DirecTV -- utter garbage (plea for help)

[swartzfeger]

All,

I recently switch from Dish to DirecTV. When I moved to the sticks in '04, Cox cable wasn't availble in the area (and probably never will be). Originally went with Dish, but just switched to DirecTV for the H20 and Phoenix's impending MPEG4 rollout (May) [no, I can't get OTA because I'm too far out].

Long story short -- PQ is garbage.

Cox had tack-sharp HD with virtually no apparent compression or artifacts, and SD on our SD sets looked great for non-HD. (my SA box from Cox had a DVI output)

Dish's HD was close to digital cable quality, although occasionally there was some minor compression/artifacting. Overall though the HD was generally (near) tack-sharp. SD on SD TVs was noticably compressed. My Dish receiver also sported DVI output.

DirecTV? Every HD channel has been so poor I have to double and triple check that I'm watching a HD channel. DiscoveryHD, which was usually one of the better HD channels, looks extremely soft and nowhere near the quality found on Cox or Dish.

HDNet is a joke in terms of quality.

Battlestar on UHD marginally better than the SD version I watch on Sci Fi... the only advantage is it's non-stretched on UHD. Slightly sharper than SD, but almost embarassing to label it HD.

Showtime/HBO HD -- same. Looks 480p, not HD.

The SD quality on my SD TVs is SO **BAD** it's almost funny a company would put their name on a product like this. The SD olympics are practically unwatchable -- any quick action/movement causes massive blockiness/artifacting and even freezes. Trying to watch the snowboard events in the half pipe is like watching hi def movies over a 56k modem.

Even the wife, who's completely clueless about home electronics commented how horrible the SD looked (she initially said I was crazy about my HD comments, but after a few minutes of pointing out the HD flaws she realized how poor it was compared to Dish).

Some SD is acceptable -- the Coyotes game on Fox Sports Arizona was acceptable, an the Pro Bowl on ESPN was average (noticable but acceptable compression). Then again, football and hockey players don't move as quickly as skiers/boarders.

I'm ready to tear my hair out. My only hope for the HD is that the HDMI->DVI cable is a bad idea and switching to component will get me back to where I was. Of course, that will screw me because I have 2 component inputs already used by Xbox 360 and DVD player.

The SD seems hopeless. This isn't cabling/connections. (system test says tuner was acquired at 96%, I don't know if that's good or bad).

Any thoughts? Am I under the mistaken impression that if I get any digital signal, I should have acceptable picture quality? Would having the dish adjusted make *any* difference?

To make matters worse, it took **five** scheduled installs before the company came out to install. I can't even imagine the nightmare of having them come back out and ripping this garbage out. For how piss porr the quality is I almost have no choice.

Hate to whine, but I really miss digital cable -- great quality, local HD with no antenna. I used to love to show off my set to friends that didn't have HD. This is embarassingly bad.

The few plusses: it's nice to have XM, and the guide/interface smokes the guides on Dish and Cox (lol, woohoo, she's a keeper!)

Any thoughts/advice appreciated.

 

[dragon002]

dont to mean to talk crap, my brother pete lives in chandler ( i lived in scottsdale) and he tells me that cox is crap, i got him a h-10 , a tivo r-10 and 4 hughes gaebos, that is what he wanted, and i had em.. i activated them from pittsburgh on a 3 way with directv. HE LOVES IT. and if you PM me ill give you his phoenix local #. COX my butt.

 

[bgsmallwood]

Are you sure you don't have a misaligned dish? Bad LNB?

The tiling and blocking you describe are NOT normal.

 

[HCI]

If you have freezing pictures something is wrong with your installation or equipment.

What you are describing is not normal.

 

[charper1]

I live in Gilbert and COX is crap.

 

[swartzfeger]

I live in Gilbert and COX is crap.

I lived in Scottsdale, and Cox smoked any satellite service I've had. YMMV.

 

[charper1]

I guess you should switch back then, or maybe move back into town if the TV is your priority and as badas you say it is.

 

[swartzfeger]

If you have freezing pictures something is wrong with your installation or equipment.

What you are describing is not normal.

By freezing, it's almost instantaneous -- certainly not a second in length, just a quick 'blip', but in coincides with the artifacting. If I had to guess, it's like the bandwidth is choking.

Still, SD quality (heh) aside, the HD can't touch what I had w/Cox or Dish. I'm going to try component and see if that improves anything (although won't have any impact on the SD on the regular sets).

 

[swartzfeger]

I guess you should switch back then, or maybe move back into town if the TV is your priority and as badas you say it is.

Jesus guy, don't take this personal. This isn't an attack, I'm just asking for help. I apologize for even saying something remotely good about Cox! lol...

I find it perfectly acceptable that Cox can be sh*t in Glendale and look great in Scottsdale (and even vary by neighborhood).

Thanks for the 'help'.

 

[dragon002]

so charper,

you are from the valley of the sun. GOD how i miss scottsdale.

tubing down the salt, KDKB rocks arizona!!!!!

smittys, the original wal mart.

little ceasars, jack in the box...have they killed any more?

a+w rootbeer burger joints.

and im italian, i loved the sun and the 100 degree weather.

 

[swartzfeger]

dont to mean to talk crap, my brother pete lives in chandler ( i lived in scottsdale) and he tells me that cox is crap, i got him a h-10 , a tivo r-10 and 4 hughes gaebos, that is what he wanted, and i had em.. i activated them from pittsburgh on a 3 way with directv. HE LOVES IT. and if you PM me ill give you his phoenix local #. COX my butt.

Sorry Dragon, I can't vouche for Cox quality in Glendale... I don't know why the vitriol/knives are coming out -- I'm simply comparing the quality I have now compared to what I had. That's all.

 

[charper1]

Swartzfeger: I think it started with the utter garbage line, if it was that bad how did you sign off on the install? I say everything can always be better but it is in NO WAY utter garbage, especially vs COX.

Dragon: Yep, Out in the Gilbert/East Valley on the Seville. I am more of a KUPD listener, when I am not on the Sirius.

 

[GeorgeLV]

By freezing, it's almost instantaneous -- certainly not a second in length, just a quick 'blip', but in coincides with the artifacting. If I had to guess, it's like the bandwidth is choking.

You have a signal strength or an inteference problem.

 

[swartzfeger]

Are you sure you don't have a misaligned dish? Bad LNB?

The tiling and blocking you describe are NOT normal.

Question -- would 96% strength suggest that it isn't misaligned and the LNB is good? Or does signal strength not correlate directly to misalignment/bad LNBs?

My gut is telling me they're ok -- Fox Sports Arizona is SD ok, comparable to what I had with Dish. ABC and Sci Fi look as good as can be expected. The NBC is atrocious, so I'm wondering if it's a bandwidth/Torino thing.

That still doesn't explain the poor HD, but I'm still holding out that switching to component from HDMI>DVI may solve that.

 

[swartzfeger]

Swartzfeger: I think it started with the utter garbage line, if it was that bad how did you sign off on the install? I say everything can always be better but it is in NO WAY utter garbage, especially vs COX.

Because I wasn't *here*, my wife was.

Because, as it stands now, the Olympics *DO* look like utter garbage.

My cox quality was pristine in N. Scottsdale. I obviously can't speak for other areas. I'll take your word it's garbage in Glendale -- I'm not here to get into a pissing match that Cox is better than anything else (which it seems you think I'm trying to do), I'm trying to get advice why *my* DirecTV looks so bad.

Honestly, I'm sorry I bothered the DirecTV fanboys here for help. If anyone is interested how/if I get my problem solved, private message me.

Again, sorry for the bother, best of luck.

 

[little dish guy]

I view D* HD with an H-10 receiver on a 50” Pioneer Elite Plasma. Maybe not the best, but it looks good to me. I also watch with an open mind knowing that the PQ is probably degraded from it’s source but it still blows me away every time I turn it on. If I look hard enough I might notice a little difference between OTA HD and D* HD local networks but some people can’t seem to find any difference at all. I hear this from most people I know that have similar setups, so how can it be that D* is utter garbage? Are all my high tech video friends and I blind, or stupid, or maybe just gullible for crooked satellite advertising?
Rick

 

[HCI]

What is the signal on 110 and 119?

 

[Jimbo]

Question -- would 96% strength suggest that it isn't misaligned and the LNB is good? Or does signal strength not correlate directly to misalignment/bad LNBs?

My gut is telling me they're ok -- Fox Sports Arizona is SD ok, comparable to what I had with Dish. ABC and Sci Fi look as good as can be expected. The NBC is atrocious, so I'm wondering if it's a bandwidth/Torino thing.

That still doesn't explain the poor HD, but I'm still holding out that switching to component from HDMI>DVI may solve that.

First off, there are varing degrees of HD Some look great, crisp and sharp, those are usually LIVE events, Such as Sports, Football , olympics (if done correctly) I haven't watched enough of them to judge, I also would watch NBC on my OTA antenna, which would be better than D* in most cases.

Alot of HD is shot digitally and looks good to great, still more is UPconverted material, al depends on what you are watching ....

HBO/ Showtime for example, it depends on the movie, if it was not shot in the the last sevral years, it is probably be upconverted and won't look as sharp as, mentioned sporting events.

Even the much anticipated TNT will not look as good as say HD net or PBS, unless it's a live event, Nascar, NBA ect.

Jimbo

 

[charper1]

Who's in Glendale in this thread? Another blame it on the I wasn't here, or on the wife. I guess it wasn't too important to you then. LOL Why have you already jump to the we are "DirecTV fanboys"? Are we being baited by a COX/cable fanboy? I think to get the help it would be best to just describe some issues rather than to lead with the all out trashing of a service, as it MIGHT WELL be your setup or a hardware issue, but in the very first post you already showed what your thread was going to be about; service trashing. IMHO.

 

[swartzfeger]

Who's in Glendale in this thread? Another blame it on the I wasn't here, or on the wife. I guess it wasn't too important to you then. LOL Why have you already jump to the we are "DirecTV fanboys"? Are we being baited by a COX/cable fanboy? I think to get the help it would be best to just describe some issues rather than to lead with the all out trashing of a service, as it MIGHT WELL be your setup or a hardware issue, but in the very first post you already showed what your thread was going to be about; service trashing. IMHO.

Charper, I was called into work today; by your logic, I don't care about my quality or I deserve it because I wasn't there. As I stated in my first post, I left work early **FOUR TIMES**, and each time the installer cancelled (actually, the first two times they never bothered to call). This fifth time I couldn't be home. Again, I made every effort to make it home.

As far as Cox, the quality was awesome, the guide sucked (the DVR was **atrocious**), having locals without the OTA was nice. The best thing was having a firewire port on the back and could record digitally to my hard drive. InHD had pretty good programming and I pulled quite a few things onto my hard drive before I moved from the non-protected HD channels (especially a ton of concerts, Rattle & Hum being one of the best).

Again, I could care LESS who the provider is. This isn't a coke/pepsi bud/miller thing for me. Some SD is ok, the SD olympics are terrible on NBC, and the HD is sub-standard. I'm not making this a partisan issue. If you want to, so be it.

Ok, DirecTV **KICKS ASS**!!! There, that better? Can you sleep better tonight?