I do not think I have read that they are using Harmonic Encoders but I believe that about a year or two years ago when they say they were going to triple the HD channels, their Press Release mentioned a new compression scheme. It wasn't explicitly stated as Harmonic Encoders but now that I have D* I have been able to compare some of the glitches of these Harmonic Encoders with the ones from V*. Things that I have seen in both is that
1 - the "Black screen" this is temporary and very quick. Your screen goes black for about .5 seconds and it just happens sometimes and not enough to annoy anyone.
2 - the "snow screen" this one is unsual to see because I saw them on V* whenever the receiver was trying to do a handshake with the HDCP DVI connection. I know for a fact the V* was using HDCP. I do not know if D* is using HDCP. But I have seen the "snow screen" as well on D* and again it only last 0.5 seconds and sometimes.
3 - the "green splash": a splash of green is spotted on the video for 0.5 seconds.
4 - the "strips of broken video" again only happens for 0.5 seconds and not every time.
The reason I mention these similarities is that if D* is using Harmonic Encoders, their bitrates may not be measured according to the old MPEG-2. This means that they maybe compressing the channels more and if anyone sees the compression bitrates one immediately say "Oh my". Anyone has any information on what they use.
1 - the "Black screen" this is temporary and very quick. Your screen goes black for about .5 seconds and it just happens sometimes and not enough to annoy anyone.
2 - the "snow screen" this one is unsual to see because I saw them on V* whenever the receiver was trying to do a handshake with the HDCP DVI connection. I know for a fact the V* was using HDCP. I do not know if D* is using HDCP. But I have seen the "snow screen" as well on D* and again it only last 0.5 seconds and sometimes.
3 - the "green splash": a splash of green is spotted on the video for 0.5 seconds.
4 - the "strips of broken video" again only happens for 0.5 seconds and not every time.
The reason I mention these similarities is that if D* is using Harmonic Encoders, their bitrates may not be measured according to the old MPEG-2. This means that they maybe compressing the channels more and if anyone sees the compression bitrates one immediately say "Oh my". Anyone has any information on what they use.