DISH Network Corporation (Nasdaq:DISH), today announced plans to bolster its rapidly expanding HD programming with the launch of an additional 22 national HD channels beginning Monday, May 12. These additions include...
Most of these new channels have been available for the last couple of weeks to preview. For example, sci-fi has been listed as 122 and 122 HD plus 9432 up in the HD block. It's good to see this expansion of HD which should increase the drive to purchase HD sets
As I mentioned we had many of them yesterday. It looks like the rest (or most of them) are currently being added. I was checking at 2:30 EDT (12:30 CDT) today and noticed each time I checked I'd find another. So currently most are available here with only a couple still missing. Whether they are still testing or they stay up, I don't know.
Look again... they took the remaining 5 away last night.
In all I gained 17 (2 are RSN's, and 3 were added weeks ago. 22 is a bogus number.) and lost 15. So, I netted 2 HD channels. It's worse when I notice that I lost 15 24x7 commercial free HD channels and gained a bunch of upconvert placeholder channels plus two stretch-o-vision channels.
By Golly, ain't that interesting. Funny how they "Forgot" to mention they'd taken off the VOOM channels - the only ones that were commercial free. So 22 is one of those half truths that we seem to get more and more of all the time.
Another example of consumers being misled by our favorite industry. I wonder if Warner Brothers or Toshiba or Sony have stock in DishNetwork??
And, I just happen to turn my HDTV on just now and the DISE channel is one. Not stretched. Not even something out in the margins to suggest it's HD. And a cartoon that looks all the world to me like an SD picture. Have we been conned some more or is it just my new glasses??
I'll take 4:3 upconverts over Cartoon Network and Biography's stretch-o-vision any day. I have to laugh watching 4:3 pan and scan on a HD channel of moves I know to be 1.78/1.85:1.
The Weather channel has a notice it's going HD in June. However except for a few of the new channels I'd rater have RAVE, Rush and several of the others back. They can have about half of the new ones back such as 180, 172, 142 ( we watch ESPN not ESPN News), 119, 187, 129, 419 not available, 400, 174, and 435 (another unavailable Comcast channel) are all a waste for my wife and I.
