Dish hd has alot better pq since the MPEG4 conversion

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tigerfan33

tigerfan33

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I dvrd America's Best Beaches today . I have it also on my external along with some older hd programs such as American Chopper. On my external is the old MPEG2 and now of course is the MPEG4 hd. The difference is amazing. I had forgotten about the noise and the motion artifacts that came with the older encoders. While some channels such as ESPN hd (sometimes) still have their problems, there is also so not the wavy grass we once used to see. If you have any MPEG2 hd recorded, take a look for yourself. I am sure you will be pleasantly surprised.:)
 
Currently watching soccer live from Liverpool, England on ESPN2-HD, which is thereby converted from 1080i50 UK format to 720p60 US format.

So, everything done on the fly, real time.

Colors are bright, yet very realistic. All the players are crisp, clear, and life-like, not the usual SD indistinguishable blurs. Even on distant shots, you can see the dots on the ball.

Close ups look like you are standing on the edge of the field - except if you were, you could not see the subsequent crystal clear slow motion replays.

I'm sure there might be minor improvements if bitrate could be greater, but there are no obvious problems with the picture.
 
Uh 8 channels per transponder is not great PQ.

They used to do 5 and that is when the PQ looked decent.

I watched Comcast Sportsnet Chicago alternate HD on 443 the other day and when the 2nd basemen threw to first you could see a huge blob/spot of pixels. It was sick to look at. Wish I had a screencap.

Directv PQ is 3x better when I watched at my folks 2 weeks ago.

I think they only do 4 per transponder.
 
ehren said:
Uh 8 channels per transponder is not great PQ.
Click to expand...
It always amazes me that people will argue how something simply cannot be when people are observing and detailing an improvement.

For my own observations, I was watching Death Race last night on HBO and the PQ was relatively awful. The people over at D* commonly have the same lament with respect to HBO.
 
Honestly I've never been impressed with the PQ on the RSN's especially at night. But the movie channels and national HD along with my locals have excellent PQ the vast majority of the time. Maybe we will one day see better PQ on the RSN.
 
I don't think that it's always E*'s fault with the PQ on RSN's. Some of the RSN's (especially Fox) always seemed to be in poorer quality for sports compared to other stations. Out west, Fox Sports West would show Pac 10 football games and the quality was horrible. TBS would also broadcast selected games and their PQ (and commentary) were of superior quality.

In general, I think the Fox RSN's run shoestring operations when it comes to many of the sports they cover...
 
ehren said:
Uh 8 channels per transponder is not great PQ.

They used to do 5 and that is when the PQ looked decent.

I watched Comcast Sportsnet Chicago alternate HD on 443 the other day and when the 2nd basemen threw to first you could see a huge blob/spot of pixels. It was sick to look at. Wish I had a screencap.

Directv PQ is 3x better when I watched at my folks 2 weeks ago.

I think they only do 4 per transponder.
Click to expand...

When are you going to switch to Directv already? You bitch and whine all the time about Dish. Will you please save us all the headache and switch already? :sob:
 
ehren said:
Uh 8 channels per transponder is not great PQ.

They used to do 5 and that is when the PQ looked decent.

I watched Comcast Sportsnet Chicago alternate HD on 443 the other day and when the 2nd basemen threw to first you could see a huge blob/spot of pixels. It was sick to look at. Wish I had a screencap.

Directv PQ is 3x better when I watched at my folks 2 weeks ago.

I think they only do 4 per transponder.
Click to expand...

You can't compare transponders to transponders when they are different bandwidths.
 
Just because the PQ is better with MPEG4 than it was with MPEG2 does NOT mean that it's great PQ. For some of us, the idea that you can see pixels when watching from your normal viewing distance is ludicrous. It's not what HD was supposed to be.
 
Jim S. said:
Just because the PQ is better with MPEG4 than it was with MPEG2 does NOT mean that it's great PQ. For some of us, the idea that you can see pixels when watching from your normal viewing distance is ludicrous. It's not what HD was supposed to be.
Click to expand...

Your normal viewing distance may not be proper viewing distance.

I do not see pixels on Dish Network HD broadcasts (aside from the poor sources mentioned by others above).

If I put my face one foot from the screen, I can see pixels on any HD source, even Blu-Ray.
 
What tigerfan33 and kstuart were both reporting was the vast advancement that has been made in encoding with the use of the Mpeg4 standard. Transcoding 1080i50 to 720p60 without blocking or tearing seems to me a laudable achievement.

If one has a TV with the necessary capability, it is pretty obvious that HD DVD or Blueray will provide a better picture. Maybe some of the newer TVs with 1080p/240h capability will do those DVD standards justice.

Regards,
Fitzie
 
You know, saying Dish has better PQ since the mpeg4 conversation can also be a reflection of the simple statement said here often enough that Dish mpeg2 PQ couldn't get any worse... :)
 
DirecTV'S HD quality is about the same as Dish Networks.

Somethings look better on Dish others look better on DirecTV. And if you watch the same show later on Dish (and it looked better on Dish) and watch it on DirecTV it might look better the second time on DirecTV.

The issue is the encoders, which do the encoding on the fly. When a show airs once there could be a lot of sports on other channels on that transponder which could rob PQ away from the show you are watching, but watch that show later on when there are no sporting events on the other channels the PQ of the same show could look outstanding.

Honestly, from my own eyes there is really no difference in HD PQ from eaither provider if you take into consideration the encoders as I pointed out above.
 
I was at a friends watching the jet game yesterday and I find DTV HD on sports looks great. But when it comes regular HD channels they suck. He has a 50 inch Samsung LCD the LED type and has a great picture only on sports. Also no DVR.
So once again I say DTV is only good for sports.:eek:
We turned to Good Morning Vietnam (among other things) and it didn't even look HD. Him and his girlfriend watch sport so they love it but he did admit how bad regular tv looked.
 

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