DirecTV is a lying sack of shit.

So my old arch nemesis, DirecTV CLAIMS they'll be offering 100 HD channels in 2007.
To that I say, "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAAAAAHAHAHA."
Balderdash.
Hogwash.
Absolute nonsense.

Here's a partial "list" of the channels that will be in HD (via engadget):

* A&E
* National Geographic
* Bravo
* NFL Network
* Cartoon Network
* SciFi Channel
* CNN
* Speed
* Food Network
* TBS
* FX
* The History Channel
* HGTV
* The Weather Channel
* MTV
* USA Network

Oh please, bitch. So I guess DTV is going to pay for the equipment upgrades required for all those networks to start sending HD signals to the broadcast center, huh? Less than half of those networks even have HD content to broadcast. Even if USA had the equipment (and just because Universal owns them, don't assume they do), only Law and Order, their four originals and tennis would be in HD. All the shitty, edited for tv fullscreen movies they show won't be.

Food Network shoots their programming in 720x480p at the very most (that's dvd quality, if you didn't know), and a lot of it is fullscreen (actually pillarbox since widescreen IS the new fullscreen). The cost to swap out all their camera and editing equipment would be in the multi-millions! Maybe DTV thinks they can pawn "widescreen" television off on the viewing public as "high-def" like Fox did a couple of years ago. I'm personally very much in favor of most television being 480p and widescreen (specifically reality tv and news) like it is in Australia and the UK. Everything doesn't need to be 1080i. I'm actually very much in favor of capping resolution at 1280x720 to save bandwidth... I assure you that you can't tell the difference. I know, I know... 480p is EDTV, and that's gross, but I think it's a positive baby step for all of us. While I support EDTV, I won't pretend it's HD. Fuck DirecTV and their blatant lies. Get Dish or cable.

Not that it matters since you'll never get true, uncompressed HD any way other than over the air. The bandwidth consumption is just monstrous.

BTW, American Idol looks AMAZING this season, the fucking colors are mindblowing.
Thanks KDFW!
- posted by Mason @ 4:17 PM