On Demand Review / History Channel HD
Over the past week I have been lucky enough to play with DirecTV’s upcoming “DirecTV on Demand” internet based VOD service. And while it is only beta, I have one word to describe it… “WOW!”
At launch the new VOD service will work only on its flagship DVR the HR-20. The overall feel and navigation of “DirecTV on Demand” was extremely well thought out and well implemented. I thought it was genius of using the left arrow button on the remote as your back button.
For a beta test the selection of movies, specials and television shows was great. I was also shocked that most of the content was free, and only some selections (i.e. newer movies) required payment to rent them.
I found myself loving TLC On Demand, and I downloaded a bunch of episodes of “American Chopper - Behind The Scenes”
The downloads were served to me as quick as my internet connection could handle, and I could normally start watching a program seconds after it started downloading.
For this beta test there was only one high definition selection available. The quality of it was very good and also had very good Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound. I should point out that many testers have reported the HD download took many hours to finish, even on the fastest line.
Some things did need some slight improvements, for movies that had previews available; I was unable to watch many of the previews. In addition I did find that many of the shows I tested had a few seconds of the endings cut off. Finally the only other bug I found was on the main VOD channel (channel 1000) they have listings for top picks on the right hand side of the screen but you can’t actually arrow over to these top picks to select them. But for a first beta, it’s not looking too bad.
I am told by Earl Bonovich, the CE Beta Test leader from DBSTalk.COM these issues are known and will be corrected before the on demand service is rolled out to all DirecTV HR-20 customers.
History Channel HD to Debut Tommorow
A&E’s History Channel will be going high definition this Tuesday on Dish Network (Channel 9491) to those with Dish Networks Americas Top 100 package or higher with a MPEG4 receiver and DishHD service. History Channel HD was supposed to launch on September 5th, however Dish Network notified retailers over the holiday weekend that it will be launching a day earlier, to which I say BRING IT ON!
Have a happy and safe Labor Day!