Quote:
Originally Posted by troutman
Shaw is not offering enough HD channels. We have had it for 1 1/2 years and they are still at about 20 channels. Don't other providers offer 60+ HD channels?
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The problem becomes how they add new channels.
HD channels use more bandwidth than SD channels. So when they add additional HD, they have to make a choice - remove SD channels (still too many people receive SD - not palatable), add bandwidth (a lot of additional infrastructure costs), or compress the HD channels more.
Usually providers have done the final option. As result, the quality of HD suffers. You can no longer see the detail you should be able to see (and used to be able to see).
If providers aren't adding more HD content because they are busy adapting the network to be able to provide more more HD, I have no problem with it because I think they have already compressed the channels too much.
If they aren't providing HD because they don't want to spend any money then I think they are short sighted because they are competing with other services.
Bring on more competition, be it StarChoice (owned by Shaw anyways), BEV, Telus TV, or something else in the future (choice of shows served on demand, perhaps?).