Dish Gadget TV Blog is about the technology and programming behind DISH Network satellite TV service. Statistics Unique Visitors: Total Unique Visitors: Outgoing: Total Outgoing: 0 0 2 197

Articles from Dish Gadget TV

American Idol in Charleston 2008-01-24 15:50:48 Well at the end of the American Idol Charleston tryouts, the natives seemed more than a bit restless.  Downright hostile I would say.  It turned out that out of over 10,000 people that showed up for the auditions, only 23 moved on to Hollywood!  That might be an all-time low record for number of contestants to pass their audition.  After perhaps one too many Simon comments about the lack of quality in the Charleston contestants, many of the rejected contestants could be seen tearing up their American Idol paperwork.  Safe to say that I don’t think that the American Idol show will be back to Charleston anytime soon; perhaps never… ... American Idol

DISH Network Programming - America’s Top 100 Package 2008-01-23 20:43:11 The DISH Network ‘America’s Top 100′ programming package is DISH Network’s most economical package and has something of interest for the entire family to enjoy.  The package starts at just $29.99 per month and is DISH’s most popular programming package.  The package supplies most of the major entertainment, movies, news and kids programming channels and at an extremely affordable price.  Local channels are included with this package, subject to availability in your area.  Cable certainly can’t compete with this low price and of course with DISH Network’s all digital programming, the picture and sound quality with DISH Network programming is vastly superior to what you get with Cable TV. Comedy Central, Spike TV, Lifetime Channel, TNT, Sci-Fi Channel, USA Network, CNN, NASA, TV Land, Cartoon Channel, Nickolodeon-Nick-at-Night East and West channels are just a few of the outstanding programming channels offered with DISH’s America&rsqu ... America

Actor Heath Ledger Dies 2008-01-23 13:04:19 I was as shocked as anyone I guess to hear that 28 year old Australian actor Heath Ledger was found dead in his New York city apartment.  Early reports indicated that Ledger had a bout with pneumonia recently while in England working on a movie.  Also, it appears that prescription sleeping pills were found in his bedroom were Ledger’s body was found, lying face down on the floor.  It could be days or even weeks before the cause of Mr. Ledger’s death is known.  Ledger was an up and coming actor in Hollywood circles and many had predicted that he was on the verge of becoming a big box office star; but tragically his untimely death has ended his budding acting career.  Some news channels were speculating that Ledger had had a bout with substance abuse and that he had undergone some type of treatment for that over a year ago.  I enjoyed Heath’s character in the movie “The Patriot”, in which he played Mel Gibson’s son who gets killed by a British o ...

Slingbox from Sling Media 2008-01-22 13:13:00 You might ask “what is a Slingbox?”  A Slingbox manufactured by Sling Media is a brick sized black box that hooks up to your cable TV system or satellite TV system and allows you to watch your home TV set from anywhere in the world using your laptop computer.  As Sling Media says “watch TV in another room or another hemisphere”.  Slingbox comes in several different models.  The Slingbox Pro is the most expensive and comes in at an affordable $229.95.  SlingMedia, Inc. which was founded in 2004 is an innovative electronics company which takes divergent technologies and combines them into something both imaginative and fantastic.  The third generation of the Slingbox - the Slingbox Solo came out in September of 2007 and both it and the company have already won numerous awards for innovation, engineering and design. Sling Media’s innovative SlingPlayer™ software connects users on all types of computing platforms to their Slingbox which then gives th ...

My Favorite All-Time TV Show 2008-01-21 10:19:12 My favorite TV show of all-time would have to be ‘Seinfeld’.  I’ve seen some episodes five times or more and to me they never grow old.  My favorite character on Seinfeld was Kramer played by Michael Richardson.  The guy was totally bonkers and yet you loved him.  Who else would get applause just for opening a door?!  My next favorite actor on the show was the character Elaine Benes, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfuss.  She was wonderful.  And pretty.  I loved Elaine’s feistyness.  She didn’t take anything, from anybody despite her diminuitive size.  One of my favorite Seinfeld lines was when Elaine tells George (Jason Alexander) that and I quote “I hate that thing and here is what I am going to do with it”, then she proceeds to throw George’s hairpiece out the window.  Vintage Elaine.  Other favorite characters were Jerry as himself of course, Newman the postal worker and Jerry’s uncle ‘Leo”.  “Hello&rdq ...

DISH Network Expands Number of HD Channels 2008-01-20 09:24:46 The DISH Network company plans to expand its number of Hi Definition Channels offered from 76 up to 100 channels.  The announcement was made January 7th. of this year.  DISH will be launching three new satellites in 2008 which will provide DISH the capability of adding the new channels and also to add local HD to 65 new markets, bringing its local HD market to 100.  Eric Sahl, Senior Vice President of Programming at DISH Network said  “We at DISH Network will continue to not only be a leader in the number of HD channels, but also in quality in value.”  The addition of the extra HD channels will keep DISH Network as one of the top HD providers in the nation. ...

The Apprentice 7- Celebrity Apprentice 2008-01-19 15:02:13 I used to be a big fan of “The Apprentice”, the show that Mark Burnnett created several years ago.  The first year or so, the show was interesting and you really felt like at the end of the show, that someone was going to apprentice with the ‘Donald’ for a year and learn the ropes.  Then as time went by, Donald Trump became more ane more involved in the casting and how the show was produced.  And with each season since, the show has gone down hill and lost it’s once lofty rankings.  I tried to watch the first episode of “Celebrity Apprentice”; but once I saw who some of the celebrities were (hadn’t heard of many of the “celebrities” before) that episode; I switched to another channel!  That would have been unthinkable just a couple of years ago; but now my once favorite TV show was being turned off - by me. I believe there are several reasons why The Apprentice has fallen so far in a relatively short period of time.  Fi ...

Bionic Woman 2008-01-18 04:54:35 Just when a really great show “new” show came along last fall, the new Bionic Woman; the Writers Guild strike had to come along.  In the newest version of Bionic Woman, after a near-fatal car crash, the life of a bartender (Jaime Sommers) struggling to care for her teenage sister is saved with bionic technology that gives her superhuman abilities.  Lindsay Wagner of course played Jaime back in the 1970’s and was outstanding in the role; but actress Michelle Ryan is also excellent as our part human, part cyborg superhero.  The fact that Michelle Ryan is gorgeous doesn’t hurt either.  There were some rumors recently that NBC was going to cancel the series; but NBC has denied this saying that after the writer’s strike is over that taping of the show will start anew.   While the lastest reincarnation of Bionic Woman ran for just a couple of months before going on a forced ‘hiatus’; the episodes were excellent and I only hope that the brass a ...

Pocket DISH 2008-01-17 17:20:03 PocketDISH by DISH Network is a video, music, game and photo device small enough to fit into your pocket and take anywhere, anytime.   It can capture forty hours of DISH network satellite TV programming or 120 hours of video from other sources at a lower resolution.  The PocketDISH is a portable DVR designed for recording content from the DISH Network like a regular VCR. The designers of DISH Network’s PocketDISH have taken the latest in digital technologies and combined them into a versatile entertainment-to-go device as indispensable as your cell phone. TV / VIDEO > More versatile than a portable DVD player, quickly transfer programs from select DISH Network DVR receivers to PocketDISH and enjoy the programs you watch every day on the go. MUSIC > Store your entire digital music library! Take thousands of MP3, WMA or WAV music files with you, cleverly organized with cover art and in play lists that suit your many moods.   PHOTOS > Store up to an unbelievable ...

American Idol in Dallas 2008-01-17 10:59:12 I watched American Idol last night, this time the auditions were in Dallas.  They say everthing is BIG in Texas and some of the contestants sure were.  But, in my opinion there wasn’t  alot of talent on display.  Most of the ’singers’ sang as though they were in pain.   One contestant actually compared herself to Celine Dion if you can believe it.  So, I figured if she compares herself to Celine Dion, how bad can she be, right?  Well, she was REALLY bad!  I could be wrong; but I don’t see the next American Idol coming from this bunch.  Even most of the ones that advance, I had the feeling that Randy and Paula especially were just being toooo nice to let them slide on through to the next round.  Well, I guess the good news is that the quality of the contestants can only get better - right?! ... American Idol

Welcome to Dish Gadget TV 2008-01-16 22:33:59 We just wanted to welcome everyone to our blog, Dish Gadget TV.   This blog will cover many different topics including DISH Network the Company, it’s history, the technology behind DISH satellite TV service and of course all the many programming packages and television shows that viewers can watch with their DISH Network system.  Feel free to leave a comment to a post and we hope that you will visit often and tell your friends about our blog. ...

American Idol Premier 2008-01-16 17:22:33 Last night was the premier of the seventh season of American Idol.  The stage was Philadelphia and the City of Brotherly Love sure did produce a motley crew of contestants.  In my opinion most of the contestant were more funny than talented, perhaps a new comic star in the making?  Really though, I love watching the auditions at this stage as you never know what or who is just behind the curtain ready to bore Simon, Paula and Randy to tears.  I must say that while Simon Cowell is the man that America loves to hate (not really hate), I like him.  Most of what Simon does is all show and this is after all television entertainment.  I’m looking forward to watching tonight’s show and seeing some more outrageous ‘talents’. ... American Idol

DISH DVR Dual 625 Receiver 2008-01-16 17:18:57 A cool bit of gadgetry that the DISH Network Company has had out for some time now is the DISH Player-DVR 625 receiver.  I own one and I can tell you that the capabilities it provides are fantastic!  Technically, the DISH Player-DVR 625 is an advanced dual tuner, two TV output satellite receiver and integrated digital video recorder (DVR). DISH Player-DVR 625’s dual tuners and two TV outputs provide the unique ability to record two shows simultaneously as well as allow for independent viewing of live satellite TV programming and recorded events when connected to two televisions. Some of the DISH Network 625 DVR Features:      Dual satellite tuners that provide several   multi-room viewing options     Picture-In-Picture (PIP)     Includes DISH Video-On-Demand Service that allows   you to pause live TV, play,  stop,   fast forward, fast reverse, skip forward…   more >     120 gigabyte hard drive     Up to 100 hours* of 100% digital video reco ...