SD Quality Getting Any Better?

[GaryPen]

Now that D* has all this bandwidth coming out of there wazoo, and have apparently reduced compression on HD channels, have they reduced compression on the SD channels, as well?

I'm considering a move to D* at some point. But, I was visiting my sister back in January, who subscribes to D*. And, I must say, the SD channels looked like absolute crap, even worse than I remember E*'s SD channels, and much much much worse than my current provider, Comcast.

Unless they either improve the PQ of their SD channels, or go 100% HD, I can't see myself switching to D* just yet.

 

[Jimbo]

Now that D* has all this bandwidth coming out of there wazoo, and have apparently reduced compression on HD channels, have they reduced compression on the SD channels, as well?

I'm considering a move to D* at some point. But, I was visiting my sister back in January, who subscribes to D*. And, I must say, the SD channels looked like absolute crap, even worse than I remember E*'s SD channels, and much much much worse than my current provider, Comcast.

Unless they either improve the PQ of their SD channels, or go 100% HD, I can't see myself switching to D* just yet.

Bandwidth coming out of thier wazoo ????

Where did you hear that ?
They are still duplicating channels one mpeg2 and one mpeg4.
Until they change it all over they will still have bandwidth issues at least until the new sat goes live, at that piont they can move stuff around and create more bandwidth space.

Jimbo

 

[GaryPen]

Just because they are not utilizing that bandwidth properly doesn't change the fact they have a ton of it. The fact that they've added all of that HD, which seems to be uncompressed, according to various posts on these forums, means that, yes, they have a lot of bandwidth. But, apparently, they're not using it for SD. At least, not yet.

 

[charper1]

If this is accurate I think they have plenty of Ka space, but not too much Ku space. Can they intermingle SD onto Ka? Thats for the tech guys. They have DirecTV 9s sitting in 101 spare mode, but I think that is purely reserved for replacing the bird there now.

 

[Jhon69]

When DirecTV pulls the MPEG2 HD channels off(around the 3rd quarter) and makes their HD channels all MPEG4.That should give the MPEG2 SD channels some breathing room.


Until then suggest you run your Display in Widescreen.Looks best on my 50" TV.

 

[GaryPen]

I probably wouldn't be switching until then, anyway. So, it sounds good. Maybe they'll use a little of that bw to add TVJapan, as well.

 

[Jhon69]

I probably wouldn't be switching until then, anyway. So, it sounds good. Maybe they'll use a little of that bw to add TVJapan, as well.

We can only hope.

 

[Van]

I'd say that it is near perfect based on what I am seeing on my vizio 32 inch lcd. When I had charter it was ok but I can see a marked diference between the quality of SD between cable and direct with direct winning out in a big way.

 

[silversurfer]

Sorry to say that SD on D* is far from perfect...Some of the SD channels look horrible on my 52" Aquos. With that said the larger your display the worse it will look. I too hope that D* increases the bandwidth available to SD. I love HD but there is still a lot of programming that is not in HD.

 

[GaryPen]

I love HD but there is still a lot of programming that is not in HD.

Exactly!!! Those who have seen digital OTA SD broadcasts know exactly how good they can look. D*'s, and E*'s for that matter, should look just as good.