New HDTV Tivo better than a 921 due out in Dec also

[Mark_AR]

Yeah, that's just great, except for that fact that the picture quality on DirecTV SUCKS!

Hey, but if picture quality isn't the most important thing, then go for it. I for one am sticking with programming that looks halfway descent.

I'm happy with D* picture quality. The worst part ie rain fade, but I ONLY HAVE THAT DURING HEAVY DOWNPOURS. Other times I have a 96 signal strength.

My complaint is I'm paying over 70 bux a month and only get Total Choice and Stars. For a few more bux I can get everything with E*.

My superdish, 921 and 322 will be here in 10 more days!!!

 

[dlsnyder]

Mark_AR - Welcome to the wonderful world of Dish. Alot of people like to complain about inferior Echostar hardware, especially when it comes to PVRs. I have been an E* sub for 3 years and have been satisfied enough to stay with them thus far. That said though, if I get serious about wanting a PVR I will probably switch to D* to get a TiVo!

 

[BobMurdoch]

I'm just trying to figure out why no else is screaming about this issue to high heaven while E* users whine 10x about the same problem <cough> Bob Haller <cough>. Are there a small number of HDTV users with D*? Everytime someones jump ahead button hesitates 3 seconds we get 20 posts, but a serious HD PQ deficiency is hardly ever mentioned?

 

[Guest]

As slanted toward Dish as this site is, why would anybody with DirecTV even bother?

 

[TheForce]

I have had both E* and D* with redundant channels for nearly 3 years.

WRT- PQ the SD channels have been much cleaner on D* ever since their implementation of spot beam for locals on the prime SD channels only (CNN, FOXN, MSNBC etc.) on the non prime SD channels the PQ is about the same as E* (all shopping networks, cartoon channels, scifi, even Tech TV)
WRT- PQ on HD channels Dish beats DTV on an avaerage time slot but DTV has a practice of selecting certain popular programming such as a football game in HDTV and giving that full bandwidth while further restricting it on a same time slot movie channel such as Showtime in 1080i but the movie content is an upconvert. It took nearly 2 years for them to finally figure out they could get away with this method of banmdwidth management. The end result in a PQ shootout is that the PQ of DTV is considered inconsistent on movie channels, consistently better on HDTV video channels like HDNet but overall less quality than E* as E* consistently maintains full picture quality as received from their suppliers.

In comparing to cable- (Keep in mind I work for cable as an independent TV producer of LO programming) Cable offers varying consistency around the country even within the same company. But, generally speaking cable costs more per channel available. I have seen C-Band BUD and don't consider the BUD worthwhile mainly due to the "BUD" and it's mechanics. Many of the BUD people I have visited had something wrong with their equipment that was in need of repair at the time. This tells me something about the hardware reliability of BUD systems.

I plan to have both the HD TIVO and the the 921. The upside of TIVO is the dual OTA tuner and the upside of the 921 is dishwire and a design that is upgradable friendly. TIVO may also be upgradable but the TIVO track record has been this is not a supported feature. I suspect both will be upgradable by any skilled hardware implementer.
I see the season pass as a minor advantage for me but that is just a personal usage issue that some people think makes all the difference in the world. I set season pass up on my parent's TIVO and it is the best thing for them. I would favor a firewire dump of programming to archive far more than a season pass if a decision came down to deciding which receiver is best.

Having said all that, once again, my personal philosophy is: It's the programming stupid! Not the hardware that you watch. So, select the provider that gives you the channels you want and deal with the equipment they provide. If you really need both channel sets like NFL ST in HDTV and the new offerings that are rumored on E* then you need to have both! That's why I have both.

 

[Guest]

Don,

That is a good solution if money is no object

 

[BobMurdoch]

Wow, I did not know that D* had a lower HDTV Pic Quality.
I wonder if there customers know this?
Almost sounds like it is not real HDTV.

Reason:
E* uses true MPEG 2 compression.

D* uses what they call MPEG 1.5. Its really MPEG 1 (OLD!!!!) with software tweaks. Thus they would need to put up NEW satellites & then everyone would have to get NEW receivers. Not so with E*.

Robert

This whole bulletin board is full of a bunch of E* die hards. I just switched from E* to D* w/ 2 directivos and must say the image sharpness/resolution and color saturation blows away E* by far - on SD channels. Regardless of what they're using to compress, I'll say its better on D*. This is subjective from both my wife and I on two sets: an X1 projector, and a toshiba 34" 16:9 hdtv.

I haven't bothered with HD yet via satellite because there isn't anything substantial enough worth $10/month and spending $4-500 on a receiver. I have OTA HD and get most local stations and that satisfies me enough, as I record via myHD on my HTPC.

.

Sigh. Your'e countering a point he didn't make. He was referring to HD programming being dramatically compressed and not being true HD. He didn't say anything about Standard def.

 

[dswallow]

D* uses what they call MPEG 1.5. Its really MPEG 1 (OLD!!!!) with software tweaks. Thus they would need to put up NEW satellites & then everyone would have to get NEW receivers. Not so with E*.

That's not quite true. DirecTV uses a non-standard transport stream, but the video portion is standard MPEG-2.