New to DVB

[determined]

I just got a new Colsat 6000 Premium up and running. I can write a review once I think I've mastered what it will do if anyone would be interested. This is my first foray into the world of FTA-DVB. I am a long time C-band user. I was surprised (maybe appalled is a better word) that the picture quality is so bad compared to
4DTV digital or C-band analog. I have signal quality in the mid to high 90's on the Coolsat but it just doesn't look very good. There does not seem to be any problems like tiling or other picture artifacts but it is just not very sharp. There was one channel I found that looked like internet streaming video with picture tiling whenever something moved. The rest just look mediocre. Watching makes me feel like I need new glasses. Is this normal for DVB or is something wrong with my receiver?

 

[Mr Tony]

it depends on the channel

C-Band analog (and KU Band analog for that matter) will be the best picture period (minus sparklies). Reason is they use the whole transponder for the channel. Digital they put more channels on a transponder. Also, the company that has said channels may not have got alot of bandwidth

The international channels on IA5 look bad because the source isnt the best and there's too much on the transponders. The stuff on G10 (Equity channels like Univision, RTN, Fox) look pretty good. I have the Coolsat 5000 so we're working with the same box pretty much.

 

[PhilipPeake]

Welcome to the wonderful world of "digital quality"

 

[tdti1]

Live DVB feeds look better than the DCII distribution feeds on the 4dtv, not all of them but many do, you can even get some feeds that look much better than a good quality dvd but most you can't get with the Coolsat though you can get some, digital can blow away analog but company's take advantage of compression and then the picture looks very bad.

Also not all analog uses a whole transponder, there have been many feeds on half a transponder in analog, and analog has lots of picture issues like carrier/noise problems, digital and analog can look good and bad, and the fact that many of the C-band analog distribution feeds are now the retransmitted digital feed you are better getting the digital feed if you can.

 

[Tron]

Digital has great potential, if they wouldn't abuse it by overcompression to fit more channels. Here's an interesting thread, in case you haven't seen it yet:

http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=82876

I was at a friend's house the other night who has DirecTV and was appalled at the horrible quality on the movie channels such as Starz, and they pay over $100 per month for their package

 

[determined]

it depends on the channel

C-Band analog (and KU Band analog for that matter) will be the best picture period (minus sparklies). Reason is they use the whole transponder for the channel. Digital they put more channels on a transponder. Also, the company that has said channels may not have got alot of bandwidth

The international channels on IA5 look bad because the source isnt the best and there's too much on the transponders. The stuff on G10 (Equity channels like Univision, RTN, Fox) look pretty good. I have the Coolsat 5000 so we're working with the same box pretty much.

The picture quality of Fox News on Galaxy 15 (G1) channel 21 is just superb, and the movie channels such as Starz on that satellite seem to be as good, to my eye. The DVB on G10 is pretty good but a lot of it is worse. Thanks for the input, I guess my box is working right.