Just got Dish Network installed but non-HD channels look blurry...

[sofakng]

Today I had Dish Network installed and the HD channels look nice, but ALL of the non-HD channels look blurry (compressed?) when they are fullscreen. When the channel is in a small window (eg. the program guide) it looks VERY clear, but when I actually select the channel and start watching it, it looks very compressed and actually blurry.

Is this normal?

In the settings for the receiver (Vip 622) I have it set to 1080i (my TV's native resolution), and 16x9. I'm using high quality component cables hooked up to a receiver.

When I had Comcast, the non-HD channels looked pretty good so I know it's not my TV.

Thanks for your help...

 

[nsafreak]

Don't know if this applies to the 622 or not but for other HD model receivers some folks have reported better picture quality if they hook up the S-Video cable for SD programming and use component/HDMI/DVI for the HD programming. Your mileage may vary. Keep in mind that it may still not look sharp since there is compression to consider and the SD signal is really geared for about a 27" TV set and not the larger set that you likely have.

 

[KE4EST]

Also it depends a lot on the TV Set. I come across several LOW dollar and a few High dollar hd sets that when you see SD on them your better off with the cheapest thing Wal-Mart Sells.

 

[sofakng]

Don't know if this applies to the 622 or not but for other HD model receivers some folks have reported better picture quality if they hook up the S-Video cable for SD programming and use component/HDMI/DVI for the HD programming.

Right now I'm using a 34" Sony TV so I can use s-video, but in a week I'm moving everything downstairs (eg. my new home theater), and I don't have any s-video cables run to my projector. That means I have to use component or HDMI. Besides, I shouldn't have to use s-video to achieve BETTER quality

Also it depends a lot on the TV Set. I come across several LOW dollar and a few High dollar hd sets that when you see SD on them your better off with the cheapest thing Wal-Mart Sells.

When I was with Comcast using an HD receiver (and component cables, same as now), the SD channels looked good so I know my TV isn't the issue. I understand SD looks worse on an HDTV, but I'm comparing apples to apples so I'm really upset that SD looks so bad.

My wife told me tonight, "We should have kept Comcast" because of the SD quality. This is not a good sign at all, so please tell me if there is anything else I can to improve the SD quality!

 

[cebbigh]

Are you picking up any OTA signals? If so how do the SD images compare between the Sat feeds and the OTA?

Also do you have the SD image set to normal (black bars on the sides) or is the picture stretched to fit your screen?

 

[DetFan]

I have a 55 inch Sony and I was pleasantly surprised with the quality, after I put my 48 down stairs and bought this one.

The Sd on that 48(JVC) was not great, but I understood the downside of biger screens. I was hesitant on going bigger, but did it anyway, and the channels look much better on the 55 then the 48 for some reason. I am guessing Quality of the TV. Not sure what 3LCD technology is but it seems to work.

 

[MikeD-C05]

It will depend on some factors.

1. The tv you have makes a lot of difference. Toshiba is supposed to make the sd image over an hd tv look near dvd quality. I have 2 htvs and both are toshiba and yes my sd quality looks excellent.
2. The picture controls on your tv should be set to about 50 % on contrast, brightness, color and your sharness should be set to either low or none. To much Sharpness and Contrast makes a satellite picture look awfull.
3. The format mode you use makes a difference. IF you stretch the picture to fit or zoom it , it will not look as good . Some use it in normal mode and watch it with black bars on the sides. THis is up to you.
4. I have my 16x9 tvs set to 4x3x1 and this makes a difference to me on my sd picture. I have the format set to partial zoom on sd channels. To me this looks better than 16x9 setting on sd. My hd picture looks similar to the way it should on 16x9 , but some people say they lose picture in hd when they do this. So I have normal mode on hd channels and partial zoom on sd channels . Again this is up to you.
5. I have my 622 dvrs set to 720p instead of 1080i as it seems to make the picture in both sd and hd look better to me ,but again this is up to you.

Finally you have just switched to satellite tv from cable. You have to take time to adjust to the picture and set you pic controls to look good on satellite not cable. You will have a more smooth picture with satellite over cable if you set your tv to look good with sat rather than the grainey cable picture. Most of us with satellite moved to it when there were no options for hd and had time to adjust to a sd sat picture on a sd tv instead of sd and hd on an hdtv. This makes a lot of difference to you if you have never had satellite. It is kind of like shock treatment . But if you will take the time to try some of what I suggest you might find that you can get used to the way sat should look over cable on your tv as well. It will be a trade off in away but you will get the most hd channels available with Dish. Remember that HD is the future and everthing will go that way eventually as time goes on. Sd someday, will be like black and white tv is to us today. You won't want to see it much less care how it looks as you wont want to watch it.

 

[8bitbytes]

SD is not going to look any better on your PJ - I have a PJ and it is only for HD and DVD, SD looks horrible but what can you expect for 480 x 270 blown up to 8.5 feet?

As was noted before, you may get better results from an analog connection and this is why: signal processing. Your digital connections receive exactly what is there in the digital signal - great for HD and DVD content, not so great for SD.

Cable lives off of SD so they probably push the signal to 480i for you, hence the better observed picture. Overall though cable can't give me what Dish can.

I watch SD on my 32inch Sony Trinitron only and it looks very sharp over an s-video cable. My 622 is set to 720p (since my PJ is 720p native) and I have HDMI going to the PJ.

 

[FitzAusTex]

8bitbytes,

i keep forgetting that an HDTV can have a native resolution. how does one tell? my samsung DLP is 1280 x 720. does that make it 720p native? the samsung fact sheet for my TV says that "the tv is compatible with 1080i and 720p HDTV formats", but i assume that if my tv actually is 720p native, that a conversion is done to be compatible with 1080i content?

 

[JimK2]

Today I had Dish Network installed and the HD channels look nice, but ALL of the non-HD channels look blurry (compressed?) when they are fullscreen. When the channel is in a small window (eg. the program guide) it looks VERY clear, but when I actually select the channel and start watching it, it looks very compressed and actually blurry.

Is this normal?

In the settings for the receiver (Vip 622) I have it set to 1080i (my TV's native resolution), and 16x9. I'm using high quality component cables hooked up to a receiver.

When I had Comcast, the non-HD channels looked pretty good so I know it's not my TV.

Thanks for your help...

Are you comparing your cable analog channels versus DISH locals (NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX)

 

[sofakng]

Unless I'm mistaken, all content on an HDTV is scaled to match the native resolution.

Even if you are watching video from an old VCR over composite cables (eg. 480i resolution), the TV will internally upscale it to it's native resolution.

Likewise, if you are watching 1080i content and you TV is 720p native, then the 1080i will be converted to 720p.

Now, if you have a satellite receiver such as the Vip622 you can force the receiver to upconvert EVERYTHING to whatever resolution you want (eg. 720p) and this way the TV doesn't have to.

HOWEVER! Is the receiver doing a better job upconverting than than the TV? Probably not. This is why everybody wants native pass-through (unless I'm mistaken on this feature).

 

[sofakng]

Are you comparing your cable analog channels versus DISH locals (NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX)

I'm comparing the Dish channels to Comcast/Adelphia channels.

For example, The Game Show Network (GSN) is on both Comcast/Adelphia Digital Cable and Dish Network. The Comcast/Adelphia version looks MUCH better on my HDTV. Both providers (eg. Dish and Comcast) were setup using an HD receiver set to output at 1080i over component cables.

Also, there is a night-and-day difference between over-the-air channels (on my Dish Vip622 receiver) and the satellite-broadcast local channels. This makes me think the quality from Dish Network is the problem...