Is my dish network broadcasting 1080p?

[king3pj]

The question is, where can we get an accurate answer with respect to the native broadcast signal resolution (not the upconverting done at the box), whether it is 1080i or 720p. As I said in the post above I have been a dish customer for more than ten years and still am. I also set up Direct TV for my Father and Mother in Law. I was at my parents house last night to watch the game and noticed that several of the channels look more resolved and clearer.

The native broadcast resolution for ABC/Disney and Fox is 1280x720 progressively scanned(aka 720p). The native resolution for NBC, CBS, and most other channels is 1920x1080 interlaced(aka 1080i). Supposedly dish down converts 1080i signals to 1440x1080. Note that this down conversion is still higher resolution than 720p. If you see a difference between different HD sources it's most likely due to bandwidth allocated per channel. Dish does not down convert 1080i signals to 720p unless you tell your box to output 720p.

Edit: If you have a 1080p TV your dish receiver should be set to 1080i. 1080i and 1080p are the same resolution. One is just interlaced while the other is progressive. 720p is lower resolution so if you set your Dish receiver to 720p it has to lose some of the resolution on 1080i signals before your TV converts it to 1080p. If you have a 720p TV you are fine setting the Dish box to 720p.

 

[Tampa8]

This is why I wish Dish would give us the option of native pass through like my old Directv receiver did. It probably wouldn't make a huge visible difference but I do think it would make some. It would keep the receiver from making any conversions so all channels, whether they are 720p or 1080i, would only have to be converted once.

That's really the way it should be.

 

[O'Shag]

King thanks much for the informative answer. That makes sense to me. I guess its a little more complex than one resultion for everything, so some channels will look a bit better than others.

 

[O'Shag]

Updating something I said initially. I've been living with the VIP922 for about 8 months now and lately its being giving me problems. Dish kindly agreed to get me out a replacement unit right away (Dish customer service is really improving again - they used to be fantastic then went through a period of not os good customer service). From day one using the VIP922, I have not been satisfied by the picture quality, much prefering the picture of the 722. The 722 that served me very well for several years was having problems, most notably with losing signal, which I now know was caused by a drifting LNB that had to be replaced. The 922 has its own error correction built in so is not affected by this probem. Despite this problem I was loathed to give up my 722, because it plainly had the superior picture - not subtle. On a forum I mentioned this and 922 users could not understand how this could be.

So now I have just received a replacement VIP922 unit and the difference in picture is astonishing. This is my old 722 picture quality back and more and I am thrilled out it. There can be no doubt then that the VIP922 unit I have been using is malfunctioning so as to directly affect picture quality. Wow!

 

[KAB]

I have to ask, why you wanted another 922?

 

[O'Shag]

Hi KAB. In answer to your question, I like the 922. I did have the option to jump on board with the Hopper but as i understand it it is for households with multiple TVs so as I ony use one TV thought it might be overkill for me.

 

[hailrazer]

I have a 185" projection screen with a 1080p Mitsubishi 5000BT.

Believe me at 185" when playing College Football you can tell the difference between 720p, 1080i , and 1080p. And you can tell which networks compress the crap out of the signal.
CBS is the worst. Either their cameras are inferior or they compress the mess out of their signal, but college football looks terrible. It's blurry and has artifacts and tearing, motion blur , etc.

I really wish the networks would try a little harder.

 

[Tampa8]

Well sure, there is a difference between 720P and 1080P, if with that projector you are sitting about 24ft or closer. And I would believe at that size you can also see the difference between OTA and a Cable or Satellite signal or even an OTA siganal not as good as another. However that's not the reality, or at least it is to a minimal difference on a smaller screen size, especially at distances most people watch at. I'm sure you realize everything is more exaggerated the bigger the screen size and that includes exposing differences in many things. But for the difference to have an impact, you have to be able to see it. It still remains, on any size screen, if you are not sitting close enough you won't see the differences between screen resolutions. Compression is something completly different, and can be seen and can affect any resolution.

As an illustration to counter your example of a very large viewing area, take a screen of 24". You will not see any difference at all from 720P to 1080P. In fact 480P may look the same if you are not very close to the screen.

 

[dare2be]

Same can be said for computer monitors. At 1920x1080, I'd rather have a 21" monitor than a 24" or larger, because the same resolution on a smaller monitor just looks better than on a bigger one, sitting at the same distance away.

 

[south180]

My one and only HD TV is 720p. Whenever I rent a BluRay disc I'm astounded at how much better it looks than any Dish channel. It made me think that upgrading to a 1080 TV would almost be pointless. Perhaps it's true that all of Dish is 720p... or worse!?

I'll be interested to read the responses you receive to this question.

it makes me wonder if there is any reason apart from $$$ why there is now 4K TVs out there.

 

[ChadT41]

Picture quality has said to be significantly better on 4K tvs. Multiple people here have reported that it is so much more clear, even on non 4k content, however me personally do not see the value when HDTV is just fine. Not to mention the big push for HD and higher resolutions was a direct result of newer tvs having to be made capable of receiving a digital signal, when they got rid of analog programming. There is not a big push that will help 4k out, so it will be techies, and people that had a fast talking salesman and people wanting to upgrade after their TV breaks, that have those.

 

[Dee_Ann]

Dish uses "HD Lite" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_Lite

 

[dwarren2]

From

Dish uses "HD Lite" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_Lite

From your citation, so does Direct and other providers. So don't just single out Dish.