dish SD video quality is only ~4Mbit/sec?

[theinv]

Okay, I have been wondering about the quality of the video stored in the dish DVR for along time.

The VIP622 DVR has a 320GB hard drive and can record 200 hours of SD video. That means the average file size is only 1.6GB/hour, or roughly ~4Mbit/sec. This seems very low quality to me since normal DVDs are 8Mbit/sec. Consider that some portion of the VIP622 disk space has been allocated for VOD, the actual video bitrate will be even smaller, so Dish SD is not even near half DVD quality.

Dish has cheated us all.

 

[rdinkel]

Remember, we only have access to part of that 320gb hard drive.

 

[kstuart]

A few points:

- DVDs go up to 8 Mbps or even a little bit more, but they don't average that.

- Dish Network is a provider of TV channels, some of which are News or Shopping Channels, that certainly don't need to be DVD quality. Premium Movie Channels are allotted more bandwidth and bitrate than other SD channels.

- Dish Network uses a technique called "Statistical Multiplexing" that shares bandwidth between 12 SD channels at once. This means that when bitrate is not needed for one channel (such as a talking head scene), it is then available for one of the other 12 channels (such as for "3rd and 10").

- The 200 hours of SD storage is a very rough estimate for marketing purposes, and so can't be relied upon for making specific calculations of bitrate, etc.

- Dish Network's MPEG2 encoders are the current state-of-the-art (they are continually improved over the past 10 years), and produced significantly better quality are lower bitrates than was available when the DVD specification was first created.

 

[TheKrell]

Not to mention they've reduced the resolution to 544X480. It's just enough to avoid obvious artifacts on a typical SD CRT TV such as you might spot using the abominable SVCD standard (480X480). For reference, DVDs (in north America) are 720X480.

 

[aegrotatio]

Where does DiSH Network ever say their video is DVD quality?
I've never seen nor heard that.
Nobody says that. Not ever.

 

[digiblur]

You can always go to DirecTV, they use 480x480 on their SD channels. Or Bell ExpressVU jams even more SD channesl into their muxes, it's why they are nicknamed Bell CompressVu.

 

[mike123abc]

4mbit is outstanding for standard definition actually... In reality Dish uses QPSK 20000 sym 5/6 or about 30.7 mbit/TP. They put 10-12 standard definition channels on a TP plus other stuff. 2.5-3 mbit is about where a standard definition channel should average.

 

[Timpanogos]

All I know is that the present 2007 Dish SD feed, regardless of channel, is much inferior to the 1997 Dish feed to an old Model 4000 receiver that I remember. The picture was outstanding at the time and has gone down hill ever since we have been a subscriber. Statistical multiplexing and grundels of new channels never watched be damned.

 

[pabeader]

AMEN!!

Who actually Watchs shopping channels anyway? If I ever meet the person I will take away their Dish and TV! Replace them with a Sears catalog and a phone.

 

[rcwilcox]

All I know is that the present 2007 Dish SD feed, regardless of channel, is much inferior to the 1997 Dish feed to an old Model 4000 receiver that I remember. The picture was outstanding at the time and has gone down hill ever since we have been a subscriber. Statistical multiplexing and grundels of new channels never watched be damned.

just wondering--- I too had a 4000 at first but are you like me? My TV then was a 27" now a much brighter 36"??