A Review of Dish Networks New All MPEG4 Service

On August 20^th Dish Network launched a completely new satellite service referred to as “The Eastern Arc.”  This new service (for the most part) mirrors Dish Networks existing satellite service except all channels are broadcast using MPEG4 technology from satellites which are easier to see from the eastern half of the United States.

Over the past few weeks I have been lucky enough to kick the tires of Dish Networks new service side by side with Dish Networks legacy service.

The new Eastern Arc service is currently only meant for new customers.  While some customers may want to move to the new Eastern Arc service there is no reason for them to do so at this time, and I will explain why in a bit.

To get Eastern Arc you need a new Dish 1000.4 satellite dish.  The new 1000.4 has special LNB’s which can see the new Eastern Arc satellites.  The Eastern Arc satellites are located at 61.5 72.7 and 77 degrees West Longitude in the sky, while the legacy Dish Network satellites are at 110, 119 and 129 degrees West Longitude.

I was able to obtain a Dish 1000.4 on August 20^th, the assembly of the dish was fairly easy and pointing the dish was even easier.  Because I live in Connecticut the Skew for my zip code was an even 90 degrees. Once I had the mast installed and it was plumb and level I put the Dish 1000.4 on the mast and spun the dish on the mast until I had a signal reading on my SuperBuddy satellite meter. The entire installation process for putting up the dish was less than 15 minutes.

Once installed I was only able to see a few channels from the Eastern Arc service, this is due to the fact that the majority of channels on the Eastern Arc are using Dish Networks new security system.  In order to tune in to the bulk of the channels coming from the Eastern Arc I needed to obtain a new Generation 3 (G3) smartcard.  While Dish Network has started upgrading existing customers to the new security system, I knew it would be awhile before I got mine so I got smart and went out and purchased a new Dish Network 722 HD DVR.  I purchased this receiver because I knew it would come with the new security system included.

When I purchased the 722, I hooked it up to my legacy Dish Network setup, and then let the receiver download the latest software.  Once that was done I called Dish Network and activated the receiver on my account.  Once the new receiver was activated I took the receiver and hooked it up to my new Eastern Arc setup.  It took a long time for the receiver to run its “check switch” setup to find the new satellites,  this is because currently the 77 degree satellite which will be  used for the Eastern Arc is currently not there and they system spends a long time trying to find it.  However once the procedure finished my receiver was seeing the two existing Eastern Arc satellites.

The first thing I did was took a look at some of the HD channels which were coming off the 72.7 satellite in MPEG4.  These channels on the legacy system were at the time only in MPEG2 format.  The picture quality difference was amazing, the MPEG4 version of these HD channels (HDNet, HDNet Movies, HBO and a few others) was so amazing colorful and crisp while the MPEG2 versions from the legacy system looked dull, lifeless and boring. 

Now while this sounds like a great reason to want to upgrade to Eastern Arc, I say save your money. The remaining MPEG2 HD channels on Dish Network will be switching to MPEG4 later this month, so the same amazing picture quality for these channels will soon be available to all.

Next I checked out the standard definition channels, and they looked much like the channels on the legacy service.  Many people expected the SD channels to look better with Eastern Arc because of the use of MPEG4 technology, however what Dish did here is made the channels at a slightly lower resolution. The resolution used is 480×480 on Eastern Arc compared to 540×480 on the legacy system.

Over the past few weeks I did some really detailed studies between the two systems trying to find which system had the better standard definition picture quality.  And by using my own eyes there is no major difference between the two.  Those who thought they were going to upgrade to Eastern Arc to get better SD picture quality are going to be disappointed.

With that said though, the SD quality on Dish Network is “different” but not in a bad way.  To me the PQ of SD channels on Eastern Arc look much like SD channels on DirecTV.  DirecTV also broadcasts their standard definition channels at 480×480.  If you took and placed two TV’s in a room and put Legacy Dish Network standard definition on one screen and DirecTV’s standard definition version of the same channel and asked random people to choose which system looked better there would be no landslide winner, some folks will prefer the picture of DirecTV and others will prefer the picture of Dish Network. When I look at the SD picture from Eastern Arc I feel like I am watching a SD channel for DirecTV.  It’s a hard thing to explain but those folks out there who are video and satellite junkies would know exactly what I am talking about.

Why do I think you should hold off upgrading to Eastern Arc?  The only compelling reason currently to want to upgrade to Eastern Arc is if you currently have Dish Network and are forced to use two separate satellite dishes to receive all your Dish Network programming. The Eastern Arc service is a one dish solution. Of course to do this you will need all MPEG4 equipment a new satellite dish and the new G3 security cards. Finding all that equipment at the present time is also difficult as there is a shortage of equipment from Dish Network due to the success to their new TurboDISH packages.

I can’t see a reason to move over to Eastern Arc at this time. If you want to upgrade I would wait until next year because again, what you currently get now is exactly what you’re going to get with Eastern Arc. Eastern Arc does not currently give you any benefits or advantages over the setup you have now.  Why spend money if you don’t have to?  Also don’t expect Dish Network to upgrade you for free.  If what you have now is working then keep it.

I should note that Eastern Arc does not carry most of the foreign channels and this includes the popular Latino channels.  If you want the Latino channels you will need to stay on Dish Networks legacy system.

The Eastern Arc is an amazing advance however for new customers, here in the East many customers have been unable to get satellite television because they could not see the satellites due to the low look angle and being blocked by trees, with Eastern Arc this problem is almost totally eliminated, allowing for many to get satellite for the first time that never could get it before.  For installers the ease of setup and install is going to be a big plus, the Eastern Arc is a well thought out system for new customers.

Have a good weekend, and to our friends out there in Texas please stay safe  as Hurricane Ike rears his ugly head!