If our Google TV explanation wasn’t simple enough for your chestnut of a brain, let Google spell it out in simple terms via a two-minute-long YouTube video. It’s hardly in-depth, but at least your mum will understand. More »
TiVo might be dying on the vine, but at the rate they’re racking up lawsuit wins they may survive yet. TiVo’s stock skyrocketed after a federal court shot down Echostar and Dish’s recent appeal. Possibly next: Dish DVR shutdowns. More »
To punish Dish for not complying with an order to basically stop being a DVR service, a US District Judge ordered them to pay about $US200 million to TiVo, whose patents were infringed. More »
Dish Network has had Sling integrations before, but they just dropped a brand new HD-DVR with remove Sling capabilities built in along with a redesigned SlingGuide interface.
At face value, “1080p high definition” means 1920×1080 pixels presented progressive scan (all at once). But if a clip is 1080p that alone doesn’t necessitate that it will look good. Just as you can stretch a thumbnail in Photoshop to any gargantuan size you like, so too can content providers give you ugly 1080p.
After punting their agreement with Dish Network to sell satellite as part of a triple play package, AT&T has decided to settle down with DirecTV. They’ll keep hawking Dish through Jan. 31, after which they’ll offer DirecTV anywhere they can’t give you U-Verse as a TV option. Multichannel notes that this leaves second-place Dish without a major reseller partner, so not great news for them. [Multichannel]
Dish Network is upgrading their boxes’ firmware to display 1080p resolution. Given the lack of 1080p network source material, the existing 720p/1080i compressed HD signals, and the fact that there’s no standard limiting the compression quality–1080p can be compressed to crap like any other picture–it’s tough to believe this is going to be really useful for consumers. But maybe we are mistaken, because the company actually thinks that their 1080p quality is on par with Blu-ray discs:
In order to offer more HD channels, satellite providers need more satellites. So happy day for Dish Network subscribers, their EchoStar XI satellite was successfully launched this morning after a satellite propelled into space last March didn’t reach the right orbit. This’ll let Dish add 17 new HD channels shortly, bringing them up to 100. DirecTV says they’ll have over 150 by the end of the year, though Dish’s upcoming all-HD TurboHD package could wind up being a better deal if history is any guide. [Reuters]
AT&T is nixing the agreement they’ve had with Dish TV since 2003 to sell their satellite TV service as part of a triple play bundle with internet and voice. Some are speculating it’s because AT&T is simply down on satellite TV (it’s got its own U-verse IPTV thing after all), but more likely it’s pitting Dish and DirecTV against each other in a bidding war, since U-verse deployment ain’t exactly a runaway train speed-wise. So, realistically, you could see AT&T hawking DirecTV instead of Dish next year, which would be a blow to to the latter, since they’re already little number two. But maybe AT&T will be super ballsy and push off satellite altogether. [Info Week]
