PQ of Dish Locals

[Squiglee]

We have not yet lost our distant networks but I am not looking forward to that day. The primary reason is that the PQ of the locals on dish is really awful.

We live in the mountains of western Maine and get zero OTA so we depend totally on DISH for our network stuff.

Of all the programming we get (and we get HD also) the locals are by far the worst PQ. There are lots of artifacts, tearing, and just plan blurriness.

Maybe the freed up bandwidth from no more distants will allow a decent bitrate on these feeds.

We get our programming from 110, 119, 61.5, and 121.

Anyone else annoyed by the locals PQ?

 

[Clancy]

We have not yet lost our distant networks but I am not looking forward to that day. The primary reason is that the PQ of the locals on dish is really awful.

We live in the mountains of western Maine and get zero OTA so we depend totally on DISH for our network stuff.

Of all the programming we get (and we get HD also) the locals are by far the worst PQ. There are lots of artifacts, tearing, and just plan blurriness.

Maybe the freed up bandwidth from no more distants will allow a decent bitrate on these feeds.

We get our programming from 110, 119, 61.5, and 121.

Anyone else annoyed by the locals PQ?

What city are your locals from?

 

[Squiglee]

We get our locals from several Maine cities. Portland and Augusta ME. The Portland channels are broadcast OTA in HD (we of course get nothing here). But our closest Dish HD networks are Boston which we do not qualify for. Maybe someday Portland, ME will be added to the HD feeds for locals.

 

[Clancy]

We get our locals from several Maine cities. Portland and Augusta ME. The Portland channels are broadcast OTA in HD (we of course get nothing here). But our closest Dish HD networks are Boston which we do not qualify for. Maybe someday Portland, ME will be added to the HD feeds for locals.

Your Portland, Augusta, Poland Springs etc. feeds are on satellite 110 deg. transponder 23. The spot beam is also for New Hampshire.

Curiously, Burlington,VT. feeds are also spotted for New Hampshire. They also are on 110 deg. transponder 23.

You may be lined up pretty good in western Maine to unfortunately have a conflicting 2 different spots coming in on the same transponder.
This could be a reason for poor local feeds.
You haven't mentioned poor reception for anything else but locals. That is my reason for this assumption.

Bangor, ME has recently had their locals put on sat. 110 deg., transponder 25. (ch.8092-8096) . These are not yet available . You might try going over to your transponder signal screen and see how the strength is at 110 deg. tr. 25.
If good, you might "move" when they are turned on. Find an address that works out for Bangor locals.

Another route is take a trip to New Brunswick, pick up a Bell xVu system. They have Boston locals in standard and high definition. You will need an address in New Brunswick. I changed my mind on that one. Make the address somewhere in Canada on your time zone. Almost forgot that New Brunswick uses Atlantic time.

Good luck and let us know how you make out. :up

 

[kokomogator]

We have not yet lost our distant networks but I am not looking forward to that day. The primary reason is that the PQ of the locals on dish is really awful.

We live in the mountains of western Maine and get zero OTA so we depend totally on DISH for our network stuff.

Of all the programming we get (and we get HD also) the locals are by far the worst PQ. There are lots of artifacts, tearing, and just plan blurriness.

Maybe the freed up bandwidth from no more distants will allow a decent bitrate on these feeds.

We get our programming from 110, 119, 61.5, and 121.

Anyone else annoyed by the locals PQ?

I feel your pain....my fox local has been unwatchable and I finally got tired of trying to watching through what looked like goggles and contacted Dish quality. I have to say that they responded and asked a bunch of questions, looked into it and agreed with my complaint and put an engineering ticket in. The result was that quality actually did improve. It's not great but a hell of a lot better than it was. They even followed up with me to see what I thought. Give it a try, it may help especially with everyone upset about losing the distant networks. Email DishQuality@echostar.com. Good Luck!

 

[Squiglee]

I checked the signal strength on 110 transponder 23 and it is good (94). As suggested I sent an email to dishQuality. We will see what happens.

I am intrigued by the Bell xVu suggestion. Thanks.

 

[Squiglee]

I just took a look at Bell Canada offers for sat. The HiDef package includes:

* NBC HD (East & West)
* WGN HD
* Global HD
* CBS HD (East & West)
* FOX HD (East & West)
* PBS HD (East & West)
* Raptors NBA TV HD
* CityTV HD (East & West)
* Discovery HD
* OasisHD
* Rush HD
* Equator HD
* Treasure HD
* Raptors NBA TV HD (Free when you subscribe to HDTV and Sports 2)
* TSN HD (Free when you subscribe to HDTV & Sports 1)
* Sportsnet HD (Free when you subscribe to HDTV & Sports 1)
* MPix HD (HD programming when subscribed to Premium Movies East)
* TMN HD (HD programming when subscribed to Premium Movies East)
* Movie Central HD 1 (HD programming 1 when subscribed to Premium Movies West)
* Movie Central HD 2 (HD programming 2 when subscribed to Premium Movies West)
* A&E HD

It is really annoying that we cannot get distant HD networks and they can!!!

 

[Clancy]

I just took a look at Bell Canada offers for sat. The HiDef package includes:

* NBC HD (East & West)
* WGN HD
* Global HD
* CBS HD (East & West)
* FOX HD (East & West)
* PBS HD (East & West)
* Raptors NBA TV HD
* CityTV HD (East & West)
* Discovery HD
* OasisHD
* Rush HD
* Equator HD
* Treasure HD
* Raptors NBA TV HD (Free when you subscribe to HDTV and Sports 2)
* TSN HD (Free when you subscribe to HDTV & Sports 1)
* Sportsnet HD (Free when you subscribe to HDTV & Sports 1)
* MPix HD (HD programming when subscribed to Premium Movies East)
* TMN HD (HD programming when subscribed to Premium Movies East)
* Movie Central HD 1 (HD programming 1 when subscribed to Premium Movies West)
* Movie Central HD 2 (HD programming 2 when subscribed to Premium Movies West)
* A&E HD

It is really annoying that we cannot get distant HD networks and they can!!!

Glad to see you have looked for an alternative from Canada.
I mentioned Bell xVu because they carry Boston locals which is close to your area.

I wanted you to check transponder 25 not 23.
Bangor will be on 25.
If you want really close locals then Bangor might work out.

If it were me, I'd go with Bangor if the signal is there and a second system from Canada.
Gives you lots of locals from Beantown to Seattle and back to Bangor.

 

[waltinvt]

I just took a look at Bell Canada offers for sat. The HiDef package includes:

* NBC HD (East & West)
* WGN HD
* Global HD
* CBS HD (East & West)
* FOX HD (East & West)
* PBS HD (East & West)
* Raptors NBA TV HD
* CityTV HD (East & West)
* Discovery HD
* OasisHD
* Rush HD
* Equator HD
* Treasure HD
* Raptors NBA TV HD (Free when you subscribe to HDTV and Sports 2)
* TSN HD (Free when you subscribe to HDTV & Sports 1)
* Sportsnet HD (Free when you subscribe to HDTV & Sports 1)
* MPix HD (HD programming when subscribed to Premium Movies East)
* TMN HD (HD programming when subscribed to Premium Movies East)
* Movie Central HD 1 (HD programming 1 when subscribed to Premium Movies West)
* Movie Central HD 2 (HD programming 2 when subscribed to Premium Movies West)
* A&E HD

It is really annoying that we cannot get distant HD networks and they can!!!

I agree. We have basically the same problem in Vt / NH. They just launched their digitals over the past couple weeks and even with a good antenna system, rotor and amp many of us can't get any of the Burlington channels OTA. No HD LiLs on Dish (even though they had us on the list for this year) and SD LiLs look like dogsh*t.

All this while just a few miles north the Canadians can get all our nets in HD but we're not allowed to (legally). You all might want to think about this when you vote today.

 

[jrbdmb]

The spotbeam signal strength for SD or HD locals will not cause any appreciable difference in picture quality. Remember, these are digital signals, they either work or don't work. The problem is either (1) the local stations are supplying a crappy signal to the Dish POP, or (2) Dish is way overcompressing the signal, or somehow the compression is not optimized correctly.

As suggested above, a note to Dish Quality is the way to go.

 

[Poke]

PQ on locals will very. Some locals look better than other depends on where you live. Here in OK the SD locals look about the same on Dish as Cox to so really no diffrence here..