Dish Network and Sony Bravia Picture Quality

[James West]

First time poster -

My brother purchased a new Sony Bravia 46" LCD television to go with his new Dish Network HD service. Just installed last night and the HD looks very grainy with the standard digital channels also looking sub par.

He was told be a seasoned installer that the signal strength, which was in the high 60's and best he could do, was not the problem. He said that Sony televisions and Dish Network equipment can have issues of compatibility. He said that the best televisions for compatibility with DN are Toshiba, Pioneer and Mitsubishi.

I have a 40" Sony Bravia LCD and Direct TV (made the switch from DN to DTV because of HD channel capability in 2007) and the picture quality on all channels, especially the HD are outstanding.

Can anybody elaborate on the Sony/DN issue?

 

[Bscolvin]

I have the same tv with Dish Network the pic is great.

 

[Poke]

Yeah sounds like the install was not done very well. You should call back the installer or have someone else come out to do the install. 60's is not that good and I would see if they could come out and peak out the Dish better to get a higher signal strength. Your TV is fine I use Sony and never had any issues overall this sounds like a install issue. Make sure to use HDMI cable and give Dish a call let them know what is going on.

 

[tsduke]

First time I've heard about specific TV's having best compatibility with a Dish receiver. Sounds like a cop out.

Not that this is the issue, but have you check the HD settings? Switch between 720 and 1080 to see which is better for your setup.

 

[Poke]

Well check the setting like tsduke suggested but 60's on signal strength is not that great. Overall someone needs to adjust the Dish to get better signal strength which will most likely help the most. I know some installers that if they cant get in the high 80's to 90's they want even mess with installing Dish. Due to folks will have more issues with loosing signal so forth.

 

[RedWings]

I have a 40" Sony Bravia with my 622 and the HDTV looks really good. Some of the SD channels are not that great, but what do you expect from SD on an HDTV.

 

[Super Dave]

I have a 40" Sony Bravia LCD and Direct TV (made the switch from DN to DTV because of HD channel capability in 2007) and the picture quality on all channels, especially the HD are outstanding.

How's that HD channel capability going? I switched from DTV to Dish because of the HD here and now.

I have a Sony HDTV and the picture awesome, compares well with the OTA.

 

[downriver]

This is a good one....................

 

[FitzAusTex]

I have a Samsung DLP and A Sony Bravia 1080p 40" LCD. I think the Sony def looks better (and quite good) than my DLP. Use 622s on both. For comparison, I think that Dish looks on par with Time Warner for HD, and looks better in many cases for SD than TW looked. (Havent ever had D*, so cant comment).

 

[thowe21]

I have a Vizio 42" LCD with a 622. My parents saw my HD picture and wanted the same thing, so I helped them get the same exact model. Although they have Time Warner, after initial comparison I noticed that the Time Warner HD looked a bit better than E* HD. I guess that's why it's called HD-Lite because of the compression some say is happening in these forums on E*, especially TNT-HD.

 

[dgpruitt]

Does the signal strength affect the picture quality? I understand that a low signal strength may be prone to dropouts which would be a reliability issue, but how about picture quality? Does an HD picture via E* look better at 80's signal strength vs 60's?

 

[David]

I also have a Bravia 40" LCD and my PQ has been outstanding since day one. SD is not as good as it was on my old analog TV, but that is testament to how good the Sony is--it shows the poor quality of SD in all it's glory...can't wait for ALL channels to be HD...how far in the future?

 

[uponthemountain]

I too have a Bravia 40" LCD and love it!

David said it all:

... but that is testament to how good the Sony is...

One thing that can make a major difference with the Sony and most other HDTVs is calibrating the display.

In particular (to help hide the compressed SD uglies) try turning the contrast way down. (ie 0)

 

[hayesjd]

I have a 40" Sony Bravia as well.... the HD picture is amazing!

 

[primetimeguy]

Does the signal strength affect the picture quality? I understand that a low signal strength may be prone to dropouts which would be a reliability issue, but how about picture quality? Does an HD picture via E* look better at 80's signal strength vs 60's?

You are correct. If the signal is too low it may drop out. Otherwise, adding more signal strength will not increase picture quality.

 

[dishcomm]

First time poster -

My brother purchased a new Sony Bravia 46" LCD television to go with his new Dish Network HD service. Just installed last night and the HD looks very grainy with the standard digital channels also looking sub par.

He was told be a seasoned installer that the signal strength, which was in the high 60's and best he could do, was not the problem. He said that Sony televisions and Dish Network equipment can have issues of compatibility. He said that the best televisions for compatibility with DN are Toshiba, Pioneer and Mitsubishi.

I have a 40" Sony Bravia LCD and Direct TV (made the switch from DN to DTV because of HD channel capability in 2007) and the picture quality on all channels, especially the HD are outstanding.

Can anybody elaborate on the Sony/DN issue?

This signal strength and video quality are not connected. The picture will not degrade until signal strength drops so low that pixelation occurs then total loss. Sig strength in the 60's for the 129 sat are adequate but can be improved with a little tweaking.
The video is produced by the receiver and outputted to the TV via the cables...Did anyone suggest changing out the component cables and then if that did not work, swapping receivers?..

 

[kovach]

I'd mess around with the settings on the TV, I don't think it's the combination of Dish/Sony.

Turn the sharpness all the way down for starters, while at first it may look a little soft, all sharpness does is add artificial lines, who needs that.

Also set the picture to it's warmest level and adjust the color and tint to your liking after that.

Brightness too should be adjusted until the blacks are truely black. And as someone else suggested, adjust the contrast too. Note, contrast and brightness go hand in hand, so you may have to keep going back and forth and adjusting them until they are good.

I'd also look here:

http://www.lcdtvbuyingguide.com/lcdtvreviews/reviews.shtml

See if they've reviewed your TV, if so, they give the optimum settings after some professional calibration (or so they claim), I'd start there. I used the settings suggested here on my Sony Bravia and it looks excellent.

 

[digitalartifact]

How is the TV hooked up to the sat. receiver? Component, HDMI, S video, composite????

 

[Fredinva]

Well check the setting like tsduke suggested but 60's on signal strength is not that great. Overall someone needs to adjust the Dish to get better signal strength which will most likely help the most. I know some installers that if they cant get in the high 80's to 90's they want even mess with installing Dish. Due to folks will have more issues with loosing signal so forth.

Granted, the signal s/b higher, but that's not the problem here. A higher signal report will not improve graininess. If it's not pixelating it's locked ON.
Generally, I find Sony's have great pq with Dish.

fred

 

[Peter Parker]

While I have read (and it was mentioned on a Charlie Chat) that DISH had some problems with Vizio TVs for awhile (apparently resolved) I have never heard anything about issues with Sony (except that many of their remotes don't control DISH equipment). It sounds more like an installer giving you the convenient answer.


SAD on HD is problematic. I have a Philips HD and a Sony SD. Whenever possible I watch SD on the Sony. The SD picture on the HD set is a bit washed out and every imperfection shows.