Cable PQ vs Dish PQ

[dr0doom]

I'm thinking of switching from basic analog cable service to Dish Network.
I'm a little confused about the Picture Quality of Dish Network. I'm talking only
about SD picture, not HD. The promos for Dish always claim "Pure Digital
picture quality", but yet I read posts from others who say a good cable
analog picture looks better than the compressed digital stuff from Dish.
I'd like to hear some opinions from those who have had both, Dish & Cable,
reguarding picture quality of SD content.

 

[kenny911]

Depends what you watch. For sporting events or fast paced action, I prefer analog cable.

 

[RandallA]

It also depends on the size of your TVs. SD content looks crappy on bigger screens, you'll notice the compression a lot more on bigger screens.

 

[tribalmunky]

I came to Dish because I could no longer stand Adelphia's (SoCal area) poor quality. I can actually see Sci-Fi now!

 

[j2kirby7]

I have a 58" rear projection HD set and a 30" CRT HD set. The local cable SD picture quality is superior to the Dish SD on both sets. I sub to cable for SD and to Dish for HD but I can view both sources on both sets for instant comparison. The OTA signal kills them both on SD! My cable source is analog.

 

[Yragha]

Well, here in Houston analog cable is ten times better than "digital cable" for sporting events. Heck, even TV Land Digital here is awful ugly pixelization wise and there's not much moving fast on a rerun of Andy Griffith.

Secondly I've had Directv in the past (Dish comes Monday for install) and never had these pixelization problems.

Take it for what it's worth.

 

[ScottChez]

An other thing to think of when your comparing, is if you go HD, some systems like Cox cable do not do HD Lite on Universal HD, TNT-HD, HBO-HD, Show-HD, and Discov-HD.

Where Dish and Direct TV are doing HD Lite.

======chart=========
True 1080i 1920x1080i: 1920x540x60 = 62,208,000 pixels/sec
720p 1280x720p: 1280x720x60 = 55,296,000 pixels/sec
HD-Lite 1280x1080i: 1280x540x60 = 41,472,000 pixels/sec (Dishnet & Direct TV)
DVD 720x480i: 720x240x60 = 10,368,000 pixels/sec


True 1080i: 6X DVD quality
720p: 5.33X DVD quality
HD-Lite: 4X DVD quality

 

[Bulldog]

An other thing to think of when your comparing, is if you go HD, some systems like Cox cable do not do HD Lite on Universal HD, TNT-HD, HBO-HD, Show-HD, and Discov-HD.

Where Dish and Direct TV are doing HD Lite.

======chart=========
True 1080i 1920x1080i: 1920x540x60 = 62,208,000 pixels/sec
720p 1280x720p: 1280x720x60 = 55,296,000 pixels/sec
HD-Lite 1280x1080i: 1280x540x60 = 41,472,000 pixels/sec (Dishnet & Direct TV)
DVD 720x480i: 720x240x60 = 10,368,000 pixels/sec


True 1080i: 6X DVD quality
720p: 5.33X DVD quality
HD-Lite: 4X DVD quality

I second that fact! Comcast in my area gives you full true HD.

 

[Zookster]

So does Cox in San Diego. I've had both cable and Dish for the last year and as of this week decided to go all cable. I was worried about how happy I'd be with analog SD, but I have a 34" 16:9 that upconverts to 1080i and filters the PQ, so on many channels analog cable is equal to or better than Dish. Also note, I've heard many major cable companies (TW, Cox, Comcast) will be offering "digital simulcast" of analog channels for their digital TV subscibers sometime this year.

I also agree with ScottChez. Cable beats Dish on HD PQ big time in my area! I'm very happy with my decision to go all cable.

 

[Weezknight]

An other thing to think of when your comparing, is if you go HD, some systems like Cox cable do not do HD Lite on Universal HD, TNT-HD, HBO-HD, Show-HD, and Discov-HD.

Where Dish and Direct TV are doing HD Lite.

I thought the stations that you listed are not in HDLite? Aren't all of those broadcast in full-res and it's only the VOOM channels that are in Lite?

 

[voripteth]

I second that fact! Comcast in my area gives you full true HD.

When you say "in my area" can you say where that is?

I've tried to get Comcast in Chicago to tell me their rez but every Comcast rep I've talked to says "I don't know!".

 

[Poke]

Yeah I think Dish PQ is better than Cox is here in the Midwest.

 

[txfeinbergs]

Don't fall for the "All digital channel" advertisement crap. A 100% accurate analog signal will ALWAYS be better than a digital signal (even one that is not compressed - because all digital is is the analog signal approximated into a finite number of digital values) i.e. think of film based cameras vs. digital cameras. The photo professionals were very resistant of digital cameras until they started getting upwards of 8 Megapixel cameras. The challenge is how close your cable provider comes to delivering a 100% accurate analog signal.

 

[caam1]

Here in Fort Worth, TX, I have Charter cable where I work and E* at home. The best analog channels do look better than digital, but many of the analog channels have noticeable video "noise" which I find more annoying than the digital artifacts and slightly softer picture on E*. Also, Charter does not have stereo sound on most of their analog channels, including music channels such as VH-1. Some of the digital channels appear to be more compressed than E* and have very noticeable pixalization. Even when I had cable at home, I used an antenna for local channels, because the OTA picture quality was better than the same channels on cable or satellite.

Recently I thought about trying cable again (because of their high speed internet), bet quickly changed my mind when they told me it would cost almost $17 per month rental for each HD box and $27 per month for a DVR. To have the same system I have with E*, the equipment rental costs alone for cable would be over $70 per month.