There are a lot of advantages that high definition television has over the old fashioned standard definition format and, at present, the satellite TV provider Dish Network is way ahead of the other television service providers in both the cable TV industry and the satellite TV industry when it comes to providing high definition television programming. That's because while the other players all offer fewer than twenty three high def channels, Dish Network provides a minimum of twenty five high definition channels and over thirty in some markets (depending on the availability of local high def channels).

The fact that Dish Network offers more high definition television channels than anyone else is common knowledge, but what isn't as widely known is that Dish Network also provides high definition satellite receivers along with all of its high definition subscriptions at no extra charge. These high definition television satellite receivers are truly impressive pieces of electronics. There are currently two models available and they perform a number of functions more than adequately.

The basic model (if any piece of high definition electronics can be considered basic!) is the ViP 211. The ViP 211 will allow you to watch any kind of high definition television programming as well as standard definition television programming and programming in a little known intermediate format called enhanced definition television. That means that the ViP 211 can handle television programming with resolutions including the 720p and 1080i high definition resolutions, the 480i standard definition resolution, and the 480p enhanced definition resolution.

The ViP 211 can also handle television programming that's been compressed using both MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 data compression technologies. This is essentially allows the receiver to display high definition television programming. Because high definition television programming has such a high resolution picture and such a wide screen aspect ratio, it can be up to ten times as data intensive as standard definition television. That means that each frame of high definition video can take up as much as ten times the bandwidth or storage capacity that a frame of standard definition video would require. Because of this, high definition television tends to be compressed using the more advanced MPEG-4 data compression technique while Dish Network is content to use the older and less compact MPEG-2 data compression technique for standard definition programming. This is good because it allows Dish Network to offer more high def channels than it would otherwise be able to, but it requires high definition satellite receivers to have an additional level of sophistication.

The other high definition satellite receiver model currently offered by Dish Network is the ViP 622 DVR. As you might guess from its name, the major distinguishing feature of this satellite receiver is the fact that it has a digital video recorder built into it. The ViP 622 DVR's digital video recorder can store up to thirty hours of high definition television or up to two hundred hours of standard definition programming. Digital video recording offers the ultimate in television watching convenience and this model makes it available for high definition television.

Both of these high def satellite receivers from Dish Network clearly have everything that you need to get the most out of your high def and standard definition television experience.