is it just me or was ces bad news for everyone?

[vurbano]

As a D* customer I was hoping without hope that they would throw us a bone or two for some national HD channels and I got what I expected zilch.

You know thats all they would have to do to keep a lot of us happy.

 

[herdfan]

As far as the HMC - that was definitely bad news. We're further away now than at the last CES.

Yep! But now I don't feel so stupid for running/fishing hundreed's of feet of component cables through my house to be able to view content from my HD TiVo's on any TV I want.

 

[herdfan]

You know thats all they would have to do to keep a lot of us happy.

Exactly. And if E* has found the bandwidth to add 7 more HD channels (ESPN2, UHD, and the V*5), then E* could have struck a huge blow at D* by skipping the V*5 for now and adding HD channels that D* doesn't have.

 

[CPanther95]

It almost seems like nobody has the desire to go for that "slam-dunk".

I liked Voom a lot, but even if they are cheap, it makes little sense to have such a comprehensive lineup of Voom channels at the expense of the more mainstream channels. Take the best 5, add all the mainstream available, add 5 more, add NGC & MTV, add 1 or 2 more.... Of course, I'm looking at what would be attractive to potential new customers - not what the minimum cost package to offer to entice existing subscribers to upgrade to MPEG4.

The cable companies pissed away a few years that they could have really cut into DBS - and now E* is starting to apply mild pressure on D* - but D* is now only 12-18 months away from almost unlimited capacity - and it seems like everyone is courteously allowing them to get there with minimal damage. While D*sits back chuckling that they have been allowed to implement their measured plan for the future with no short-term fallout.

D* will likely add the two new FOX properties in HD in 2006, and perhaps have retained - or will free up - enough bandwidth for the other two mainstream channels coming out this year that have a draw (Food & MTV) and that will likely carry them competitively into D10 & D11.

I'm not praising D* - I'm bitching that they have been allowed all this time to do relatively little in HD without a significant challenge.

 

[herdfan]

D* will likely add the two new FOX properties in HD in 2006, and perhaps have retained - or will free up - enough bandwidth for the other two mainstream channels coming out this year that have a draw (Food & MTV) and that will likely carry them competitively into D10 & D11.

Given that D* partially built its reputation on sports programming, to not carry TNT-HD blows my mind. There are a lot of BBall fans out there (I'm not one of them though) that would appreciate TNT-HD. Plus us NASCAR types. But I have that taken care of with E*'s HD pak. I'm so glad they let you sub to just the HD package even if you have to pay an extra $5.

I get the two FOX HD channels, but not FOOD or MTV. Not to be sexist, but isn't FOOD aimed at women who don't care about HD in the first place.

 

[CPanther95]

The FOX properties I meant were NGC and FOX-HD (the new one - not network)

I like the Food Network. Some of those shows in HD would be great eye candy - and even if geared more toward women (which I'm not sure is the case), that's the kind of thing the industry needs. There's nothing inherent in women that precludes them from appreciating great picture quality - from the comments on these boards, I think there must be something about the women we choose to marry that is at fault. What does it say about us that the majority of women married to us cannot distinguish "great looking" from "mediocre looking"

 

[rad]

Given that D* partially built its reputation on sports programming, to not carry TNT-HD blows my mind. There are a lot of BBall fans out there (I'm not one of them though) that would appreciate TNT-HD.

I agree. I also would like to know why D* isn't rolling out the HD version of a RSN when they light up a LIL HD market? If they've got the bandwidth on SW1/SW2 why don't they at least throw us that bone? It would at least give them a slight (very slight) edge over E* at the moment.

 

[TheForce]

"is it just me or was ces bad news for everyone?"

Well, I'm back home now and can sit and reflect for a moment on what I saw and whether it was worth the cost and time to go to CES.

I've said in another thread that I go with a mission to get some issues or conflict resolved that I just can't seem to do here through store visits or web surfing. CES, in the past has been the answer.

I would say that if I were looking for new stuff with HD the show was a waste of time. Nothing new to see with 1080p, just more of the same. HD-DVD vs. BluRay? Still the same fight with no resolve. HD Camcorders- The New Sony but I knew about that before too.

Automobile electronics- More of the same. More GPS devices, more options but nothing really new, same for amps, mobile video etc. Looked for in car web browsing using EVDO broadband- Nothing! Learned from Kenwood, they did release a new DVD-ROM for my GPS- That was good news for me.

But my main mission was to find the perfect cell phone - PDA with EVDO and that I accomplished with satisfaction! I got plenty of hands on testing of a number of questions I had regarding the Treo700w. Questions that could not be resolved unless I actually bought one. Satisfied I bought one Treo700w with good discounts. Also I learned that based on how I will be using the PDA phones, my wife and I would probably do better having different formfactors. Therefore I found another phone that will soon be out by Verizon that is better suited for me than the Treo700w. All in all, this education made the trip worth it. I depend on a good cell phone with PDA and reliable internet connection for a part of my business. Without it, or bad connections and I could have issues that cost me severe penalties. So, finding the right solution, even redundancy backups is very important. Having broadband wireless is more of a convenmience since hunting down a wifi zone has become way too much of a challenge now than it was 6 months ago. EVDO worked flawless with average of 800kbps speeds for uploading fast and without errors. It was like being here in the office.

ces was good news for me and while the dbs shift in power is always fun to follow, I really don't care if I get my service from E* or D* as long as I get plenty of HD in decent quality. Plus the equipment works without annoying lockups and picture/ sound problems. All I can say is MP4 better work without a ton of Gotchas.

 

[cbearnm]

HDDVD v. BluRay - agree completely.
And realistically, I saw no reall compelling software to even want to upgrade to either format. BluRay had the Kill Bill movie running and aside from there being no artifacts, there was not enough bump in quality to blow me away (compared to current DVD on a progressive player), certainly not VHS->DVD type increase in quality.
Although I had a good time at the show, there was no WOW moment/product for me as in previous years.

 

[kanebear]

You guys must not have seen SED. I agree that this year's CES was a complete yawner otherwise but SED is the most revolutionary announcement in TV technology since LCD and Plasma came out. Unless Sony comes out with competing technology they're in trouble. I bought a Qualia 006 RPTV after seeing one at CES last year and lemme tell ya, the 37" SED Toshiba had on display make it look like a 25 year old CRT RPTV in dire need of a cleaning/focus/retubing. MANY throughout the crowd uttered involuntary "Wow!"s.

 

[rocco_fanucci]

While all the "big companies" were at CES, Apple was filing trademarks:

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/new...R270548_RTRIDST_0_TECH-APPLE-TRADEMARK-DC.XML