DTV Install and My Switch from Cablevision

[muddyh2o]

Well, yesterday I made the plunge and now have three DTV sets. A standard receiver in the BR, a HD setup in the Kitchen (waiting for a card so i can try it out) and an HD DVR (HR21) in the family room.

the install

went fine. guy was a bit messy, but given how little they get paid for installs, i'm not surprised. they also didn't caulk the hole they drilled into the house, but i can take care of that anyway.

they also promised that the installer would have an access card for the kitchen set (which i bought on ebay) and he didn't. he said they never do. so, i ordered one on line for $20

the features

everything looks pretty cool. new channels to learn. The UI is much slower than my CV setup, and you can't search on things like program title (not even on the website). you can program the DVR via directv.com, which is nice. i prefer the CV UI, and I prefer the TimeWarner one to CV.

i like that i can use ethernet rather than a phone cable, and that i can download movies 'on demand' (which means on demand plus 60 minutes) over OOL w/ Boost.

the quality

is absolutely horrible. we tried to watch an SD film on Oxygen last night (Sweetest Thing with Cameron Diaz et al- my mother in law and wife wanted to watch it, i just wanted to see that quality) and it was absolutely abhorrent. We all had a headache after about 10 minutes. We tried some HD channels, and while it was better, it was still TERRIBLE QUALITY.

I have an optoma HD32 projector connected to an Onkyo TX-SR605. Everything is HDMI. Everything worked great with CV, works well with XBOX360, PS3, and DVD player. I've setup for 480 and 720p in the setup. This projects onto a 109" 16:9 screen.

The image never looks right with DTV. Colors aren't as rich, everything is foggy and it seems that there's a lot of lossy compression in the image. It really is terrible. I haven't gotten a headache from watching TV since I sat through the Good Times! marathon a few years ago.

SD is unwatchable.

I'll be calling them in a few minutes, but i suspect that Monday I'll be ripping it all out and going back to a CV office with my tail between my legs begging for them to take me back.

The difference between CV quality and DTV quality is unmistakable. Even the wife and mudder-in-law, who never care about such things, couldn't believe how bad it is.

It's a shame. I like the idea of having more HD channels, but only if they look good. DTV is less money, but not worth any of it!

Has anyone else seen this?

 

[iwc5893]

What are your signal strengths on each sat? And what type of connection is going from each receiver to the TV?

My guess is that your dish needs to be peaked in better.

 

[xwheelin]

did u use the hdmi cables from the reciever? Every reviecer should come with an access card.If it was me i would of told him to give me a reciever that had an access card.are you set for 720i or 1080i in your recievers. how are the b band converters are you missing any hd channels

 

[xwheelin]

what kind of connects did he use

 

[Jimbo]

This guy doesn't want our help, he just wants to complain and comment how he likes his old stuff.

If you noticed, it's a 1st post person, wouldn't you think he would come back to see what responses there were to help him ?

Chances are xwheelin is right and he's got his receivers set on 480 instead of 720 and 1080.

Would you invest that kind of money and rip it out a day later without trying to see where the problem was.

fwiw, if you don't have a access card, (and this day and age I can't think of any reason there would not be one), it's standard policy for D* to mail you one for $ 20.

People have been told about buying off EBAY for quite some time now.

Jimbo

 

[grydlok]

did u use the hdmi cables from the reciever? Every reviecer should come with an access card.If it was me i would of told him to give me a reciever that had an access card.are you set for 720i or 1080i in your recievers. how are the b band converters are you missing any hd channels

Uh he bought that IRD from ebay.

 

[grydlok]

This guy doesn't want our help, he just wants to complain and comment how he likes his old stuff.

If you noticed, it's a 1st post person, wouldn't you think he would come back to see what responses there were to help him ?

Chances are xwheelin is right and he's got his receivers set on 480 instead of 720 and 1080.

Would you invest that kind of money and rip it out a day later without trying to see where the problem was.

fwiw, if you don't have a access card, (and this day and age I can't think of any reason there would not be one), it's standard policy for D* to mail you one for $ 20.

People have been told about buying off EBAY for quite some time now.

Jimbo

Correct about that ebay ird. I'm a tech and I wouldn't install it.

 

[Jimbo]

Correct about that ebay ird. I'm a tech and I wouldn't install it.

Yes , but in reality, installing the receiver is the easy part.

Jimbo

 

[muddyh2o]

What are your signal strengths on each sat? And what type of connection is going from each receiver to the TV?

My guess is that your dish needs to be peaked in better.

thanks guys

i was chasing the thread here: DTV Install and My Switch from Cablevision- poor image quality - DBSTalk.Com

signal strengths were great. clear line of sight from the roof with no trees (we're on 11 acres and it's very clear around the house)

so, i don't think it's the dish.

HDMI cat 2 cables only from the DirecTV-provided HR21 to the Onkyo.

 

[muddyh2o]

did u use the hdmi cables from the reciever? Every reviecer should come with an access card.If it was me i would of told him to give me a reciever that had an access card.are you set for 720i or 1080i in your recievers. how are the b band converters are you missing any hd channels

yes, HDMI cat 2 only.

Set for 480 and 720 then same problem when set to 1080 only.

converters seemed fine.

to be clear, the menus were sharp and clear. it's the SD and HD content which was so much worse...

 

[muddyh2o]

what kind of connects did he use

HDMI only

 

[muddyh2o]

This guy doesn't want our help, he just wants to complain and comment how he likes his old stuff.

yes, i did and do want help

If you noticed, it's a 1st post person, wouldn't you think he would come back to see what responses there were to help him ?

i posted here and on DTV Install and My Switch from Cablevision- poor image quality - DBSTalk.Com and got an immediate reply there. i spent the next few hours posting there. sorry for not replying here fast enough, but the other forum was much more responsive

Chances are xwheelin is right and he's got his receivers set on 480 instead of 720 and 1080.

they were set to 480 and 720 by the installer. i changed them to 720 then to 1080 (as advised by tech support) and menus stayed clear. content stayed fuzzy

Would you invest that kind of money and rip it out a day later without trying to see where the problem was.

other than the $40 for the other HD box, it didn't cost me a penny. i ripped it out a day later because DTV only gives you 24 hours (although sales told me 30 days) before they charge you and lock you into a 2yr contract and $480 cancellation fee, even though they couldn't get a tech out for a week

fwiw, if you don't have a access card, (and this day and age I can't think of any reason there would not be one), it's standard policy for D* to mail you one for $ 20.

and i'm fine with that. they cancelled the order anyway but i was told by sales (carl #0193004) that they would have one.

People have been told about buying off EBAY for quite some time now.

Jimbo

and i'm glad i did. the box worked flawlessly on my smaller 42" HD set. i'll craigslist it now, and probably make a profit

Thanks for your help all. A great community here.

 

[muddyh2o]

Uh he bought that IRD from ebay.

yes, but the poor quality was seen on the HR21 the installer brought with him. brand new.

i'm pretty sure that it's the satellite compression i'm seeing, versus the less compressed cable content. mea culpa for not doing my homework first.

720p satellite would have looked fine. they're sending less than that, and less than 480 on SD.

i was able to reinstall cablevision yesterday and all is well again. fewer HD channels, no red sox (NESN) in NY, but clear content on all channels and GREAT HD.

 

[muddyh2o]

Correct about that ebay ird. I'm a tech and I wouldn't install it.

this tech did and it worked fine. i gave him $20 for the job he did. Heck DTV only pays them $30 a job, even when they have to dig trenches and install poles!

 

[muddyh2o]

Yes , but in reality, installing the receiver is the easy part.

Jimbo

and it was! actually the whole setup was easy because the house was i ran homeruns from the demarc with RG-213/U

 

[grydlok]

Yes , but in reality, installing the receiver is the easy part.

Jimbo

Not when you don't get paid for it.

 

[jacmyoung]

If you were looking at MPEG2 channels yes they can look very bad on a projected screen. But on my 120" screen by my HR21, the new HD's look every bit as good as even my HD DVD disks. But my projector is 720p native, time to move up

I assume your PJ is 1080p, if you saw bad HD even in 720p mode, something is not right with the setup, or you were looking at MPEG2 HD's. Those few channels will be moved to MPEG4 soon.

 

[grydlok]

this tech did and it worked fine. i gave him $20 for the job he did. Heck DTV only pays them $30 a job, even when they have to dig trenches and install poles!

That the only way he would have gotten paid to do it. Glad you did do that. Most people around here wouldn't offered the tech crap.

 

[muddyh2o]

If you were looking at MPEG2 channels yes they can look very bad on a projected screen. But on my 120" screen by my HR21, the new HD's look every bit as good as even my HD DVD disks. But my projector is 720p native, time to move up

I assume your PJ is 1080p, if you saw bad HD even in 720p mode, something is not right with the setup, or you were looking at MPEG2 HD's. Those few channels will be moved to MPEG4 soon.

actually, it's a 720p projector. only some of the HD looked bad (the 70 channels??) in both modes.

so, i guess i was judging based upon the old HDs and the old SDs.

 

[JAG72]

actually, it's a 720p projector. only some of the HD looked bad (the 70 channels??) in both modes.

so, i guess i was judging based upon the old HDs and the old SDs.

Those should have not been the channels that you based your opinion on. The MPEG4 HD channels are a night and day difference in quality.