HD quality of different providers is really hard to find

[realgone]

I just switched back to Charter for TV after having Directv for almost 3 years. When I had Charter before we had an old tube TV. Now we have a Panny 54G20. The picture quality was stunning with Directv, then I switched to Charter to save money. I had NO IDEA how terrible their HD picture quality is. Its horrible. The SD is better, but I rarely watch SD.

Any ways, I will be going either back to Directv or will try out Dish Network, the hopper sounds awesome. My main beef with Directv was how incredibly sluggish my HR24 was. My main concern is HD PQ and I am having a hard time coming up with a definitive answer. Some say that DirecTV is way better because Dish downgrades their quality, some say you can't tell the difference, but none can prove their claims with actual numbers. The best I could find is a ZDNET article(below). If still true today, than DISH should be better than Direct, though it may be hard to tell the difference even side by side. Are there any REAL factual numbers out there as to what resolution they are using. From what I see, both companies downgrade their signal, but DirecTV downgrades even further.

To be fair, this article is from 2008. Are the numbers still the same? Worse? Improved? I would really like to know what resolution they are both using TODAY.

The ZDNET article is titled, Here's what fake HD video looks like.
I cant post a link because I don't have enough posts.

Source/service	CODEC	Resolution	Bit-rate
Blu-ray	H.264 or MPEG2	1920x1080 1080i/p	40
HD DVD	H.264 or VC-1	1920x1080 1080i/p	28
ATSC HDTV	MPEG2	1920x1080 1080i/p	19.39
Digital cable	MPEG2	1920x1080 1080i/p	~ 16
Verizon FiOS Video on demand	MPEG2	1920x1080 1080i	15
DISH HD	MPEG2/MPEG4	1440x1080	< 10
DIRECTV HD	MPEG2/MPEG4	1280x1080	< 10
IPTV	H.264	?	< 10
Xbox Live Video	VC-1	1280x720 720p	6.8
DVD	MPEG2	720x480 480i *	8
Apple iTunes	QuickTime/H.264	1280x720 720p	4
Web "HD" downloads	H.264	1280x720 720p	1.5

* Can up-scale well up to 1080i or 1080p because of reasonable bit-rate.

 

[Kb Cool]

Hr 24 sluggish? That's news to me!

 

[Kb Cool]

But to answer some of your questions i'll check a couple of channels since i still have my Dish set-up!BRB! Nope Directv is still better!!!

 

[realgone]

Hr 24 sluggish? That's news to me!

Very sluggish, in fact I had two different ones and they were both incredibly slow. Sometimes the menu would take 10 seconds to come up after pushing the button. In the 2.5 years I had an HR24 it was slow slow slow. Now I have the Hopper, it is blazing fast.

 

[realgone]

Oh yeah, and as for anyone that says Directv has better picture quality, I disagree. I just switched to Dish Network from Directv and was totally stressed out about picture quality because of comments by people on several forums that claim Directv has a better picture. Having had both now, if there is any difference, it is certainly not discernible. I doubt a single person could tell the difference if they were side by side. Some claim Dish compresses their signal, but so does Directv, but both are satellite and through the air, unlike cable, and both have excellent HD PQ. My new setup with Dish Network and Hopper has excellent picture quality on my Panasonic TC-P54G20. The only thing I don't like about it, it that when you shut down the Hopper, there is a standby screensaver, so the unit never fully powers down. I doubt it uses much energy, but it prevents my A/V receiver from automatically shutting off like it did with the HR24.

 

[Kb Cool]

Seriously, if your looking for excellent PQ from satellite. Pick up a FTA receiver and a dish. C/KU if you have the room and you'll realize both Directv and Dishnet aren't providing the real deal. But, it is what it is and i've learned to accept it and the channels i like are always there!

 

[dtro77]

Directv's Mpeg 4 HD (Which is now all their HD) is 1920x1080 Their Mpeg 2 HD was 1280x1080.