Eastern Arc - Center Ice SD?

[SpaethCo]

I've been digging through the threads about Eastern Arc and I realize there is nothing to be gained for standard channel SD quality (480x480 MPEG4 at a lower bit-rate than 540x480 MPEG2). I'm curious if there is any advantage for the sports packages, in particular NHL Center Ice.

The HD feeds provided via Center Ice often look great -- the problem is there is still a significant number of games still broadcast in SD. In MPEG2 on my 110/119/129 configuration some of the SD games are barely Youtube quality -- significantly worse than any other SD channel I get from Dish. Is there any possibility the MPEG4 feed on Eastern Arc would deliver anything better?

 

[MikeD-C05]

I don't watch sports but I have changed to the eastern arc dish 1000.4 a few weeks back and I can tell you that the sd channels look BETTER to me, than on western arc dish 1000.2. They seem less compressed and crisper to me. The hd channels are still coming in mpeg 4 off of 61.5 and 72.2 but look fine to me and I was already using a side sat dish for 61.5 plugged into my 1000.2 sat dish, because 129 was a crap satellite. Another bonus to me is that ALL programming ,except ota, is in mpeg 4 and takes up much less room on my internal hard drive . One channel I noticed looked much much better was FX in sd. This channel always looked a little out of focus on western arc and now looks great to me. All sd channels look much crisper and more clear than before. I have had a western arc dish or dish 500 for most of my 12 years with DISH and I can definately see a difference in sd channels with the eastern arc dish 1000.4.

 

[SpaethCo]

Thanks for the input!

I'll have to check my look angles again and maybe think about ordering up a 1000.4 since I only have a single 722 w/ new smart card on my account. It's supposed to be -19°F here tomorrow, but hopefully it will warm up a bit before the end of hockey season so I can still get the dish installed.

 

[Dah-Henny]

...I can tell you that the sd channels look BETTER to me, than on western arc dish 1000.2. They seem less compressed and crisper to me.

I have to agree. :up

 

[SpaethCo]

I got my 1000.4 mounted up yesterday and watched a few of the SD games last night on Center Ice. The MSG and MSG+ feeds were particularly awful on 110/119, but last night watching the SD games off 72 it was marginally better. There is still compression artifacts in rink-wide shots, but the angles from the glass or close-in action shots look great for SD.

Overall the gains on the MPEG4 feeds of Center Ice are minor. If the SD feeds off 110/119 are a 1, and HD feeds off 61.5/129 are a 10, I'd classify the SD feeds off 72 in MPEG4 as being somewhere in the 2-3 range. It's an improvement, but not a huge one.

Eastern Arc takes care of some of the concerns I had with growing trees that were at the edge of impacting my 110/119/129 reception last year, but otherwise the gains in MPEG4 for SD hockey probably aren't enough to justify the $100 cost.

 

[ehren]

I notice that the alternate channels 444-453 look better than the main RSNs 409-436. The less the amount of games on the alternates the better. if Dish would just put only 6 RSNs per transponder they would look decent instead of 42 they freakin have crammed.

 

[MikeD-C05]

I got my 1000.4 mounted up yesterday and watched a few of the SD games last night on Center Ice. The MSG and MSG+ feeds were particularly awful on 110/119, but last night watching the SD games off 72 it was marginally better. There is still compression artifacts in rink-wide shots, but the angles from the glass or close-in action shots look great for SD.

Overall the gains on the MPEG4 feeds of Center Ice are minor. If the SD feeds off 110/119 are a 1, and HD feeds off 61.5/129 are a 10, I'd classify the SD feeds off 72 in MPEG4 as being somewhere in the 2-3 range. It's an improvement, but not a huge one.

Eastern Arc takes care of some of the concerns I had with growing trees that were at the edge of impacting my 110/119/129 reception last year, but otherwise the gains in MPEG4 for SD hockey probably aren't enough to justify the $100 cost.

If you have a dvr your recordings on eastern arc take up much less space on your internal hard drive. THis is a nice bonus for me, along with the better pq on all sd channels.

 

[SpaethCo]

I notice that the alternate channels 444-453 look better than the main RSNs 409-436. The less the amount of games on the alternates the better. if Dish would just put only 6 RSNs per transponder they would look decent instead of 42 they freakin have crammed.

Maybe I'm being naive on the this, but won't most of this improve over the next 6-18 months as all of the RSNs go full-time HD?

On the SD front, I think it has to be something more than just compression. I've been sick the last few days so I've logged quite a bit of couch time watching hockey, and some games look like a soap opera (ie, the Coyotes/Oilers game) with how blurry they are, yet games like the Caps/Islanders today look about as good as you can expect from SD. Overall I'd say most of the games really do look better in MPEG4 off 72, but some of the awful looking feeds are beyond redemption. (doomed at the source?)

We just can't get to full-time HD quickly enough.

 

[Islandguy43]

We just can't get to full-time HD quickly enough.

The question is why can't E* just broadcast them in HD. Rogers sportnet, TSN and the MSG family of channels all have HD versions, yet the only time you are gonna see them in HD, is when the game is picked up by the nhl network. Why????

 

[wolfjc]

The question is why can't E* just broadcast them in HD. Rogers sportnet, TSN and the MSG family of channels all have HD versions, yet the only time you are gonna see them in HD, is when the game is picked up by the nhl network. Why????

I know of NO pay TV provider who has ANY Canadian HD feeds other than NHL Network.
This includes E*, D* and any cable so it is not E*'s fault there must be some law or something that will not let the US get the Canadian HD feeds.

 

[hockeyinsd]

I rarely watch any of the SD Center Ice games anymore (except for my Kings). Fortunately there are usually enough HD games on to watch from the time I get home from work till I go to sleep. I have found the SD picture looks better if I output over S-Video to my TV. I have a 42" Samsung 720P Plasma. Seems like the TV does a better job of displaying SD material than my 722/612 (I tried both to see which had the better picture) using HDMI.

I've been keeping track of HD games on CI this season (with the thought of switching to directv) and directv has about 25% more HD games than Dish. That number is slightly skewed though because directv also lists quite a few games as in HD, even though it is the SD feed shown on a HD channel. It of course looks better than straight SD, but since I generally don't watch any of the CI games in SD, I don't include them.

All I have to say is thank god for HNIC in HD!!!