CES - Day 1

[Shane]

The Sony Blu-Ray products, when they do finally reach the market, will be fully backward-compatible (DVD, CD, etc ... all read/write formats supported). There will be 20 titles available initially and will be available for ordering in March.

Dish announced that it is adding 6 new Voom channels to its HD lineup as well as 2 additional HD channels: ESPN2 and Universal HD. So as of February 1st, there will be 25 HD channels available on Dish Network with an expected price point of $20 per month.

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[dennito]

Nice to see that the Dish Network is (finally) moving ahead with HD delivery of local channels. It comes a little too late for me, as I left Dish in November (after being a customer for 7 years) for Comcast. The Dish over- the-air element to their HD receiver was a little clunky and I couldn't receive all the local HD channels. Returning to Dish Network will depend on the price point of the new MPEG4 receiver. As an early adopter, I had already purchased over $700 in receivers. I'm glad I resisted the temptation to drop another $500 or so on their HD PVR which now appears to be obsolete.(?)
I should also note that the picture quality of their SD channels, when viewed on a HD monitor, (the local channels in particular) left much to be desired. They did look great on a SD monitor, however.

[Shane]

Nice to see that the Dish Network is (finally) moving ahead with HD delivery of local channels. It comes a little too late for me, as I left Dish in November (after being a customer for 7 years) for Comcast. The Dish over- the-air element to their HD receiver was a little clunky and I couldn't receive all the local HD channels. Returning to Dish Network will depend on the price point of the new MPEG4 receiver. As an early adopter, I had already purchased over $700 in receivers. I'm glad I resisted the temptation to drop another $500 or so on their HD PVR which now appears to be obsolete.(?)

Charlie (Ergen) did emphasize in the press conference that they were committed to doing right by their customers who already had an investment in Dish hardware. No specifics were given, of course.

- Shane

[portkins]

I was ready to switch back to DN.
Today I was told that the new HD recorder can only do one HD channel at a time. You can not watch one HD channel while recording another HD channel.

[Shane]

I was ready to switch back to DN.
Today I was told that the new HD recorder can only do one HD channel at a time. You can not watch one HD channel while recording another HD channel.

They said exactly the opposite at the press conference. That question was asked specifically, and their answer was "Yes". So this new series of STB's apparently will be multi-tuner.

- Shane

[snidelyw]

The ongoing battle (HD DVD v. Blu-Ray) that appeared first a couple years ago at CES and again last year - was shown to be still ongoing at many sites at CES. Some mfrs. were pushing HDDVD, others, B-Ray.
Many mfrs. on both sides said they will have players for sale in the next few months. If I recall correctly, some of these have been on sale in Japan for over a year.
I tried to find out if anyone was going to market a player/recorder. Answers were vague - maybe another year or so. I don't think anyone demonstrated an HD recorder prototype. In my mind, if you can't record your own HD DVD disks, why bother. I think when VHS and Beta first came out you could record as well as play.

...mike

[petersbar]

Shane: another friend at the show commented on Sanyo's $799 720p camcorder. did you get a chance to look at that and compare to the Sony's you menetioned (e.g., the $2000 one).

Wishing my trip didnt get cancelled,

Barry