http://www.dishnetworktalk.com/ Discussion of present and future satellite TV technologies. en-us Nucleus CMS v3.23 © Weblog http://backend.userland.com/rss http://www.dishnetworktalk.com//nucleus/nucleus2.gif http://www.dishnetworktalk.com/ http://www.dishnetworktalk.com/index.php?itemid=420
The main way in which a DVR from Dish Network will help you to enjoy watching live TV is by allowing you to pause and replay live TV. This is accomplished through a temporary recording that the DVR automatically makes of whatever you're watching.

Dish Network current offers two different satellite receivers with digital video recorders built in. One is the standard definition Dish Player 625 DVR, which can store up to one hundred hours of video. The other is the ViP622 DVR which will store up to two hundred hours of standard definition video or thirty hours of HDTV video. Either one will serve you really well with making sure that you'll be able to watch what you want, regardless of what your schedule is like.]]> General http://www.dishnetworktalk.com/index.php?itemid=420 Fri, 20 Jun 2008 14:50:00 -0400 http://www.dishnetworktalk.com/index.php?itemid=419 Dish Network offers a variety of choices of standard definition TV satellite receivers.The basic standard def satellite receiver model that you can get from Dish Network is the Dish311. The Dish311 provides you with all of the features that you need in order to subscribe to literally hundreds of channels. For example, the Dish Interactive Electronic Program Guide helps you manage all of the channels that you have access to and serves as the software centerpiece for all of the other software functions of the device. For example, the EPG as this piece of software is called, provides an easy to use interface for programming parental control locks that will prevent your kids from accessing TV programming that you feel is inappropriate for them. The Electronic Program Guide will also allow you and everyone else in your household to create lists of their favorite channels so that everyone can find the channels that they watch the most quickly and easily.

The next model up, the Dish322, provides you with the option of watching two channels at once through picture in picture programming. More commonly though, this model is set up to provide separate programming to two different TV sets at the same time. The second TV set is typically located in a bedroom and a home office and connected to the receiver using long coaxial cables. This model also comes with a second remote control to go with the second TV. Walls and other obstructions aren't an issue for this remote control.

The next model up in the list has the features of the Dish322, but also contains a built in digital video recorder. A digital video recorder is basically a computer hard disk and some special software that allows the receiver to record video from the satellite signal onto the hard disk and then play that video back through the TV set. This model can store up to one hundred hours of video and record video off of two channels at the same time. It's also very easy to program with the help of the Electronic Program Guide so that you can have the option of watching your favorite TV shows even if you can't be at home when they air.

Of course Dish Network does have HDTV receivers too. One is a basic model that resembles the Dish311- only with the ability to display HDTV resolutions in addition to standard def TV. The other has a built in digital video recorder that can store an impressive two hundred hours of video.

Regardless of whether you want HDTV or SDTV, DishHD has the satellite receiver to suit your needs.]]> General http://www.dishnetworktalk.com/index.php?itemid=419 Sun, 15 Jun 2008 14:47:00 -0400 http://www.dishnetworktalk.com/index.php?itemid=418 Dish Network Promotions for both of these needs. That's because in addition to satellite TV service, Dish Network can provide you with a portable video device that it calls the PocketDish. You may be thinking that the fact that Dish Network has its own portable video device isn't very impressive and that you might as well shop around for a different one, but in reality the PocketDish can save you a fair amount of trouble and money in the long run. That's because the PocketDish is designed to work seamlessly with Dish Network digital video recorders to transfer video from the hard drive of the DVR's to the hard drive of the PocketDish. This quick and convenient process is free to use and takes place over a USB 2.0 connection at a rate of about one hour of programming for every five minutes of download time.The fact that the PocketDish can download video from a digital video recorder that easily and efficiently gives it a very real and very great advantage over other portable video devices. After all, most other portable video devices rely on Internet video downloads in order to get the video that their owners watch on them. Internet video is far less convenient than programming from Dish Network for a number of reasons. For one thing, you'll probably have to hunt around on several different sites in order to find the video that you're looking for. Even then you might not find what you're looking for because Internet video is a relatively new and undeveloped way of distributing media. This is especially true when you're looking for mainstream TV shows and movies. You'll also have to pay for the vast majority of mainstream videos and TV shows that you download through the Internet. (That's were a lot of the savings of having a PocketDish comes in!)

If you already have a Dish Network subscription and are looking for a portable video device, but don't have a digital video recorder, getting a PocketDish still might be a good option for you. That's because the two more advanced models in the PocketDish line up- the AV500E and the AV700E- are also digital video recorders. They even come with docking stations, so that they can easily be attached to your home entertainment center, and remote controls, so that you can use them like other parts of your home entertainment center. This feature allows these two models to record video in real time directly from your Dish Network satellite receiver. You can then play the recordings back on your full sized TV screen or detach the PocketDish in order to take it with you when you leave the house and watch the video on its built in LCD screen. The fact that when a PocketDish is used this way it can store four times the video that it can download from another digital video recorder makes it the rival for any standard definition DVR available from Dish Network in terms of capacity.

All of these things make the PocketDish a versatile addition to a home entertainment system.]]> General http://www.dishnetworktalk.com/index.php?itemid=418 Tue, 10 Jun 2008 14:43:00 -0400 http://www.dishnetworktalk.com/index.php?itemid=417 Dish Network does a good job of and one of them is providing their subscribers with HDTV programming. In fact, at present no other TV service provider, either satellite or cable, offers as many national HDTV channels as Dish Network does.If you're like a lot of Americans though, there's a good chance that you're at least somewhat confuse about what HDTV is and why you need programming for it. There seem to be two different types of confusion about High Definition Television out there. The first and perhaps the most pervasive is the idea that the term HDTV represents a type of TV set distinguished by a wide screen and often flat panel display technology, and that anything that's displayed on that TV set is High Definition Television. The second type of confusion about this issue comes from the idea that high definition TV and digital TV are the same thing. People who hold this mistaken idea largely ignore the differences between HDTV sets (if they know of the existence of HDTV sets at all) and normal TV sets and also assume that standard DVD's display their contents in HDTV. By extension these same people assume that when analog TV signals cease to be used for over the air transmissions in 2009 they'll be replaced by HDTV programming.

Both types of confusion can be cleared up with the recognition of a couple of simple facts. First, HDTV is a separate TV format from normal TV, and though it is digital not all digital TV is in high definition. Because HDTV is a separate format that features elements that a normal TV are incapable of displaying, HDTV sets are necessary to view HDTV. This is the opposite of assuming that everything on an HDTV set is displayed in HD, and HDTV sets are capable of displaying normal TV programming as well.

Because of all of these aspects of HDTV, it's clear that you need High Definition Television programming in order to get the most out of your HDTV set. That's where Dish Network comes into all of this. Dish Network offers thirty one national HDTV channels while the nearest competitor only offers about twenty two HDTV channels total (including national and local HDTV channels). Of course, you can also get more HDTV channels through Dish Network if any of your local channels happen to broadcast in HDTV.

These thirty one HDTV channels come in the form of an add on package that can be tacked onto just about any Dish Network programming package for a very reasonable extra fee. Once you get the High Def add on package, you'll still be able to enjoy all of the normal TV programming that comes with the channels of your base programming package, but you'll also get plenty of HDTV entertainment too.

HDTV was originally conceived as a way to watch movies in a home theater that was designed to replicate the movie theater experience as closely as possible while still being affordable. For that reason, Dish Network does offer plenty of movie channels in high def, but it also offers a surprising variety of other programming as well. For example you'll be able to get twenty four hour news coverage from HDNews. You'll also be able to enjoy lots of sports and special interest programming.

In all HDTV from Dish Network is a good way to invest in your entertainment.]]> General http://www.dishnetworktalk.com/index.php?itemid=417 Thu, 5 Jun 2008 14:30:00 -0400 http://www.dishnetworktalk.com/index.php?itemid=416 Dish Network Offers you a couple of glimpses into the future of entertainment technology. That's because, Dish Network has several services that you can use in order to take greater control of how you watch TV, and control over your TV and its programming will be a hallmark of the future of home entertainment technology.

One great example of a type of technology that can do this is Dish Network's special PPV service that's called Dish On Demand. With Dish On Demand, you have a lot more control over how you watch your pay per view movies than you did with more primitive pay per view services. That's because as soon as you've selected and paid for the movie that you want to watch through Dish On Demand, you can start watching that movie without waiting for the next start time like you would with a conventional PPV service.

Dish On Demand also helps you to take more control over how you watch the movie while you're watching it. For example, if you need to duck into the kitchen for a few minutes while you're watching a movie through Dish On Demand, you can just pause it. If you happen to miss a scene or want to go back to see if you heard a particular line correctly you can rewind the movie, and if you know that you don't want to see a certain scene in the movie, you can even fast forward past it.

Dish On Demand also gives you a lot more than normal pay per view because it lets you watch a movie as many times as you want in the twenty four hour period following the moment you paid for the movie. In that sense Dish On Demand is a lot more like a video rental than pay per view programming! But you still don't have to worry about late fees.

Eventually TV technology will probably allow all of us to watch whatever we want on an on demand basis, but until then a digital video recorder will allow you to approximate that capability. A Dish Network HD digital video recorder, which is called a DVR for the sake of brevity, is a high tech computerized replacement for the old fashioned VCR. It will automatically record TV shows, sports events, news casts, and movies of your choosing even when you aren't at home just like a VCR, but it has a number of improvements over VCR's. These improvements consist of the fact that a DVR is easy to program and the fact that a digital video recorder stores all of the recordings on a built in hard disk that's cable of holding up to one hundred or to hundred hour of video depending on the model. Once a program is recorded on the hard disk you'll be able to access it on an on demand basis.

Both of these technologies from Dish Network offer a glimpse into the future of entertainment technology.]]> General http://www.dishnetworktalk.com/index.php?itemid=416 Fri, 30 May 2008 14:22:00 -0400 http://www.dishnetworktalk.com/index.php?itemid=415 low cost satellite TV became widely available through companies like Dish Network, cable TV has proven to be much less effective when it comes to delivering programming than this new technology. This may surprise some people. After all, if terrestrial over the air TV has problems with interference because it travels through the air, then why wouldn't the satellite TV signal- which also travels through the air on its way too and from space be subjected to the same interference? The truth is that the satellite TV signal is subjected to the same interference and more since it has farther to travel. The difference in the case of Dish Network is that all of Dish Network's signals are digital in format, and digital TV signals are extremely easy to electronically cleanse of all of that interference. The result of all of this is that Dish Network delivers a much clearer TV picture than most cable TV companies do with their analog TV signal, even though those analog signals travel much shorter distances than the satellite TV signals and are sheltered underground during the transmission.

Dish Network has also made huge strides over cable TV in terms of number of channels offered. In fact, while the average cable TV company offers about one hundred channels- which admittedly used to be very impressive- you can easily get two hundred channels from a Dish Network subscription, and three hundred channels with one of the larger programming packages and additional channels added on, is not impossible.

Dish Network has also improved on the older cable TV companies when it comes to value. An introductory level satellite TV programming package from Dish Network costs roughly half of the equivalent package from the average cable TV provider. And probably provides more channels. In general, Dish Network offers lower prices across the board than the cable TV industry can. You can spend as much on Dish Network as you do on cable, but you'll have a lot more channels to choose from when you do!

There are several reasons for this difference in price, but it really boils down to the fact that satellite TV programming is easier to deliver than cable TV service is, and that can make all the difference.]]> General http://www.dishnetworktalk.com/index.php?itemid=415 Sun, 25 May 2008 14:19:00 -0400 http://www.dishnetworktalk.com/index.php?itemid=414 Dish Network Deals has come up with another option that will allow people to access TV programming in an even greater variety of locations and situations. This innovation is called the PocketDish and it allows you to view Dish Network programming just about anywhere using a clever combination of different technologies.

The PocketDish is basically a portable media device that is capable of playing video and displaying digital photos on its built in color LCD screen or on a full sized TV with compatible jacks. It can also play digital music and serves as a portable video game platform for games that can be downloaded from Dish Network. All of the media is stored on a compact hard drive that varies in size from twenty to forty gigabytes depending on the exact model.

The thing that really makes the PocketDish a good option for making TV programming even more portable is the fact that it can download video from Dish Network's digital video recorders. With all of the TV programming available through Dish Network, this is a tremendous advantage when it comes to making high quality video content easy to find and to put on the device- much easier than with other portable media devices that require you to download video from the Internet.

Another interesting option that the two more advanced models give you is the ability to use them as stand alone digital video recorders. That's because either of these two models will record video from just about any device that can send it over a compatible connection. That means that if you don't have a Dish Network digital video recorder, you can just plug one of these models into your TV receiver and use it as a digital video recorder instead! That way you can record video onto your PocketDish and then either take the PocketDish with you when you're away from the house and watch the recorded video then, or you can choose to watch the recorded video at home on your full sized TV just like you would with any other digital video recorder. These two models even come with remote controls and docking stations to make the process easy.

Of course, as portable digital video recorders, these two more advanced PocketDish models can also record video from a lot more different sources than just a TV receiver. They can record video from computers, camcorders, cable TV boxes, DVD players, and many more devices. As an added bonus, this video will be stored in a format that takes up only a quarter of the space of a comparable amount of video that's downloaded from a Dish Network DVR. This quadruples the video storage capacity of the PocketDish's hard disk!

These are just a few of the applications of this clever device.]]> General http://www.dishnetworktalk.com/index.php?itemid=414 Wed, 21 May 2008 14:18:54 -0400 http://www.dishnetworktalk.com/index.php?itemid=413 High Definition Television programming packages so that all of the high def content is offered in a single package that can be added onto a wide variety full blown programming packages. This new add on package has thirty one national HDTV channels- a figure that exceeds the nearest competitor by about fifty percent.

These thirty one high definition TV channels cover a wide variety of types of programming that go beyond movies. For example, you'll get access to news coverage in high def, along with lots of sports and special interest programming.

The sports programming that Dish Network will provide for you in HDTV includes a long list of channels. You'll be able to get high def versions of ESPN and ESPN2. You'll also be able to enjoy extreme sports and soccer from Rush HD. World Sport HD will provide you lots of sports coverage from around the world. NFL Network in High Def will provide you with lots of North American football action, and you'll also be able to catch plenty of sports coverage through CBS HDTV.

Dish Network's special interest programming in HDTV is if anything, more impressive than the sports programming. For instance, you'll get to enjoy all of the thrill of live concert events from the comfort of your own home with Rave HD. You'll also get up to the minute information on the newest events in video gaming through Game Play HD. (As an interesting side note, more and more video game systems are taking advantage of HDTV technology to provide a much better picture and more realistic graphics.) You'll also get a lot of information about things that you can do yourself around your home and ways that you can improve your living environment through a high def version of Home and Garden Television. Treasure HD will bring you right into the world of antiques and antique auctions. Gallery HD will provide similar coverage of visual arts and even provide profiles of individual artists and look at their creative processes. Ultra HD will provide you with a glimpse behind the scenes in the world of fashion and style.

Of course Dish Network still honors the original vision of HDTV by providing plenty of movie channels that take advantage of the high def format. You'll get HBO HDTV, Showtime HDTV, HDNet Movies, Universal HD, and more. Dish Network is definitely a good complement to your HDTV system.]]> General http://www.dishnetworktalk.com/index.php?itemid=413 Fri, 9 May 2008 14:00:59 -0400 http://www.dishnetworktalk.com/index.php?itemid=412
If portable entertainment is what you're looking for, then a much more practical, user friendly, and cost effective option would be a portable media device. Portable media devices still have their problems though. For example, in order to get video to watch on most of them, you need a computer and a high speed Internet connection. And then you'll probably end up paying for your downloads.

There is a device that's an exception to those problems though. That device is the PocketDish and it's marketed by Dish Network. While it may seem strange for a satellite TV provider to be marketing a portable media device, it actually makes sense when you think about the fact that Dish Network has hundreds of channels that are essentially beaming video into subscribers' homes around the clock. This makes even more sense when you realize that Dish Network digital video recorders offer a good way for owners of the PocketDish to capture videos in digital format that could then be downloaded to a portable device. That's exactly what the PocketDish does.

The PocketDish overcomes all of the problems of using a laptop computer for portable entertainment. It's much smaller, has a much longer battery life, and is much cheaper to purchase. The PocketDish also overcomes the problems of other portable media devices by being able to download as much video as the user wants from a Dish Network digital video recorder at no extra charge.

The more advanced models of the PocketDish line also have the ability to act as digital video recorders; a trait that isn't particularly common among portable video devices. Basically, this means that a huge number of other devices- in addition to Dish Network's digital video recorders- can be sources of video for this device. Plus, because of advanced video compression technology, these devices can each store well over one hundred hours of video.

All of this makes the PocketDish a good blend of value and versatility.]]> General http://www.dishnetworktalk.com/index.php?itemid=412 Tue, 29 Apr 2008 14:11:00 -0400 http://www.dishnetworktalk.com/index.php?itemid=411
For now, Dish Network appears to hold the title as the television provider with the consistently highest level of high definition programming. Its selection of over 30 high def channels is fairly large for this early stage of the format. The fact that the company has this many channels is also causing much interest among people looking for more high definition television programming. For many cable subscribers the HD pickings are small and not that entertaining. Many of these people are either considering switching to satellite television for better access or have already made the switch. For the trouble of spending a little bit of time getting a new system set up, these subscribers get the reward of plenty of extra high def programming.

One of the reasons that Dish Network has such a large selection of high def programming is that it has many channels that are designed especially for high def television. These include movie and cartoon channels that show programs that have been remade to work well with a high definition television. These channels increase the number of viewing choices while providing the types of entertainment that are especially popular in the high definition format.

Of course, Dish Network also has a decent selection of channels that derive from standard definition versions. ESPN, HGTV, TNT, and CBS are four examples of these. These standard definition upgrades are an exciting way to watch favorite shows in the new format. As more broadcasters get on board with high definition television, this category of high def programming will increase pretty rapidly.

Because consumers have a lot of power and a very strong voice, especially when in large numbers, the number of people who want to have more high definition programming is very powerful. Dish Network is already heeding the requests and is gaining more customers as a result. High definition television will only get better and bigger in the future.]]> General http://www.dishnetworktalk.com/index.php?itemid=411 Sat, 26 Apr 2008 14:07:00 -0400