811 hi def

corvette

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Original poster
Aug 1, 2005
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I hooked up a 811 to a hd tv and the hi def stations look great but the regular pragraming looks a little blurry. can it be a loss of signal or a bad connection. had to run about 50 ft from grounding block. do i need a in line booster. thanks augie
 
What you're seeing is every detail to your pictures, HD or SD. The SD pictures have some tiling from compression and are softer. Add to the fact you're stretching the video info out over 57" and it's like taking silly putty and stretching out a transfer from the newspaper.
 
If you were as far back from an SD image as you would be from say a 27" screen then it should look about the same. This means about twice as far back or probably the next room.:) An HD image has 1280/1440/1920 pixels horizontally compared to 640 so you can be 2 to 3 times closer and see (or not) the same pixel image size. Think of sitting 2-3 times closer on the smaller set. Think headache.
-Ken
 
I've heard from sources on other forums that the SD picture quality is better on the analog outputs (i.e. composite/s-video) and that switching between inputs results in better overall PQ...can't verify as I haven't tried running seperately to two inputs but maybe give that a try, too.
 
Drone35

Yes the s-video feed will look a little better on the 811, but I think part of the problem we are having is that we are getting used to the nice HD picture and when we watch a sd program we thinking what the hell is wrong with my picture, just a thought!
 
I have the 301 and the 811, the sd picture on the 301 is better than the 811 on my tvs. Use dvi on the 811 for hd and s-video on the 811 for sd, this seems to help mine.
 
The difference between the s-video and DVI outputs on the 811 on an SD channel can be significant. This is annoying but true. You need to hook up both a HD connection using component or DVI and a s-video connection for SD. Then switch your TV between the two inputs.

This is a pain, but it is the only way to fly if you want to watch SD channels.

As to the SD quality from the s-video outputs from the 811, it is essentially the same as SD output from the s-video outputs from the 510 and 4700 receivers. On a good channel with a high bitrate, the image can be quite sharp via s-video.
 
I think the SD on DVI that some are annoyed with is due to the 811 attempting to upscale the SD (480i) to whatever the HD input has been set to (1080i, 720p, 480p). It doesn't have a great scaler and on some TVs the result is pretty crappy PQ. Receivers like the 301 and 4700 are just passing along the 480i signal as received. Thus the PQ is only dependent on the source PQ quality, E* compression, and what your TV does with the signal. This is also true of the 811 from s-video or composite.

Forturnately for me, I've got the SD via DVI and component looking pretty good on my Sammy DLP. That not only saves me switching inputs, but allows the continued use of "partial-zoom" with the 811. My wife zooms everything and the 811's partial zoom is much less obnoxious than my Sammy's zoom. With s-video, she'd be using the Sammy's zoom, which even she isn't fond of.
 
I've tweaked the SD settings on my Panasonic CRT RP to as good as I can make them, but they are still decidedly fuzzier than when using the s-video outs of the 811. The picture using s-video and a custom setting of the Panasonic's zoom mode can be pretty decent on a good SD channel. Switching between them is simply one press of a button on my remote, no more difficult than changing a channel.

Now I only wish Dish would give more bandwidth to the Sci-Fi channel, so that shows like Stargate and Battlestar Gallatica would have sharper images. Bad enough that we don't get them in HD. They aren't terrible SD but could be much better.
 
I have the same problem!

My SD channels even non locals look blurry or really poor. I also have a Hitachi 51" and the 811. HD channels look great!

Watching star trek TNG on spike TV looks worse then VHS.

Dish is sending out a tech saturday I'll let you guys know what they say.
 
First ever post for me:) Awesome folks here. Installing my 811 with 1000 dish soon.

How true about "HD spoils". I remember myself talking about the local Sony multiplex as the ultimate in entertainment, getting cable HD via a Sanyo Z3 on a Carada 110" screen in the basement, then going back to the movie theater to see a new release and comment "look at the crappy picture, look at the scratches all over it" .
 
On my LCD TV through component, SD CNN, MSNBC, History Channel look much sharper than SD USA, SciFi, Spike, locals. Changing to S-video did not help SD.
 
Sci-Fi doesn't look bad on my DLP via my 942 (component video). SD stretched to a 50" or 57" (or larger) and getting a soft/fuzzy image is just part life. There's only so much you can do to "help" it. HD looks so good on a large screen that going back to SD viewing is almost painful. :( You blink a few times, try squinting and rubbing your eyes to see if you can make it more clear. It takes a while to get used to SD after watching an hour or so of HD...
 
Depends. Is your Home Theater converting everything to HD? When I got my 811 everything including Sd looked a little better. Now that I have the 942 even SD looks great. Point of comparrison is the Comedy channel which always looked a bit blurred on Cable and the 811 Satellite feed. On the 942 even that looks great.
 
I cant say either way as to what the problem is, Ive seen sd programming on some hd sets look great while others it looks like mush and it hasnt been dependant on the type either. Ive seen it good and bad on lcd, plasma, dlp, rear projection, but the only one that Ive alwasy seen it look good on is projectors. To me there are several contributing factors, the set itsself is one, the video settings is another, the overall enviroment in the room is a third, fourth is the jumpers used to connect the provider to the source, fifth is other integrated equipment, and sixth is bad electric supply.
 

DISH wants $700 for 942???!!!

2 TV's to 811 receiver

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