DFW, TX HD locals dramatically improved OVER NIGHT!

[120inna55]

For some reason, in the summer, my OTA reception gets poor (particularly in the mornings). Therefore the Dish Network-provided HD locals was great news. But, as many have noticed there were definite image quality problems (blurred image with movement and "jerkiness"--like dropped frames).

Before work every morning, I watch the morning news on KXAS (NBC). Because there's occasional dropouts on the OTA, I've been watching the poorer quality, albeit more reliable, Dish Network-provided HD local. This morning (and still this evening), I've noticed dramatic improvement in quality. Motion is now smooth and there is no blurring. The ticker at the bottom of the newscast is now quite legible and without blurring as noted previously.

I'll wait until prime time to compare to actual HD source material, but the fact that SD (on the E* HD Local) is near OTA quality, things look promising.

 

[MikeD-C05]

Yes they fixed it on my Houston locals as well . I noticed that it looks as good as the ota and the hd Cbs station from New York. Has anyone noticed that they fixed STarz hd? It looks smooth as well now in motion. I think Dish has got the mpeg 4 thing down now. :up

 

[chiotti]

They also fixed the phoenix cbs and nbc also,, looks great
happend all of a suden
hope it stays that way!

 

[120inna55]

I'll wait until prime time to compare to actual HD source material, but the fact that SD (on the E* HD Local) is near OTA quality...

I can now say the E* Local HD's look as good as OTA. Well done, Dish!

 

[ChetK]

You know, it's nice that they make these channels look better. I'm all for better MPEG4 and breakthroughs with their encoders.

But I have the 622 and if I activate HD Sat locals, the receiver starts missing OTA timers.

For instance, if I activate HD Sat locals in the receiver menu and I set a timer to record Lost on ABC-13 (OTA tuner), it will most likely not record it. The receiver becomes the most unreliable DVR ever. If I want to make sure I see it, I might as well watch it live - defeating the whole purpose of a DVR.

 

[Paradox-SJ]

I can now say the E* Local HD's look as good as OTA. Well done, Dish!

Your statement makes you sound like a troll but OK if you really think that

Just curious what type of TV do you have?

 

[120inna55]

...But I have the 622 and if I activate HD Sat locals, the receiver starts missing OTA timers.

That would suck. I've not had that problem (and I hope I never do.)

 

[120inna55]

Your statement makes you sound like a troll but OK if you really think that

Just curious what type of TV do you have?

I don't know why you'd think I'm a troll. Although I don't have a high post count, I've been a "Supporting Founder" since September 2003. Up until last night the E* HD locals were unwatchable. Now, after scrutinizing the channels, I honestly can not tell the difference between OTA and E* HD locals.

The TV is in the sig (HLN617W). It's a 61" Samsung 720p DLP.

 

[ingramba]

Agreed! The Dish locals are starting to rival my OTA locals now, who would have thought !!

 

[Paradox-SJ]

I don't know why you'd think I'm a troll. Although I don't have a high post count, I've been a "Supporting Founder" since September 2003. Up until last night the E* HD locals were unwatchable. Now, after scrutinizing the channels, I honestly can not tell the difference between OTA and E* HD locals.

The TV is in the sig (HLN617W). It's a 61" Samsung 720p DLP.

No disrespect intened...and maybe a bit of jealously as the HD LIL here is the SF Bay Area are still unwatchable especiall NBC and none of them even come close to OTA. I hear people say statements like what you said and them they say they are watching on a 32" set....

I am happy for you guys and hope what ever they did for you will be done for the rest of the MPEG4 HD LIL

 

[120inna55]

No disrespect intened...and maybe a bit of jealously as the HD LIL here is the SF Bay Area are still unwatchable especiall NBC and none of them even come close to OTA...

None taken.

I reviewed your posts throughout this entire forum and I empathize with you and your frustration.

Prior to the aforementioned events, given my limited knowledge of encoding/decoding, I would've ventured to say that a DBS provider's ability to achieve a quality equal to that of OTA would be virtually impossible. That said, given my relative remote distance from the towers and resultant unreliable OTA signal of some stations, my hopes were that quality of sat-provided HD locals would at least be near that of OTA. When E* initially uploaded the HD locals, my hopes were all but dashed. However, I was encouraged by others on this very forum to be patient and to provide specific, time/channel/content-based feedback to the engineers by way of email: dishquality@echostar.com.

I did just that beginning early May, I believe. My emails were met with informative reassuring responses, the content of which were not sugar-coated form letters, but rather had tones of mildly frustrated engineers striving to resolve a well-known issue. They even asked for more detail and feedback which I was happy to provide.

When I noted the dramatic improvement last night, I fired off a quick email indicating that all quality issues appeared to be resolved and that whatever they did, it worked. And I quite simply, thanked them.

Here's the kicker. Not 24 hours after that last email, I received a call on my mobile phone from Jeff McSchooler, VP of Echostar Broadcasting. He said he just wanted to personally thank me for my patience and feedback. He also mentioned something to the effect of having a long road ahead with regards to other markets.

Being on the 'bleeding edge' of technology does not come without its nicks. But down-to-earth customer service such as this makes it much more tolerable.

So to you, Paradox, I can only provide the same sage advise once given to me, which is that you be patient and provide as much constructive feedback as possible.

 

[drjdan]

I am in Dallas. I will agree the Local HD are very good and hard t tell different form OTA. I get very good signal for OTA in Dallas.

As for the California persons problem, I have heard that they had some bad installs of the 1000 getting the 129 sat. They could be causing a problem. I use 61.5 for my locals. When I ungraded to the 622, the support rep that took my order said California has 1000 issues because they had a third party contactor that was doing a bad job of installing with untrained people. It seems the 1000 is a little more effort to get lined up correctly with 129.

 

[Grandude]

As for the California persons problem, I have heard that they had some bad installs of the 1000 getting the 129 sat. They could be causing a problem. I use 61.5 for my locals. When I ungraded to the 622, the support rep that took my order said California has 1000 issues because they had a third party contactor that was doing a bad job of installing with untrained people. It seems the 1000 is a little more effort to get lined up correctly with 129.

The HD locals in the San Francisco Bay area are not on 129. They are on 119 so the 129 issue doesn't exist for the HD local.
The NBC local is almost unwatchable due to smearing which some call the 'acid trip' effect. The CBS local last night was unwatchable due to severe, and I mean severe pixelation. The ABC channel had sound sync problems so bad that it was unwatchable but that seems to have been fixed, although I'm not holding my breath yet.

 

[MikeD-C05]

The HD locals in the San Francisco Bay area are not on 129. They are on 119 so the 129 issue doesn't exist for the HD local.
The NBC local is almost unwatchable due to smearing which some call the 'acid trip' effect. The CBS local last night was unwatchable due to severe, and I mean severe pixelation. The ABC channel had sound sync problems so bad that it was unwatchable but that seems to have been fixed, although I'm not holding my breath yet.

Have you done any emails to the dishquality folks? IF not then you need to post one and keep updating them on the problems you are seeing . THis will cause them to fix these problems. I sent them weekly several times a week in fact. I am sure they hated to see my name after awhile but it payed off. It may not happen over night for you but it will eventually be fixed. IN my case it took almost 2 months from when they launched the Houston hd stations till they fixed the Cbs station with the mpeg 4 motion artifacts. They fixed it though and sent me an email to ask me how it looked at present. That one department does nothing but try to fix any problems with the audio and video for Dish.

dishquality@echostar.com