HD lite revisited.... & DTV vs Dish HD
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KA is just a higher freq sat band that D* is using. Makes no difference which band is being used as long as they have the bandwidth for the channel. E* hasn't gone to KA and has stayed w/KU. Issue w/ WA is that they are still 4PSK and they will be converting it to 8PSK (then MPEG 4) and that will give them plenty bandwidth. EA is already MPEG4 for nearly everything. They just got more tps on 72.7 since D* finally got off 72.5 and turn over the freqs. BTW KA has more rain fade issues.
It seems that the responses to this question lead to another interesting question. Why do so many of us not see a difference (from a reasonable viewing distance) between a Dish picture and a OTA picture? FYI, I am using a Sony 60A3000 calibrated by myself using no electronic tools other than my eyes. I've had Cox, Directv and now Dish (last 4 years). From 8 ft away I see no PQ differences between Dish and OTA. I am using a roof top mounted antenna. And some here have seen a absolute difference in PQ between OTA and Dish.
Human's ability to see minor differences in PQ only will show up when in large screens at distances that are too close to screen.Comparing MPEG 2 to MPEG 4 really is not that accurate anyway. A lot of it is personal choice and convincing one's self that it was worth the money for that huge monitor. It's also magic.
Keep in mind the digital OTA standard includes compression. This question arises from the mistaken belief given above that OTA PQ is the best available and that SAT or cable is worse. This may not be the case for any given station. These days most OTA stations are not using all their bandwidth on any given channel. Most have at least 1 subchannel now and many have several. Some also provide other services such as mobile OTA. All of these subtract out from the total available bandwidth so they use compression to compensate. Some stations have very sophisticated equipment to statistically adjust the compression, others are not as good at it.
On the other hand, the feed they send to Dish via fiber/microwave/sat is most likely at full resolution and then Dish makes decisions on how much to compress it. So to make a long story short, it's because the local OTA is compressing the transmission more and Dish has gotten very good at sending down local channels. You are seeing an equivalent, but probably reduced quality, in both cases. As a side note, Dish has been doing statistical multiplexing for a long time out of necessity.
You can most likely see a difference during local sports on OTA. I know a local program director and he said they always make sure these are sent at very high quality. The quick motion will be come evident between Dish and OTA.
Perhaps some think they see a difference because there just has to be one.
I Used AVIA and the built in calibration of my LG TV. In my case, I was prepared for there to be a difference, and was pleasantly surprised when the difference was so minimal as to virtually not exist. Sometimes it's the end result that matters the most and numbers do not tell the story. I understand Dish does not send a full 1080I signal, and OTA does. (Or 720 depending on network) But it just does not translate into a worse picture, on my 48" TV. As mentioned by others, the TV's abilities play a role also.
Years ago on a Mitsubishi forum using calibration the numbers would indicate to not use any of the artificial features of the projection TV. Yet most on that forum found the picture to look better with a couple of them on. Calibration showed it distorted the picture. Perhaps, but to our eyes it improved the picture. I learned from that it's really what it looks like in the end, not what the numbers say only.
I Used AVIA and the built in calibration of my LG TV. In my case, I was prepared for there to be a difference, and was pleasantly surprised when the difference was so minimal as to virtually not exist. Sometimes it's the end result that matters the most and numbers do not tell the story. I understand Dish does not send a full 1080I signal, and OTA does. (Or 720 depending on network) But it just does not translate into a worse picture, on my 48" TV. As mentioned by others, the TV's abilities play a role also.
Years ago on a Mitsubishi forum using calibration the numbers would indicate to not use any of the artificial features of the projection TV. Yet most on that forum found the picture to look better with a couple of them on. Calibration showed it distorted the picture. Perhaps, but to our eyes it improved the picture. I learned from that it's really what it looks like in the end, not what the numbers say only.
