Looking for some help.

[Bust-em]

I'm a new satelite customer and I'm having some problems. I've got an 811 connected, with componet inputs, to a Panasonic 53", 16:9, HDTV. My HD channels look great, but the SD channels are real bad. The picture is not crisp, almost blurry, with what looks almost like pixeling around the edges of the images on screen. It looks like when you take a picture, on the computer, and blow it up, and lose the quality. I've been on the phone several times and have been told several different things. My 811 has already been replaced, I was told it was the box, and most recently, I was told that when you "blow up" the picture to fit on a big screen TV, you are going to lose the quality and that's normal. I don't really buy that explaination because I didn't have that problem with cable, and that was an analog signal. I've tried every combination of output resolution and picture aspect, with no luck. I've even tried using S-video input and have the same poor quality picture on SD channels. Of course, the quality is not as good on the HD channels too, but that's obvious. When you bring the Guide up, the picture, in the upper right hand corner is beautiful, even on the SD channels, but when you return to the normal channel, it's horrible. I've got three other TV's, on two other receivers, with no problems. The other TV's are smaller, the biggest being 19", and not HDTV's.

Any thoughts??

Thanks for the help.

 

[Broadband Lab Rat]

SD picture quality via DISH

Unfortunatly, I'm afraid your expectations of satellite broadcast SD picture quality are not in line with what DISH (or D*) broadcasts. The SD channels you receive via satellite are all compressed.... some more than others... but they are all compressed and carry compression artifacts. They will not be as good of quality as analog over the air reception, and they will also not be as good as on properly operating analog cable. It is a common misconception that SD received digitally is better than SD received analog.... but remember, the SD pictures are originally analog, and therefore can't help but to be degraded when digitized. Satellite providers *could* provide us near analog quality SD signals, but they cram so much programming on their available bandwidth, the SD picture quality is quite poor.

Your set is large, and IMO there is probably not much you will be able to do to improve the SD satellite picture quality. You could soften the picture to attempt to hide the digital artifacts, but that will add to the "fuzziness". If you can receive your SD network channels OTA in either analog or digital format, that will greatly improve your network programming. Your 811 can do a good job receiving local OTA digital signals. Your TV set probalbly has a better analog TV receiver than the 811. As for the non-network SD programming, I'm afraid there is not much you can do. :-(

 

[Bust-em]

That's not very promissing, but thank's for the quick response. Now I just need to deceide if the better picture, with cable, is worth losing the extra channels I get with the dish.

 

[ShadowEKU]

Its the whole Digital Quality Line again

Dish and Direct prefer Quantity over Quality. their SD (and to some people HD) are over compressed and look like crap sometimes.

Your analogy to the computer is 99% correct it is bloing up an image thats optimized for a 19" screen.

Unfortunately most Digital Cable suffers the same fate as they over compress as well.

Analog Cable is a horse of a different color because its not a digital image blown up.

 

[ShadowEKU]

Here is an old quoted edited post of mine

I really hate the fact that people get sold on "Digital Quality"

All that means is that you can send 4 channels in the space of 1 analog channel. Unfortunately all of the current DBS provders send about 6 to 8 channnels in that space and have to compress things down way too much and thus images lose their quality.

If Dish actually does look worse than cable for you i would suggest going back to cable as you are very lucky. If you have digital cable in your area I would suggest trying it out because once you get into the digital channels (Digital cable is a mix between Analog and digital analog below 100 and digital over 100) over 100 you will see the same kind of compression and artifacts. unfortunately providers are currently moving twoard quantity over quality which makes people with tvs over 20 inches very angry.


Fortunately where i live the cable sucks and goes out frequently and Dish TV (SD) looks alot better than my cables regular SD.

That and the fact they wanted 200 per DCT and I would still be leasing them.

 

[lblampman]

I'm a new satelite customer and I'm having some problems. I've got an 811 connected, with componet inputs, to a Panasonic 53", 16:9, HDTV. My HD channels look great, but the SD channels are real bad.

Any thoughts??

Thanks for the help.

Well, for one, make sure your TV is tuned up to give you the best picture possible; sometimes this makes a big difference. I've been on Dish for about 7 years now and found when I switched from cable to Dish there was a marked improvment in PQ (using the same network channels as reference).

I was just about to make the switch to Comcast cable (they just put it in a few months ago in my area) to get more HD content but I found an A/V forum for HDTV in the Seattle area and almost to a person they complained about PQ on SD signals on Comcast; most were much happier with E* or D* and many went back. I canceled my installation appointment with Comcast.

I think it's really a crap shoot; some areas seem to have great cable others not. Some folks (like me) seem to get great quality from E* for SD programming (I'll not have HD until they install the 811 tomorrow); others not. I will say that I have read that the 811 in particular tends to have more problems with the SD PQ than some other models; you might do some searching here in the archives since I can't remember specifically where I came across that. I just decided to add the 811 and HD at E* but I'm keeping my 501 for SD and recording and just adding the 811 for what little HD there is. You might pick up a second inexpensive SD receiver (buy one) and get better quality SD. You'll pay the $5/mo second receiver fee but if you get marked improvement in your SD PQ it might well be worth it. [or not!]

 

[Poke]

Yeah some channels look the same on cable and Sat! But since your on Dish one thing you might do see if it helps some. Is to change your "HDTV Setup" on the 811 make sure it's set to 480 on SD and when you watch HD set it to 1080. Might see if that will help's some. I think in the near future with some of the things coming out that allot of the PQ stuff will clear up. That’s part reason why I tell folks don’t go out drop allot of money on a TV. Due to its how things are broadcast more anything on how well they will look. That’s why some channels come in better than others just because some networks have better equipment than others. While some will spend the money to stay up to date while other's will wait until the last minute. Anyway good luck on things and I hope that helps some.

 

[Bust-em]

Thanks for all the help. I've tried to change the resolution back to 480p, and swapped out the 301 receiver from the kids room to the big tv with no picture improvement. I've got 30 days to cancel, if I want. Guess I got some thinking to do.

Again, thanks.

 

[Poke]

Again good luck on things and if you have any more questions we will be more than glad to try to answer them.

 

[ShadowEKU]

in your case its a toss up. if its any consolation you do get used to the picture as you watch it more. at least you have a choice though. I could be paying more for less and horrible quality...