PQ improving on Starz & HBO????

[slacker9876]

cr0mag ... sorry buddy I was lazy on the HD Pack last night. Too much to do in the way of cutting grass and what not. I'll give it another shot tonight because if there is an HD difference I will see it. I calibrated my own TV and it is quite a beautiful site for HD. This years Super Bowl was actually better than being there.

 

[cr0mag]

Ditto on the yardwork... (more to follow tonight, UGH!) I checked and HBO HD did look better than before. Unfortunatley I didn't remember to check all of the other HD channels. Whatever is happening, I like it. I'm also elated that my local NBC affiliate finally turned up the juice on their digital OTA signal. Damn, I'm with in 10 miles and could barely pick them up before.

The HD thing is getting better. Even my wife is finally buying into it. :clap

 

[Alan Gordon]

Well sir, I am afraid I'll have to argue this one with you. Lyngsat apparently is not an extrapolation from previous position ... it is fairly live. This morning the last update still indicates 050624 and the position reads 98.24.

Now it says 100.26. It will go even farther later today. That's the way it works every day. That's just the way it works, I don't understand how they do it, just that that's been explained to me several times, and it seems to be the case.

BTW, LOVE the G.I. Joe qoute!

~Alan

 

[cr0mag]

Man, I'm going to start feeling sort of guilty for watching satellites for two days in a row at work....

I need a life...lol

 

[cr0mag]

Now we know, and like GI Joe always said, Knowing is half the battle.

Now that is funny..... GO JOE! :haha

Seriously, am I the only one looking for one of Longhorn's posts to elaborate on what yesterday's events have done to our projected timeline?

"Fantasy football is fun, but Fantasy DBS providers! Now that's a challenge!"

 

[slacker9876]

Humph ... that is very odd. I watched it for about 6 minutes and it was stationary which I thought was a good thing given the details from yesterday. I thought it was odd that they would be able to shift it back that quickly too. I guess we cannot believe everything we read now can we. Well back to the thread I guess.

I added the HD packs this morning so tonight I can give it a quick once over. I may even find a couple movies to TiVo on HDNet, I know they had some good runs the other day that I wanted to see.

 

[dfergie]

King Kong Trailer looked pretty good on UHD last night... this morning though the Hdnets still lack clarity vs thier E* counterparts...

 

[slacker9876]

Man, I'm going to start feeling sort of guilty for watching satellites for two days in a row at work....

I need a life...lol

That is where being an IT guy is nice. Even my boss addresses me as the Maytag repairman.

I would not feel too guilty unless you're costing your company money, which usually you will not. How much do you think the OJ Simpson Case, Survivor and those wedding shows cost corporate America at the water cooler. The sums are staggering.

 

[LonghornXP]

Just so you all know regardless of what Lyngsat says spaceway 1 is in geostationary orbit at its final postion and will not be leaving it. They have sent an update to have this information updated but that may take several days if at all.

Also it seems that any delays for spaceway 2 will be very short lived and it should still be going up in July of this year. Also everything hardware wise seems to be working very well and the satellites life hasn't been reduced by much so overall something that could have been very bad ended up working out quite nicely I might add.

 

[cr0mag]

That is where being an IT guy is nice. Even my boss addresses me as the Maytag repairman.

I would not feel too guilty unless you're costing your company money, which usually you will not. How much do you think the OJ Simpson Case, Survivor and those wedding shows cost corporate America at the water cooler. The sums are staggering.

Man, I was just kidding.... I don't feel guilty at all!

 

[slacker9876]

You really are a priate aren't you!!! LOL

 

[slacker9876]

Well I went back and added everything to my account last night and spent a couple of hours scanning channels. The pop is definitely back in HDNet and the CBS feed looked much better. All in all I was not impressed overall with the HD package. I really couldn't evaluate the premiums because there were no real great movies running ... seems like it was 80's night.

In accordance with my "revenue pledge" I have shut the stations back off now. I know it is not much help, but just getting my $0.02 in there.

 

[sltmag]

I did notice some improvement on HDNet from a few weeks back when I went back to D*. Unfortunately, there is still a lot of room for improvement. Discover still looks pretty bad compared to cable.

 

[slacker9876]

Discovery still looks pretty bad compared to cable.

I agree, it really should be thier showcase channel given the content.

 

[Bunnyman]

IMO Discovery HD has taken a hit in PQ recently, it used to have the "stunning clarity" they tout on the D* HD adverts but now looks only slightly better than SD. Maybe they're shifting bandwidth around and shoveled some extra bitrate at HBO HD. No matter, they need to cut the crap and make sure EVERY HD channel has excellent PQ.

Bottom line, poor HD is not much more than overpriced SD.

 

[FlyingJ]

Has anyone actually called Direct TV about the HD Lite? Are we paying for HD or ar we paying for almost HD. I know you guys understand the technical part but for a layman like me has D* ever stated that these feeds are not up to par. I have the same HD projector as a Buddy of mine, I have to say his looks better ofn the HD Cable. Ticks me off! I am a D* subscriber and the have me because I want to see my Eagles on HD ST, but as Popeye says, " That's all I can Stanz, i can't stanz no more"!

 

[slacker9876]

DirecTV's bitrates are monitored by an outside source. I have posted this link before but perhaps it is due for duplication http://www.widemovies.com/dfwbitrate.html

This link actually supports what we have seen, but it does look like it has been that way for a bit. Meaning D*8 is not a factor. I did forget to mention that ESPN was of eye popping quality too even though I was watching an SD broadcast.

 

[FlyingJ]

Not sure if anyone ever got this response so I thought I would post it.Dear Warren,

Thank you for asking us about the picture quality on your DIRECTV HD System. In accordance with our company policy, we cannot give out the specifics of the resolution of our broadcast signal. This is partly because we are always fine-tuning our quality. The goal of our engineers is to design the very best transmission operation that will bring you extraordinary video, audio, and data along with the programming.

Though our engineers have very high standards, we're sure you understand that our success as a business depends in part on carrying a wide selection of programming. Therefore, due to limitations in satellite space capacity we must balance our desire to provide outstanding signal quality with the demand for a wide selection of channels. We are proud of the job we do at delivering both.

To be able to keep enhancing our signal quality AND to bring our customers lots of choices, we are always working on upgrades to our broadcast infrastructure that let us transmit our programming more efficiently. In other words, we can add more channels without sacrificing picture quality, and we can improve picture quality without having to drop any channels.

We appreciate your patience as we adjust and fine tune our systems. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

With your subscription to the NFL SUNDAY TICKET SuperFan add-on package for the 2005 NFL season, you will have access to more than 100 games in High Definition. However, the actual number of games varies by market due to blackouts and other conditions. Please see our web site at http://directvsports.com/Subscriptions/NFLSundayTicket/Questions/ for more information.

Also visit our web site at http://www.directvsports.com/Subscriptions/NFLSundayTicket/SuperFan/ for more information on NFL SUNDAY TICKET SuperFan including HD programming and other features offered with this package.

Thanks again for writing and stay tuned to DIRECTV.com for the latest news and information about our services.

Sincerely,

Bridger
DIRECTV Customer Service

 

[Tonedeaf]

Same response I got about a few weeks ago even though I don't have the NFL Sunday Ticket.

 

[FlyingJ]

Seems to me that there shold be some kind of class action suit. Are they not advertising and selling HD programming to us that is not HD at all. They state that they are proud of the way they balance signal quality and quantity of programming but I ordered HD programming and it seems that we may be receiving something closer to ED. Am I way off line here. Still irked that my buddy with the same set but on cable is getting a higher quality picture. No I am not irked I am really really frustrated about it. His freakin baseball games look better than mine on ESPNHD!!