Recent News from DISH Network brings word that the satellite broadcaster is the first television provider to transmit 100 percent of their standard and high-definition programming using the MPEG-4 video coding standard.

Previous to the upgrade to MPEG-4, DISH Network was using the MPEG-2 standard and DISH Network’s competitor, DirecTV is said to be using a combination of MPEG-2 and MPEG-2 currently.

MPEG-4 offers customers a superior picture according to DISH Network.

DISH Network’s chief marketing officer, Jessica Insalaco had this to say about the new development: "DISH Network once again leads the pack in providing customers with an unparalleled entertainment experience. Our complete MPEG-4 solution – which will offer up to 150 HD channels by the end of the year – uses the most advanced technology in the industry to deliver the best quality picture to any television set in the home, perfect for those who have or are considering upgrading to high definition."

Dish Network is proving that even though they are the number 2 satellite broadcaster for numbers of customers, they are number 1 when it comes to technology.

Today, Dish Network is beginning to roll out upgrades for compatible DVRs and receivers which will provide 1080p HD programming. You can real all about HDTV and 1080p here, if you are unfamiliar with the technology, but if all you want is the quick and simple explanation, 1080p is the highest and best HD picture available today.

DirecTV does not yet offer 1080p and neither does Comcast — at least in my area they don’t. Unfortunately for me, my TV has only 1080i capability which is a step below 1080p. I guess that’s a good excuse to put a new TV in the budget sometime!

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In addition, Dish Network is bringing 17 new HD channels online today, which brings the total offering of national HD channels to  114 and plans to offer 150 HD channels by the end of the year.

There has been some pretty fierce competition between the two big satellite broadcasters for bragging rights for the most HD channel. It appears that this latest addition by Dish Network puts them ahead of DirecTV once again.

Dish Network is also offering a new all-HD programming package called TurboHD, which start at $24.99 per month.

The new HD channels that are being added today are: ActionMax HD, CBS College Sports HD, Lifetime HD, Lifetime Movie Network HD, Planet Green HD, Encore HD, HBO 2 HD, HBO Comedy HD, HBO Family HD, HBO Latino HD, HBO Signature HD, HBO West HD, HBO Zone HD, Starz Comedy HD, Starz Edge HD, Starz Kids & Family HD, and Starz West HD.

I’ve heard this talked about for a while now, but it appears that Dish Network has implemented interactive advertising. I have only noticed it once so far, and I’m not sure if that’s because I don’t watch enough TV or because the new feature is in the testing phase or something.

About a week ago I was watching something on TV in the evening. I think it was the History Channel, and I was watching a very cool program about the early years of the U.S. space program.

During a commercial for a Ford truck, I noticed on the upper right-hand portion of the screen a small notice appeared that said something like “Press select for more information on this product,” or something to that effect.

Not being able to resist a new feature, I pressed “Select” and was taken to another screen showing a Ford truck and what appeared to be options for obtaining more information about them.

Being more curious about the new Dish Network feature and less curious about Ford Trucks, I selected the “Exit” option. It was then that I realized that Dish did not have all the bugs worked out of this new feature yet.

My VIP-622 DVR pretty much “locked up” and my TV went dark, as if it had been turned off. No amount of button pushing on the DVR remote or the DVR itself would bring it back to life.

I then resorted to the old pull-the-plug plan and yanked the power plug for the DVR from the wall outlet. After the DVR completed it lengthy start-up process, everything was fine and I was able to resume watching the program I had been enjoying.

I can honestly envision a time when I might actually have enough interest in a product being advertised to want more information about it, but I will be hesitant to use a feature like this again for two reasons:

1. Fear that it will lock up my DVR again.

2. Not wanting to miss a portion of the program I am watching in order to browse through product information. Now if the DVR allows me to rewind and view the portion of the program I missed as it can under normal circumstances, I will be much more likely to try this new feature again.

I guess a little experimentation is in order. Perhaps I can give it another shot some day if I see one of these interactive ad opportunities while I happen to be in the room while my wife is watching the Lifetime channel.

On second thought, that may not be such a great idea.

A recent court ruling has come down against Dish Network which may result in a hefty monetary penalty for the company. Tivo had filed a suit claiming patent infringement due to the technology used in Dish Network’s DVR or digital video recorders.

The satellite giant may have to dish out as much as $94 million to Tivo as part of the ruling against them.

Apparently, Tivo filed suit alleging both hardware and software infringement. Although Dish has apparently emerged victorious on the hardware side, Tivo was the winner on the software side of things.

Dish Network says that they will appeal the ruling, as we might all expect. They go on to say that all current and future Dish Network DVR customers do not have to worry about any changes in the way things work because their engineers have made changes to the software to eliminate the portions that violated Tivo’s patent. The new software has already been downloaded to all Dish Network DVR units.

I am glad to see that there are no changes in the way my DVR operates since I was a bit concerned that I might lose some of the most useful features if Tivo won the lawsuit.

What I don’t understand is why Dish Network didn’t make these changes to the software when Tivo first complained about it. I’m sure it cost them a lot less than $94 Million to implement those changes and it seems like it would have spared them a lot of trouble (and money) to have made the changes before it all ended up in court.

I company called BIAP or “Broadband Interactive Applications” if you prefer, has been enlisted by Dish Network to add some new interactive features to the service for the election season.

The new features, called “Dish Decision 2008″ will enable subscribers to rank the importance of certain important issues as they relate to the candidates, and to answer questions based on their personal rankings.

This will allow the system to match the subscriber with the candidate whose positions most closely align with their own.

In addition, there are plans to introduce new capabilities within the new system that will make available advertisements which will provide more detailed and comprehensive content and provide a mechanism for information requests.

Sounds like it might be a good alternative for people who may not have access to the Internet or who may be a little technophobic when it comes to using computers. Perhaps they will be a bit more willing to experiment a bit with their Dish Network remote control to dig deeper into some of the important issues around elections.

There are a few more details coming to light regarding Dish Network’s plans to increase the number of HD channels available on their service.

The launch of three new satellites will make this improvement possible. The first launches will begin with 11 local markets which are set to include Austin, TX; Baltimore; Cleveland; Columbia, SC; Flint, MI; Greenville, SC; Huntsville, AL; Jackson, MS; Knoxville, TN; Orlando, FL; and Richmond, VA

Dish Network is also planning to introduce some new programming choices for HD customers, including packages as low as $10 per month. The new HD packages will be available starting on February 1.

Sounds to me like Dish is wasting no time leveling the playing field in response to DirecTV’s move to increase their available HD channels to around 100 channels not long ago.

Not too long ago I fired up my Dish Network VIP-622 DVR and a message that I had not seen before appeared on my TV screen. It was a notification that a new software update has been applied to my unit. There was also an option to read more about this update so that is what I did.

Turns out that my DVR can now be connected to the Internet via my high-speed connection. Although this sounded like a pretty neat idea, I continued reading and discovered what the main benefit of this new capability really was.

Dish Network is now offering expanded “on demand” programming which can be downloaded to my DVR over the Internet.

One big advantage that cable TV has over satellite is that cable was always able to offer a lot more “on demand” programming than satellite. Sure, satellite has a lot of PPV channels for movies and whatnot, but they were limited by the way satellite programming is delivered.

It looks like this new development from Dish Network may start to even up the score where “on demand” is concerned. I suspect they will be expanding the content they will be offering via “on demand” and continue to come up with new and innovative ways to deliver programming to subscribers.

On November 8, 2006, Dish Network implemented a new feature that provides local weather information to subscribers. A new partnership between Dish Network and The Weather Channels makes it all possible.

The weather information includes local forecast info as well as the ability for subscribers to view forecast information for thousands of other cities across the United States.

Another feature of this new weather information allows Dish Network to send severe weather warnings.

Local weather information is delivered based on the subscriber’s ZIP Code and allows for very specific targeting of weather information.

The information and alerts are all displayed as overlays on The Weather Channel 24 hours a day.

I got a surprise one day a couple of years ago when I was browsing the channels on my Dish Network System. A bunch of new channels had appeared and were all labeled on my system as “SIRI.”

All these channels seemed to be playing music, and being familiar with SIRIUS Satellite Radio, I wondered if these were SIRIUS channels showing up on my Dish Network programming.

Turns out I was right, and they were SIRIUS Satellite Radio channels. It was one of those features that Dish Network includes once in a while for no additional cost.

The idea of course, is for SIRIUS to have a place to showcase some of their channels and pick up some new subscribers. I have no idea what kind of relationship or agreement the two companies have, but I can tell you one thing, the plan worked.

If I spent a lot of time in my car these days, like I used to back when I was working a “regular” job, I would have picked up a SIRIUS radio for my car by now for sure. But, since I work at home and don’t spend much time in my car, it really would not make much sense for me.

There is a wide range of music programming available on SIRIUS, from Elvis to classical to heavy metal rock and everything in between.

My wife loves the 50′s, 60′s and 70′s channels while my taste leads me more toward what most people might call “classic rock.” Rush, Yes, Kansas, Heart — stuff like that.

Sampling the SIRIUS music channels on Dish Network is a great way to get a feel for the service and see if it is something you’d like to sign up for and have in your car, boat, RV or whatever.

Not all Dish Network plans include SIRIUS Satellite Radio music channels, but you don’t have to buy the most expensive plan to get it. We have the “America’s Top 120″ plan here, which does include the SIRIUS channels.