HD OTA vs. DISH HD Locals

[deepmoz]

No question, Locals on OTA are WAY, WAY, WAY better than the locals HD through dish. There's no comparison that to get the best HD picture, you still need an antenna for OTA.

Is there any way to get a better image through dish by getting a stronger dish signal? Any other way to get it to come close? I'm happy with the other HD channels coming in through Dish, but the locals are still better via OTA.

 

[garys]

Is there any way to get a better image through dish by getting a stronger dish signal? Any other way to get it to come close?

Nope.

 

[deepmoz]

How sad then....For people to see HD in its full glory, they have to mess around with an antenna still.

 

[VinceT3]

I love my digital channels from OTA for another reason. 3rd Hd channel for recording.

 

[kstile]

I disagree. I've had OTA HD for over a year and then just last week upgraded to the 622 to avoid the antenna. Other than the fact that the Seattle FOX affiliate isn't there ("contract issues"), the quality is indistinguishable from OTA, at least on my 36" CRT Sony XBR. But Vince is right, too - good to have the OTA for recording that third HD channel (at least when my DVR isn't full :-\)

 

[robert393]

Upgraded today from 942 to 622. On my 133" screen, the difference between OTA & Dish HD locals is HUGE. Can't believe just how crappy the Dish HD Locals look..........I'm amazed at the difference.

Sad..........

Robert

 

[gjh3260]

OTA HD is definitely better than Dish HD for the locals on my 61 inch Sammy. When watching locals I always use the antenna. I have also noticed lately the local channel via Dish have a tendency to pixelate or drop signal a lot more than OTA hooked up to the Sammy. I have a feeling the TV has a better tuner than the Dish receiver.

 

[mdonnelly]

What makes you think that Dish will treat HD locals differently than they treat SD locals? From experience, I expected the HD locals to be over-compressed, bit-starved, and downrezzed. Add to that the fact that Dish (and D*) only carries the big 4 networks (not PBS), and that means my OTA antenna will stay up.

 

[riffjim4069]

The 1280x720p locals (ABC, FOX) are acceptable, but the 1920x1080i locals (CBS, NBC) are horrible in my area. Generally speaking, OTA provides the best picture quality available. The only time I tune to an HD LIL channels is when I am in desperate need to record a second broadcast network shows at the same time...and that's only if I don't have something scheduled on the other DVRs.

 

[MikeD-C05]

Same here in Houston . The ABC and Fox look great in 720p but the Cbs ( no Nbc yet in hd) look terrible in 1080i over Dish. It looks like robotic and jerky people and even live video looks more like film than video. I can't understand why they can't get this right. The picturequality people at Dish sent me an email asking me for patience since this is new technology. They better learn how to do this soon, because if mpeg4 makes all the channels look like my Cbs station then I will be switching back to cable after a 10 year abscence.

 

[Paradox-SJ]

There is no comparison OTA is king...especially if you have a TV that is 45" and larger. The larger you go the bigger the difference you will see.

 

[jmcgee_jr]

There is no comparison OTA is king...especially if you have a TV that is 45" and larger. The larger you go the bigger the difference you will see.

Actually im going to argue that fact it doesnt seem to be size based it seems to be technology based. It seems that people with CRT based HDTV's dont seem to notice the difference in quality changes as much as say RP or LCD or Plasma based. It goes for the same with SD quality it really seems the new technology shows off the compression in digital streams much more then CRT does. I have to be honest I dropped Dish and went to charter here in vermont cause of great deal and internet pricing and no locals in HD from either plus i save 30 bucks a month. Anyways I have to say that my analog signal looks much better on my RPLCD sony then some digital channels from charter. Yet on my Fairly new CRT non HDTV the picture looks the same for analog.

 

[sprintcarcrazy]

Dish pays for fiber from Local stations to uplink center and they refuse to pay for enough bandwidth to do it right. They should not be able to advertise Local HD when in fact they bandwidth will not even cover bitrate good enough for SD from the locals.

 

[smokejoe]

The Best Thing(s) in Life (True HD/OTA) is Free

How sad then....For people to see HD in its full glory, they have to mess around with an antenna still.

We're turning saddness to joy when we soon will stop paying dish thousands of dollars annually for fuzz.
Pure HD via OTA is and will remain $0.
Our only requirement is a 250+GB DVR which is coming soon.

 

[KKlare]

Why don't they show the OTA recording as input 0 or 3 instead of 1? This leads to confusion with the satellite input 1, for me at least. I see 2 recordings for input 1 or a timer for input 1 and think I will not be able to add another coincident recording.

-Ken