DISH Network to go 1080p in August

[admin]

The battle for 1080p dominance of physical media verses video on demand (VOD) is joined. Satellite television provider DISH Network announced that it would begin beaming 1080p goodness from space in short order. Now we get to see how long it takes other broadcasters to scramble to put 1080p on the air.


Discuss "DISH Network to go 1080p in August" here. Read the article.

[GlocksRock]

I'm surprised 1080p from satellite providers has come this quickly. Hopefully it won't be too long before all HD content is sent in 1080p, not just VOD.

[KaosAD]

Actually DirecTV announced their 1080p news July 28th. Don't rely on anything Swanni says, he rips news from other sites and tries to make it sound like he has the inside scoop. Grr, still can't post links.

[KaosAD]

I now have my 5 posts, only took me 3 years. Anyway, here's the press release Market Watch has the full press release

[GlocksRock]

I like your username... I just listened to Sepultura's Chaos AD album yesterday

[KaosAD]

Thanks, I too like Sepultura but I've had my nick since about '87 from a BBS I ran. I'll date myself, my BBS ran on 1200 baud.

[GlocksRock]

nice... I used to be on BBSs all the time, on my 2400 baud modem, Tandy 1000 TX 8 mhz. 286.

[Dezoris]

A little misleading that 1080p over Dish will be BluRay quality.

[acacia987]

is it even possible for cable companies like Comcast to push 1080p over there current network?

there already compressing the hell out of there 720p material.

[autoboy]

Edit: Sorry, my last post was confusing.

What I meant to say was that the bandwidth of 1080i/60 vs 1080p/30 or 1080p/24 is irrelevant. The source is shot in either film at 1080p/24 or video at 1080i/60. It is then wrapped in a broadcast format of 1080i/60 (like most HDTV) or 1080p/24 (like BluRay) or 1080p/30 (actually never heard of anyone using this one but it is possible). The codecs that are used are smart enough to recognize a duplicate frame without any extra bandwidth required. Film material wrapped in a 1080i/60 wrapper is actually the same exact material as it was before it was wrapped in 1080i/60 except that the TV or STB has to perform 3:2 pulldown and deinterlace the film from its wrapper. If the same 1080p/24 film content is wrapped in both 1080p/24 and 1080i/60 at the same bitrate, then when properly deinterlaced, the quality of both is the same.

Broadcasting in 1080p format simply takes out the deinterlacing step and makes it easier to get a better picture on cheap hardware.

This is totally different than what you typically see at home on a HDMI connection. At home on your BluRay player, you are sending raw picture information and the framerate is typically left at 60 frames per second (if you are in the US). So, 1080i/60 takes less HDMI bandwidth than 1080p/60 because there are twice the frames in 1080p/60. You are broadcasting the raw picture information without the help of the compression of a codec. Lots of frames are duplicated if you are watching a 1080p/24 film movie. If you are cool, you can set your BluRay player to 1080p/24 and the bandwidth on the HDMI cable is even less than 1080i/60 because there are less than half the frames broadcast.