My 15 YO GE TV finally died and I thought I had done enough research before buying the Sony KDFE42A10 but I guess not and now I need some help before I decide whether to keep it. I had been using basic (networks plus TBS) cable for the past 3 years and after I bought the Sony HDTV I get 21 digital signals over the air for free and most of the shows I watch are in HD (Lost, 24, etc) and look spectacular. Problem is we usually record and watch later and obviously I can't do that without forking over big bucks for an HD standalone DVR. I recently got TIVO thinking it worked with digital channels but found out now it doesn't (returned). My analog recording on TIVO looked crappy on the Sony HDTV (rehooked it to my kids digital SDTV and it looks a lot better). I don't mind spending the money on the Sony (still looks awesome with movies and OTA HD sports on the weekend that I watch live) but do not want to spend $1000 on a standalone DVR or $70 every month on an HD cable/satellite package to be able to "tape" HD. I do not need to watch the high def version of networks but was wondering (finally the question) if I buy a basic Dish programming package with locals (understand all channels would be digital but not high-def) would the DishDVR 625 recordings look better than the TIVO analog recordings on a LCD microdisplay (or DLP for that matter)? Also, TIVO recordings were always 4:3 since input was analog OTA, would Dish DVR recordings be widescreen? Thanks a lot for any help.
DishDVR 625 Recording Picture Quality on LCDProj HDTV
- Thread starter dbrakob
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Not that this helps..
Dish's over compresses regular SD local channels. It may depend where are you located, as I am in Richmond, VA. Watching 24 on a SD feed is pure torture. You see every flaw on dark scenes (pixelated squares, washed out blacks, etc..).
Doing a quick google search on your TV, I assume it's 42 inches. All that size does on Dish standard locals is magnify the problem.
Now I can only speak for Richmond locals, so someone else will give you a better view on Dish PQ from their neck of the woods.
Dish's over compresses regular SD local channels. It may depend where are you located, as I am in Richmond, VA. Watching 24 on a SD feed is pure torture. You see every flaw on dark scenes (pixelated squares, washed out blacks, etc..).
Doing a quick google search on your TV, I assume it's 42 inches. All that size does on Dish standard locals is magnify the problem.
Now I can only speak for Richmond locals, so someone else will give you a better view on Dish PQ from their neck of the woods.
I have a 37 In sharp, it looks better with dish than it did on cable. But face the facts, it's built for HDTV. I do know that if I leave SD in orginal format and don't stretch it, it looks much better.
And compared to my cable companies SD, Dish is much better.
You have an HDTV, so if you don't want to spend the bucks for a 622 to record HDTV, or big bucks for and Standalone HD DVR, you are stuck with a less than perfect picture. Why don't you buy a 622, then you can subscribe to the $29 Dish HD package and record OTA and Dish in HD, then be HAPPY !
And compared to my cable companies SD, Dish is much better.
You have an HDTV, so if you don't want to spend the bucks for a 622 to record HDTV, or big bucks for and Standalone HD DVR, you are stuck with a less than perfect picture. Why don't you buy a 622, then you can subscribe to the $29 Dish HD package and record OTA and Dish in HD, then be HAPPY !
The Dish 622 DVR has a over the air tuner as well as two satellite tuners. All three tuners can record HD at the same time. The DVR records the digital bit stream so the playback picture quality is exactly the same as the live broadcast. The limitation is that you can only record one OTA channel at a time, but you can play back a recording while a different OTA program is recording. The SD locals on Dish are very compressed and do not look good on large HDTVs. Dish is beginning to add HD locals (4 major networks) in selected markets and plan to have about 50 markets up within the next year.
