch different programming in two separate rooms of the house at the same time. It's as if they had two separate satellite receivers. The receiver itself is normally located in the living room with the main television set. Both televisions have their own remote controls, but the remote control that goes with the secondary television emits special UHF signals that can travel through walls.

One optional feature that Dish Network offers is a Digital Video Recorder built into some receiver models. A Digital Video Recorder will record up to two hundred hours of programming, depending on the model, so that you can play it back to watch when you get the time and it's convenient for you. Dish Network's Digital Video Recorders are easy to program with the help of intuitive on screen software, and store all of the video on an internal hard disk. That makes a Digital Video Recorder much easier to use and more versatile than a VCR.

Some Dish Network receivers can also handle HDTV programming. You need a special receiver for HDTV because HDTV features a wider screen and much higher resolution picture than normal programming. These place an extra burden on satellite receivers, and therefore the receivers have to be custom designed to handle it.

Cable TV Is Overpriced Compared To Dish Network

While the cable television industry would like you to believe differently, there are a number of disadvantages to cable TV service that can be bypassed or avoided simply by adopting Dish Network as your television service provider.

One of these shortcomings is a limited choice of channels. While there are a few exceptions, most cable TV companies can't offer more than about ninety to one hundred channels. That severely limits the choices of cable TV subscribers and makes them likely to experience the frustration of not being able to find anything worth watching.

By contrast, Dish Network has hundreds of channels available for its subscribers. Even better, those channels are divided up into a variety of entertainment packages which ensure that Dish Network subscribers can choose one that meets their individual needs and budgets. Dish Network offers four different entertainment packages that feature Spanish language programming, one that features programming in Chinese, and other channels in any of eighteen other foreign languages. There is an English language economy package with only forty channels and a variety of English language packages with sixty, one hundred and twenty, and two hundred and seventy channels to cite just a few.

One area where cable companies really can't compete with Dish Network is in the area of high definition television programming. High Definition Television is widely regarded to be the format of the future. It features a picture with a much higher resolution than normal television that has the same proportions as a movie screen. The high resolution and extra wide viewing area create technical problems when it comes to transmitting high definition television programming. As a result of these technical problems, most cable TV providers only offer a couple of token high definition channels, and some don't offer any high definition at all. On the other hand, Dish Network has twenty five high definition channels in its entry level high definition package which is more than any of its competitors- cable or satellite- can offer total.
Cost is another big difference between Dish Network and the cable TV industry. The typical entry level cable TV package is about seventy dollars a month. Dish Network's entry level package is about thirty dollars (its economy package is about twenty). That means that cable TV costs over twice as much as Dish Network. Not only that, but you can get a high definition programming package for less than an entry level cable TV package! That's a big difference in value between the two.

All of these shortcomings in the cable industry- a small selection of channels, inability to provide high definition television, and disproportionately high cost- are all a result of the fact that the technology used by cable TV is inferior to that used by Dish Network. It all really boils down to the fact that the number of channels that cable TV can transmit to its customers is limited by the cables themselves, while Dish Network can deliver a lot more channels because it transmits them over electromagnetic waves. The major difference in price comes from the fact that Dish Network doesn't have a cable network to maintain and upgrade.

With all of this evidence, it should be clear that Dish Network can do a lot of things that the cable TV industry can't and all of them for a much lower price.

Dish Network Offers HDTV Deals

High Definition Television, or HDTV for short, has received a lot of buzz in home theater circles lately, but there's also a lot of misinformation about what kind of equipment and programming you need to enjoy it. There's even misinformation about what exactly high definition television is. Fortunately, this misinformation is pretty easy to clear up with the presentation of a few facts.

First of all, High Definition Television is a completely different television format from the standard definition television which was the dominant format for the latter half of the twentieth century. Standard definition television, or SDTV for short, is delineated from other television formats by the fact that it has a 4:3 aspect ratio screen which is almost square. This is the same type of screen that you'll still find on most cathode ray tube television sets and most computer screens. Standard definition television is also characterized by a picture resolution of 480i. With a resolution of 480i, the number 480 is the number of horizontal lines of resolution that make up the picture. The greater the number of lines, the more detailed the picture. The "i" means that those lines are scanned onto the screen in an interlacing pattern. In an interlacing pattern, the odd numbered lines are scanned onto the screen in sequence from the top to the bottom. Then the even numbered lines are followed a small fraction of a second later to complete the picture.
High definition television features a picture with a 16:9 aspect ratio and a resolution of 720p or 1080i. The 16:9 aspect ratio is almost twice as wide as it is tall, and has the same proportions as a movie screen. The "p" in the 720p resolution stands for progressive scanning which means that all of the lines are scanned onto the screen in one pass from top to bottom. This eliminates certain visual defects that can be produced by interlaced scanning. Most High Def television sets up convert the 1080i resolution by scanning it onto the screen progressively.

These differences between high definition television and standard definition television mean that you need a special high definition television set with a 16:9 aspect ratio screen that's capable of handling the higher resolution pictures to enjoy high definition television. You also need high definition programming and a high definition receiver to process it. High definition television is available from Dish Network and a high definition satellite receiver is included at no extra charge with a subscription to Dish Network's high definition entertainment packages.

Dish Network is a good choice for high definition television programming because, not only is it more affordable than most other providers, but it also provides more channels of high definition television programming than any other TV provider. Dish Network has four different high definition entertainment packages to choose from ranging from the Bronze level which has twenty five high definition channels and eighty standard definition channels, all the way up to the Platinum level which has thirty high definition channels and two hundred and forty standard definition channels. If you live in an area where local high definition channels are available, you can add them onto any of the packages for a small monthly fee. All of these options and the great value included makes high definition television from Dish Network a great deal.

Dish Network Receivers Have Great Features and Convenience

There are a lot of reasons why people sign up for satellite TV service from Dish Network. Dish Network offers a lot of channels in a variety of different entertainment packages. As an added bonus, Dish Network makes signing up for satellite TV service that much easier and more affordable by providing satellite receiver units at no extra charge. This is a smart business move because it makes it so much easier for people to subscribe to the service. The fact that Dish Network also provides the satellite receiver equipment also means that it can include value enhancing features in each unit. That makes Dish Network's service more attractive and allows it to generate extra revenue by charging nominal monthly fees for the extra features.

What kind of satellite receiver you end up with will largely be determined by what you tell Dish Network you want when you first sign up. For example, if you tell Dish Network that you just want standard definition programming in one room of the house, but you want the option of watching hundreds of channels on that one TV, you'll probably be give a Dish301. The Dish301 is Dish Network's basic satellite receiver model, but it comes with big features like access to the Dish Interactive Electronic Program Guide, Parental Control Locks, on screen Caller ID capability, and more. The Electronic Program Guide, which is often called the EPG for short, is just like the television listings in any local newspaper, only it appears on the television screen and is interactive in nature. You can scroll through it using buttons on your Dish Network remote control to see what's on various channels and what will be on in the near future. You can even jump directly to any channel you want just by highlighting it and pressing the "Select" button on the remote control. Parental Control Locks are a great way to be able to let your children watch TV when you aren't around without having toworry about what kinds of programming they stumble on to. That's because, with Parental Control Locks, you'll be able to block out movies with certain MPAA ratings, specific shows, or even entire channels. If you have Caller ID on your phone service, and you plug your satellite receiver into a phone jack, you'll be able to see all of the Caller ID data right on your television screen. This is a great way to screen your calls while watching TV.

All other receivers are based on the features of the Dish310. If you tell the Dish Network representative that you want to watch TV in two rooms of the house you'll be given the Dish322. The Dish322 sends two separate television signals to two separate TVs. It's like having one receiver for each television, but without the extra installation headaches or wasted space.

If you want to record TV shows and movies to watch at your convenience, you'll be given the Dish Player-625 DVR. This receiver can be programmed to record up to two hundred hours of programming onto a built in hard drive. It will also allow you to pause and replay live television. It will also supply programming to two separate TVs just like the Dish322.
All of these receiver units are designed to have customer pleasing features with the ultimate convenience.

Having a PocketDish Means Versatility

There have always been people willing to explore the possibility of combining different technologies. Television itself was originally a combination of older radio technology and a cathode ray tube. Now computers have been combined with virtually everything to make them function better. Cars have had computers built into them for years, and the newer ones often have several computers that perform different functions. Digital cameras are essentially computers connected to optical devices, and even digital watches are computers. Now, Dish Network has begun an experiment with adding digital video recording technology onto portable video devices in the form of the two higher end models in its PocketDish line.

These two models of the PocketDish- the AV500E and the AV700E- both have the ability to record video from anything that will play it over compatible output jacks. This makes a wide variety of electronic appliances including TV's, VCR's, camcorders, computers, cable boxes, satellite receivers, and DVD players sources of video for the AV500E and the AV700E.

The AV500E and the AV700E record video from these sources in the sophisticated MPEG-4 compression format which means that their hard drives can hold enormous amounts of video. The AV500E with a thirty gigabyte hard drive can store up to one hundred and twenty hours worth of video and the AV700E can store up to one hundred and sixty hours worth of video on its forty gigabyte hard drive. This makes either of these units great choices for anyone who wants to shoot video on a long trip and needs a repository for that video. Both the AV500E and the AV700E can serve this purpose and even allow video enthusiasts to review their work by playing it back on the units' full color built in LCD screens. The fact that the AV500E and the AV700E both have 16:9 aspect ratio screens means that they can even display video filmed in wide screen format although there's a chance that wide screen format will decrease the number of hours that the units can store.

Besides the fact that the AV500E and the AV700E have built in digital video recorders, PocketDishes in general are distinguished from other portable video devices by the fact that they download their video programming from Dish Network digital video recorders rather than from the Internet. This makes them a lot more convenient than competing models that don't have this advantage. Getting video from Dish Network digital video recorders also has the benefit of being able to download video at a rate of roughly one hour of video for every five minutes of download time, versus the fact that video can only be acquired in real time when using the digital video recording feature built into the PocketDishes. The disadvantage of downloading video from a digital video recorder is that all of the downloaded video is in MPEG-2 data compression format, which means that the unit can only store about a quarter of the number of hours of video as if it was in the MPEG-4 that the PocketDish records in.

That said, Dish Network's PocketDish is an extremely versatile portable video device which will give the competition a real run for its money.

Receivers From Dish Network Are Versatile

When you sign up for a subscription to any of Dish Network's entertainment package, you get a satellite receiver included at no extra charge. Dish Network's high definition television (HDTV) entertainment packages are no exception. High Definition Television, which is often called HDTV by home theater enthusiasts because it sounds cooler, is widely anticipated to be the television format of the future as more television shows are produced in high def format and television sets only capable of displaying the older standard definition format gradually fall out of favor with consumers.

Despite all of the promise that High Definition Television has for the future, there still aren't that many channels that feature high definition programming. That said, Dish Network currently offers more channels in High Definition than any of its competitors, which makes it a great option for anyone who wants to take full advantage of high definition technology right now.

Because high definition television is a much more data intensive format than any that came before it, the satellite receivers that Dish Network provides along with its high definition television entertainment packages have to be that much more versatile. Because high definition television sets can still display standard definition programming, and high definition television set owners still enjoy programming that hasn't made the switch to high def yet, Dish Network's high definition satellite receivers still have to be able to deal with programming in standard definition television and the intermediary enhanced definition format, as well as high definition television. That means that the high definition television satellite receivers actually have to deal with four separate television resolutions. A resolution of 480i is designated as standard definition television (SDTV) and 480p is enhanced definition television (EDTV). High Definition Television can take the form of either 720p or 1080i.

In addition to different resolutions, different types of television are also transmitted using different data compression formats. Because television programming is so data intensive and Dish Network transmits so many channels all at once, those channels have to undergo data compression so that the transmission hardware can handle all of that data. Dish Network's standard definition programming is transmitted in MPEG-2 data compression format, but since high definition television is so much more data intensive, it's compressed into the newer MPEG-4 format. As a result, Dish Network's high definition satellite receivers have to be able to decompress programming from MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 formats.

Dish Network currently offers two high definition satellite receiver models that both handle all of the requirements mentioned above with ease. The ViP211 is the entry level model which can deliver a single television signal to a single TV set. It has all of the features that you would expect from any Dish Network satellite receiver including the Electronic Program Guide, on screen Caller ID capability, and more. It also comes with the ability to receive over the air High Definition broadcasts.

The ViP622 DVR is the most advanced satellite receiver offered by Dish Network. It has the features of the ViP211, but can also send two separate television signals to two separate TV sets (with the HDTV programming sent to the second set down-converted to SDTV), and record programming so it can be watched at your convenience. The ViP622 DVR can record up to 200 hours of SDTV or 30 hours of HDTV.

Both Dish Network High Def satellite receivers will provide all of the features you need to enjoy the television format of the future.

Dish Network Has The Most HDTV Programming Available Today

High Definition Television is the next generation of television and is widely expected to become the standard television format in the years and decades to come. It features the same screen proportions as a movie theater screen and a much higher resolution picture. Though more subtle than the picture attributes, the high definition television format also features Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound which is designed to for having three speakers positioned in front of the audience and two behind, with the addition of a sub woofer to send vibrations through the floor.

High Definition Television requires the use of a special television set with a screen in the 16:9 aspect ratio which has enough pixels to handle the high resolution picture. HDTV also requires special programming that can meet the standard of the format. At present the satellite television company, Dish Network, is the best source for high definition television programming. This is the case for several reasons. First, no other television service provider has more high definition television channels. The closest competitor offers twenty three high definition channels, while Dish Network offers thirty national channels plus whatever local high definition channels are available in the area of the subscriber. Second, Dish Network provides a satellite receiver capable of handling high definition television signals at no extra charge along with every one of its subscriptions. Third, Dish Network provides great prices on its high definition television entertainment packages. In fact, you can get a high definition television entertainment package from Dish Network for less than an entry level standard definition package from most cable TV providers.

Dish Network has four different high definition television entertainment packages to choose from. The entry level package is called the Bronze Level High Definition Television Entertainment Package. It consists of the twenty five channels that make up the core of Dish Network's high definition offerings, plus eighty standard definition channels. (Note that the entry level Dish Network Package is still larger than the maximum number of high def channels offered by the nearest competitor.) The next up the line is the Silver Level High Definition Television Entertainment Package, which has the same twenty five high definition channels but the standard definition offerings go up to two hundred channels. After that comes the Gold Level High Definition Television Entertainment Package. It's high definition channel selection increases to twenty six and the selection of standard definition channels increases to two hundred and forty. The Platinum Level High Definition Television Entertainment Package has the same two hundred and forty standard definition channels of the Gold package but the selection of high definition channels goes up to thirty. The local high definition channels can be added onto any of Dish Network's high definition packages for a small monthly fee.

So how does Dish Network fill up thirty channels with high definition television programming? Actually movies are the obvious choice for high definition television because they're designed to be shown on a 16:9 aspect ratio screen and the fact that they're shown on such large screens translates well into the high resolution aspect of the high definition television standard. Because of this, Dish Network has a variety of channels devoted to movies including HDNet Movies, Monsters HD, Kung Fu, HD, Film Fest HD, Showtime HD, HBO HDTV, and Universal HD.
Sports are another great choice for HDTV programming, and a variety of educational and cultural programming is included as well. All of these features make Dish Network the best choice for HDTV programming available today.

Dish Network Is A Much Better Value Than The Cable TV Industry

Both the cable TV and the satellite TV industries make a number of claims about which has the superior service and value, but the only way to know for sure which one is better is to compare the typical cable TV company with the typical satellite TV company. There are hundreds of cable TV companies that are more or less equivalent scattered all across the United States, but there are only two satellite TV companies to compare them against. Just for the sake of argument, we might as well pick Dish Network.

If we line the features of the typical cable TV company up next to the features of Dish Network, the first thing we'll notice is a huge difference in the number of channels offered. The cable company offers between ninety and one hundred channels, while Dish Network offers upwards of four hundred. While Dish Network doesn't offer all of those channels in any one programming package, they do provide a lot more choices among different types of programming packages and additional programming for Dish Network subscribers.

This means that while cable subscribers are stuck with whatever those ninety to one hundred channels consist of, Dish Network subscribers can choose programming packages that range from thirty channels all the way up to two hundred and seventy channels. They can also choose from four programming packages the feature heavy concentrations of Spanish language programming and one programming package featuring seventeen channels of Chinese language programming in addition to all of the choices in English.

Dish Network can also draw from this huge number of channels when their subscribers want to customize their programming packages. For example, a variety of seasonal sports subscriptions are available from Dish Network. Seasonal Sports subscriptions are generally available for every major type of sports and provides every game played for that league during the regular season. Seasonal Sports Subscriptions allow you to watch lots of basketball, baseball, hockey, and college sports. You can also subscriber to regional sports networks to get even more sports coverage. Local channels and XM satellite radio channels are also available as additional programming from Dish Network.

Dish Network also provides more High Definition programming than any other television service provider. The typical cable company struggles to offer a couple of high definition channels, but Dish Network offers thirty national high definition channels plus local high definition channels in many markets.

So how can Dish Network offer so much more? The answer is that most cable TV companies are still using cable networks that are relics of the eighties before satellite television technology took off. They've benefited somewhat from the invention of new data compression technologies, but that doesn't change the fact that those cable network's simply can't handle that amount of data needed to transmit all of those hundreds of channels that give Dish Network its edge.

Of course, the cable industry as a whole is trying to make upgrades, but the enormous expenses associated with replacing thousands of mile of cable in being passed onto cable TV subscribers. That's one of the reasons why cable rates are so high and are likely to keep going up on the order of eight percent a year on average for the foreseeable future. And that's where Dish Network really has the cable industry beat: value.

Dish Network Satellite TV Blog

Welcome to my blog! My name is Simon Hartfield and I make my little mark on the blogosphere by bringing blog readers the latest satellite TV deals that they may not find elsewhere. I cut through all the BS and give consumers the real dirt about Dish Network, DirecTV, and other satellite providers. Follow my blog and maximize your entertainment dollar!