Please HELP! About to go back to digital cable.

[Sharpie]

I have had the Directv technical guys come out to my house twice in a week because of picture quality issues. This time they brought me a new Directv receiver because they thought that might be the problem. Well new receiver but still getting pixelated and grainy picture. Tech guy tells me that it is not the hardware but the broadcasting from directv. I live in Central Illinois and I would like to know if others in my area and around the country have this problem too. Tech guy said he is from Mississippi and his pict looks a lot better than the pict being seen in the midwest. I was going to upgrade to HD in January but tech guy told me that even with the HD receiver the SD channels would not change from what I have now. Picture did not look like this with Directv install 5+ years ago. Should I just give up and pay more but get better quality picture with digital cable. Any help or comments would be appreciated. I am bummed.

 

[Neutron]

How big of a TV do you have?

 

[Sharpie]

I have a 46 inch Theater View Toshiba with an aspect ratio of 4:3. I had the tv before Directv so when Directv was hooked up the the quality was very close to DVD quality. I notice a steady decline in quality since April. DVD's still look great, just like they did when I first go the tv.

 

[dishrich]

First, are you getting this on EVERY channel, just locals, just national, both???
What locals market ARE you in?

 

[Sharpie]

I would not say on every channel but at least to some degree on about 75% of them. Ironically, the channel that looks the best is their free concert channel. I get my local channels using standard cable because I do not want a second dish on my house. Standard cable easily has a better pic than my satellite right now except for that free concert channel. Picture is very grainy and pixelated. Flesh tones and pictures of the sky are especially grainy and pixelated. You can actually see the pixels on the screen. Local channels would be WCIA WICD WAND WILL FOX55 UPN47 WB23

 

[boba]

Which receiver do you have? How many tvs do you have connected to the dish? How is the receiver connected to the TV? Have you tried adjusting the sharpness,contrast and brightness on the Toshiba?

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Turn down the brightness. Also consider getting a copy of Video Essentials or AVIA which will help you tweek your TV for optimum settings.

 

[Sharpie]

I have the standard rca 430g at least I think that is the name. Just your ordinary receiver but a receiver that will get dolby digital. I have two tv's hooked up and the other tv is fine. The other tv is a 36" rca tube tv and its picture is fine. I took the receiver from the other room and tried it on my Toshiba and the picture did not improve. I am using a monster s-video cable from box to tv

Scott,
If my picture is great watching a dvd wouldn't that mean that tweaking the tv isn't necessary. I don't know, I am a green-horn when it comes to that. I appreciate all your suggestions guys.

 

[markd]

Since your other receiver, that looked fine on your other TV, still didn't help out the picture on your Toshiba then I would suspect it's the Toshiba having the problem and not Directv.

Since your DVD looks good then I would check the S-Video cable from your receiver to the Toshiba. If you have another s-video cable, try it. It could, also, possible the video in on your Toshiba might be going bad. Is there another s-video input on it? If so, try it. This should, if nothing else, rule these problems out.

Mark

 

[boba]

Sharpie you don't have a DRD 430 RG that receiver dosen't have an optical out. A DRD 435 RH does have an optical out but it isn't Dolby Digital it is just a stereo out. Try just connecting a coaxial cable to the Toshiba if the picture improves look for a problem in the Toshiba. I would guess the DVD is connected using the "colorstream" component inputs. In answer to your question to Scott you are using different inputs for the DVD so you can possibly improve the picture by maximizing the capabilities of that input.

 

[twodutys]

Sharpie is have you tryed putting the Toshiba on the kown good line out of the dish?

 

[Sharpie]

Thanks for your input guys. I did more searching and found that my receiver is an RCA 450RG. Maybe that will give you some more ideas.

Twodutys, I was going to try your idea but that toshiba is one heavy S.O.B.! The other line is not close and that would be one heck of a job.

Markd, I am going to try your idea tomorrow when all the family is over to see if they can tell a difference. I also will look to see if I can hook up the s-video to another site. Yes, I do use Colorstream cables from the dvd to the tv.

Thanks for all your help guys, if you have anymore ideas please let me know. Happy Turkey Day.

 

[ScottChez]

With your brand of TV this is a known issue.

You need to tweak tweak tweak any time you get a new video source.

The solution is here

http://www.hometheaterspot.com/htsthreads/postlist.php/Cat/0/Board/UBB21

 

[Incaico]

With your brand of TV this is a known issue.

You need to tweak tweak tweak any time you get a new video source.

The solution is here

http://www.hometheaterspot.com/htsthreads/postlist.php/Cat/0/Board/UBB21

This is a great feature to have since each source material requires tweaking.

 

[tdti1]

I have had the Directv technical guys come out to my house twice in a week because of picture quality issues.QUOTE]

That is the way mini dish looks, I have seen all mini dishes, dtv and dsh network bell Star choice, they all suck on any screen over 36" well I find star choice to be pritty good. If its quality you want mini dish is not for you, it is for people who want 10 000 channels when they only watch 5 of them its for ease of use. If its quality you want you will need to go dvd or cable and ota, if you want high quality and a low cost per month with a la carte choice then its a big dish you will need.

 

[Incaico]

I have had the Directv technical guys come out to my house twice in a week because of picture quality issues.QUOTE]

That is the way mini dish looks, I have seen all mini dishes, dtv and dsh network bell Star choice, they all suck on any screen over 36" well I find star choice to be pritty good. If its quality you want mini dish is not for you, it is for people who want 10 000 channels when they only watch 5 of them its for ease of use. If its quality you want you will need to go dvd or cable and ota, if you want high quality and a low cost per month with a la carte choice then its a big dish you will need.

In your opinion. Being an A/V guy for quite sometime (ISF Certified), I have to disagree.

 

[tdti1]

In your opinion. Being an A/V guy for quite sometime (ISF Certified), I have to disagree.

Please let me know where I am wrong, I see you have a 60" screen with dtv. I find dtv looks very bad on a 72" I would like to hear what you can tell me about fast motion films or when its dark cloudy or smokey on the movie? and the fuzzy sd programming, I admit I have not seen dtv HD but have seen dish networks 3 hd feeds on one transponder crap (nasty) it really made me sick...