Poor Quality Local Fox Affiliate Dish

[jimdandyvi]

Today I have been flipping back and fourth between our local Fox affiliate WSJX on Dish Channel 24 (110) and the Fox affiliate WNYW on Dish 247 (119) provided through AAD.

I keep the Fox from AAD to have access to programming not carried on the local Fox affiliate. ( i.e. the ALCS and the World Series.)

The picture quality on WSJX is marginal, blurry and the graphics are barely legible. It is like watching TV on a poorly aligned old CRT TV. The picture on WNYW is great, not HD, but as good as the best SD channels on Dish. The picture quality on the other locals provided by Dish in our market is not great either.

Is the poor picture quality I am experiencing on my locals the norm in other Dish markets? Is there anything Dish can or will do to improve the quality? Why is the quality of the picture so much better on AAD?

Before anyone suggests installing my own off air antenna it isn't an option in the USVI because of the distance and terain.

 

[joelwnelson]

Is the picture from WSJX better on other providers, or over-the-air? Sounds like the problem is on their end, or that Dish isn't getting the feed straight from WSJX but rather from an analog translator.

 

[jimdandyvi]

I don't know what Fox affiliate Direct offers. The local CATV operator offers another Fox affiliate. The only station I can receive off air is a PBS station.

I am paying Dish a buck a channel for locals you think they would provide something worth more than two cents.

Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys

 

[joelwnelson]

Looks like WSJX is the Puerto Rico Fox affiliate and it only transmits an analog signal. This would result in the picture quality issues you're describing. Dish provides Puerto Rico locals in USVI; your local affiliate is actually WEON, which is carried via cable. Your local NBC is analog-only too.

Some of the other Puerto Rico locals appear to be analog as well: ABC, CW, and CBS. Only WVXF, the "Live Well Network" affiliate, appears to originate from a digital signal.

In other words it may not be all Dish's fault. This is one of the few places where they have to deal with analog uplinks and the signals they're working with may not be great to begin with. May not be resolved until the PR and VI network affiliates switch to digital.

 

[neljtorres]

I getWSJX FOX OTA and its bad tois thier signal its real bad

 

[jimdandyvi]

Thanks for explaining the cause of the problem. I would have preferred that Dish hadn't added the just barely watchable locals and increased my bill by $5. If I wanted networks, I did and still have the option to get them from AAD.

While Dish now advertises in the USVI that their package includes local networks I have got to believe that anyone who spends much time watching the network affiliated channels provided by Dish will be disappointed and/or angry about the picture quality. In addition the channels provided don't include all the daytime network programming.

 

[Mr Tony]

Those stations for Puerto Rico and USVI are bad on the masters
WPRU ABC
WVGN NBC
WSJX Fox

Those are on 99W C-Band (along with the CW from PR and WXVF Live Well) and they look like crap there...so now add a second set of downlink/uplink and yeah you get mush for picture

 

[neljtorres]

Those stations for Puerto Rico and USVI are bad on the masters
WPRU ABC
WVGN NBC
WSJX Fox

Those are on 99W C-Band (along with the CW from PR and WXVF Live Well) and they look like crap there...so now add a second set of downlink/uplink and yeah you get mush for picture

Yeah I forgot I have 99 to and they look bad

 

[The Fat Man]

Why does FOX in PR and the Virgin Islands not carry the MLB Playoffs? Also, Baseball is huge in those areas, why can't you get it?

 

[jimdandyvi]

The reason we didn't get the World Series in the US Virgin Islands on Dish is complicated.

First, when MLB sells the rights for the World Series in the USA it includes the 50 states. The rights in Puerto Rico were sold separately and according to the information I have they were acquired by a station called WAPA.

This is where it starts to get complicated. According to the station manager for WSJX they also had rights for the World Series. For Dish to carry the World Series they would have had to create two feeds of WSJX one for Puerto Rico (no World Series ) and one for the USVI (including the World Series ). Given that Dish has only been marketing their services in the USVI for eighteen months and our small population (105,000 ) Dish probably decided it wasn't worthwhile or just didn't give a damn.

The local CATV operator carries WEON. In the past the cable operator has played games and gotten their customers the play offs and the World Series. One year this meant giving everyone a free preview of a Latin America package that just happened to include the international feed of Fox that was carrying the games. Wasn't perfect as the announcers spoke Spanish, but better than no game or games with fuzzy pictures.

 

[The Fat Man]

Thanks for that info. Seems strange that MLB wouldn't include all American territories as well.

 

[neljtorres]

Why does FOX in PR and the Virgin Islands not carry the MLB Playoffs? Also, Baseball is huge in those areas, why can't you get it?

MLB treats PR as a International market they sold the rights to WAPA they carry it on their digital sub channel WAPA 2 Sports channel

 

[Mr Tony]

so is the only difference between the PR Fox (WSJX) and the USVI one (WEON) is probably commercials and the ability to show MLB games?

I know on C-Band an extra feed does show up for the MLB games only

 

[neljtorres]

so is the only difference between the PR Fox (WSJX) and the USVI one (WEON) is probably commercials and the ability to show MLB games?

I know on C-Band an extra feed does show up for the MLB games only

Yup

 

[Mr Tony]

Thats kinda what I figured