Got DTV installed yesterday - not too pleased

[rad]

Check 1080i and 1080p, it will use 1080i for everything unless it is a 1080p program.

 

[maverick22]

Check 1080i and 1080p, it will use 1080i for everything unless it is a 1080p program.

Thank you!

 

[Stephen F]

Stephen, since you are a new member we'll forgive you but your post is full of misinformation, mainly installer "urban legend".
First, the color of the wall insert can have no effect on the response of the box. In fact, the color of the wall plate is not relevant to anything. Installers will tell you that having the wrong color wall plate can cause anything from signal loss, to missing channels, to fires in the cables. NONE OF THESE ARE TRUE. The only difference between the wall plates is m,arginal changes in signal losses, so small you would be hard puched to measure it. When a DirectV tech installs a wall plate he will use orange ones, the only thing this tells you is that the DirecTV tech did in fact change it. It's a quality control issue.

Second, you are getting all the resolution and native stuff mixed up. The DirecTV box gets a signal in a resolution determined by the channel provider. SD channels are 480i/p, HD channels are 720p or 1080i (i'm ignoring 1080p on PPV movie channels, and 4K, because they are special cases). Setting native to "on" means the DirectV box sends the signal to the TV without changing the resolution, and then allows the TV to upscale the resolution to the TV's own resolution (typically 1080p). Setting native to "off" tells the DirecTV box to do the upscaling before the signal goes to the TV. So the most common settings are:
native on with checkmarks for all the resolutions supported by the TV
or: native off with only one resolution checked (typically 1080i), all signals will be upscaled to that resolution

If your TV has a better upscaler than the DirecTV box, native on is normally used
If the DirecTV box is better, use native off.
In 99.9% of the cases, you won't see any difference.
There are some other considerations. Because of the HDMI handshake between the DirecTV box and the TV, some TVs will have faster channel changes with native off. Also, native on allows the TV aspect controls to operate. Personally all my TVs are set to native off and 1080i/p

The native off was only to speed up response of the client. It does vary from TV to TV wether turning it on or off will cause lag or not. I find that usually it does speed up their response turning it off simply because the TV doesn't have to change its settings.

As for the barrels in wall plates, color is not always a determining factor, but does give a good indication as to the rating of the barrel. Clear and white barrels are usually an indicator that they only pass 750-1000 mhz, which is fine for uhf frequency. Directv barrels are rated to 3Ghz because the signal it's passing on SWIM is 250-1790 mHz.

 

[Jimbo]

The native off was only to speed up response of the client. It does vary from TV to TV wether turning it on or off will cause lag or not. I find that usually it does speed up their response turning it off simply because the TV doesn't have to change its settings.

As for the barrels in wall plates, color is not always a determining factor, but does give a good indication as to the rating of the barrel. Clear and white barrels are usually an indicator that they only pass 750-1000 mhz, which is fine for uhf frequency. Directv barrels are rated to 3Ghz because the signal it's passing on SWIM is 250-1790 mHz.

I believe barrels in most cases are either blue or orange now .... personally I use the blue still, because I still have them and it doesn't cause any issues .... rating wise I think blue and orange are pretty close.

 

[texasbrit]

In fact the older clear and white barrels do pass 1790Mhz also, the only difference is signal loss. Unless you have a long cable run, it does not matter. Although in a new installation I would always use 3GHz rated barrels. They are cheap enough.

 

[Jimbo]

In fact the older clear and white barrels do pass 1790Mhz also, the only difference is signal loss. Unless you have a long cable run, it does not matter. Although in a new installation I would always use 3GHz rated barrels. They are cheap enough.

I think the 3GHz was started with the Blue if I'm not mistaken.

 

[Claude Greiner]

Are you sure the installer did not set the genie/client on 1080i?

Not for anything but it's a pet peeve of mine that the box defaults to 480 from the factory and most installers are too lazy or unaware to set the box to output HD.

personally I just prefer to set the box to put native out to the customers Tv. It takes all the hassle out of setting the resolution correctly

 

[maverick22]

Are you sure the installer did not set the genie/client on 1080i?

Not for anything but it's a pet peeve of mine that the box defaults to 480 from the factory and most installers are too lazy or unaware to set the box to output HD.

personally I just prefer to set the box to put native out to the customers Tv. It takes all the hassle out of setting the resolution correctly

Are you suggesting "native OFF" in the DTV menu then?

Another comparison: I thought DTV used to look closer to Netflix. I watched a show on Netflix and DTV, and through Netflix it is definitely sharper (no "artifacts" if that's the right word). You can see it in faces (where I thought even cable "shined"/strongpoint). With DTV you can see the little pixels, just not as bad as cable (still visible though). With Netflix you really have to get close to notice.

Not sure if that made any sense...basically DTV looks closer to cable whereas I thought it used to look very close to Netflix with a certain Disney show.

 

[Claude Greiner]

Are you suggesting "native OFF" in the DTV menu then?

I thought DTV used to look closer to Netflix. I watched a show on Netflix and DTV, and the Netflix one definitely is sharper (no "artifacts" if that's the right word). You can see it in faces (where I thought even cable "shined"/strongpoint). With DTV you can see the little pixels, just not as bad as cable (still visible though). With Netflix you really have to get close to notice.

Native on

 

[ncted]

Are you suggesting "native OFF" in the DTV menu then?

Another comparison: I thought DTV used to look closer to Netflix. I watched a show on Netflix and DTV, and through Netflix it is definitely sharper (no "artifacts" if that's the right word). You can see it in faces (where I thought even cable "shined"/strongpoint). With DTV you can see the little pixels, just not as bad as cable (still visible though). With Netflix you really have to get close to notice.

Not sure if that made any sense...basically DTV looks closer to cable whereas I thought it used to look very close to Netflix with a certain Disney show.

Is Netflix going through your AVR as well, or are you using a smartv or something else to watch it? What you are describing might be a line doubling issue, if your AVR does upscaling or any kind of video processing. What model AVR are you using?

 

[maverick22]

Is Netflix going through your AVR as well, or are you using a smartv or something else to watch it? What you are describing might be a line doubling issue, if your AVR does upscaling or any kind of video processing. What model AVR are you using?

Netflix is going through the AVR as well.

I have a Denon AVR-X1100W
https://usa.denon.com/us/product/hometheater/receivers/avrx1100w

I don't know how to mess with scaling/video processing. I saw a member on another site (years ago) that his TV does a crappy job compared to his AVR. I don't know how to turn one off/the other on. Any ideas?

Thanks

 

[rad]

Remember with Netflix, since they aren't compressing programming on the fly like DIRECTV has to, their hardware can take the time to provide a better picture.

 

[ncted]

Netflix is going through the AVR as well.

I have a Denon AVR-X1100W
https://usa.denon.com/us/product/hometheater/receivers/avrx1100w

I don't know how to mess with scaling/video processing. I saw a member on another site (years ago) that his TV does a crappy job compared to his AVR. I don't know how to turn one off/the other on. Any ideas?

Thanks

Well, since you said that going straight to the TV didn't improve anything, it is unlikely to be the AVR. IMHO, you either have a faulty Genie, or there is some incompatibility between it and your AVR and TV. I can honestly say that my HR54 PQ generally looks as good Netflix on my Roku Premier+ from a normal seating distance on my (professionally calibrated) Sony XBR70X850B when connected through my Pioneer Elite VSX-90. I can kind of tell when I am watching something UHD on Netflix or Amazon, but for regular content, the two sources are more or less equal.

Perhaps your eyes are just more sensitive than mine, although mine are pretty good, at least compared to my wife.

It shouldn't matter since you don't have a UHD TV, but I assume you are using the latest spec HDMI cables?

 

[maverick22]

Well, since you said that going straight to the TV didn't improve anything, it is unlikely to be the AVR. IMHO, you either have a faulty Genie, or there is some incompatibility between it and your AVR and TV. I can honestly say that my HR54 PQ generally looks as good Netflix on my Roku Premier+ from a normal seating distance on my (professionally calibrated) Sony XBR70X850B when connected through my Pioneer Elite VSX-90. I can kind of tell when I am watching something UHD on Netflix or Amazon, but for regular content, the two sources are more or less equal.

Perhaps your eyes are just more sensitive than mine, although mine are pretty good, at least compared to my wife.

It shouldn't matter since you don't have a UHD TV, but I assume you are using the latest spec HDMI cables?

The shows I'm comparing don't look bad...just more artifacts/dots on people's faces on the show I recall. Netflix definitely looks better.

I'm not sure about latest HDMI cable specs. I'm not sure if it's connected using my older one from Monoprice or the new one the installer brought. I switched it out with another one as well.

 

[ncted]

The shows I'm comparing don't look bad...just more artifacts/dots on people's faces on the show I recall. Netflix definitely looks better.

I'm not sure about latest HDMI cable specs. I'm not sure if it's connected using my older one from Monoprice or the new one the installer brought. I switched it out with another one as well.

Ah well, I am sad it isn't meeting your expectations. At least it isn't worse than Uverse I guess.

 

[maverick22]

Ah well, I am sad it isn't meeting your expectations. At least it isn't worse than Uverse I guess.

I was pleased with some of the programming I watched tonight (movie on HBO, couple of primetime shows). Maybe my eyes are getting used to it or something. They looked great though. Of course I'm still seeing some poor quality shows.

I was anxious to test this 99% reliability. It started raining here in Dallas, I quickly turned on the TV, and signal was out for about 20 seconds. It let up soon after that...really wanted to test the strength in somewhat of a storm though. Everyone I talk to from DTV acts like they have made huge advances in the past 4 years.

 

[rad]

I was pleased with some of the programming I watched tonight (movie on HBO, couple of primetime shows). Maybe my eyes are getting used to it or something. They looked great though. Of course I'm still seeing some poor quality shows.

I was anxious to test this 99% reliability. It started raining here in Dallas, I quickly turned on the TV, and signal was out for about 20 seconds. It let up soon after that...really wanted to test the strength in somewhat of a storm though. Everyone I talk to from DTV acts like they have made huge advances in the past 4 years.

Well since there's 8,640 seconds in a day, if you were out for only 20 seconds you're within the 99% signal reliability.

 

[ncted]

I was pleased with some of the programming I watched tonight (movie on HBO, couple of primetime shows). Maybe my eyes are getting used to it or something. They looked great though. Of course I'm still seeing some poor quality shows.

I was anxious to test this 99% reliability. It started raining here in Dallas, I quickly turned on the TV, and signal was out for about 20 seconds. It let up soon after that...really wanted to test the strength in somewhat of a storm though. Everyone I talk to from DTV acts like they have made huge advances in the past 4 years.

DirecTV will go out during a storm, no doubt. It is not quite as rain-fade resistant as Dish, but still pretty good. Keep in mine that 99% availability is still being unavailable for:

• Daily: 14m 24.0s
• Weekly: 1h 40m 48.0s
• Monthly: 7h 18m 17.5s
• Yearly: 3d 15h 39m 29.5s

Claiming 99% reliability isn't saying much at the end of the day.

 

[maverick22]

Yeah, kind of a weird stat to brag about. I would hope my service wouldn't be going out on a clear, sunny day.

Any tips on recording if there is a storm? That's what used to annoy me. Is there any way to have the DVR switch to SD instead of HD if HD goes out (heard that SD is more watchable in bad weather).

thanks

 

[Nascarken 91xg]

Intermission TIME get that popcorn!!!!!!!