I'm applaud you politically correct replies here. :clap:clap:clap
Regardless many attempts put you down.
Regardless many attempts put you down.
SD resolutions dropping on 110W
- Thread starter buckchow
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Just as an aside, any recent deterioration of quality on Dish SD should not have resulted from Dish downgrading its technology. Now. if Dish "has" downgraded its technology and Buckchow (or anyone else) can prove it, that "would" be a cause for concern.
My understanding is that Dish closely guards its technology use for commercial reasons, and that comparisons are difficult for that reason. DirecTv may do the same.
My understanding is that Dish closely guards its technology use for commercial reasons, and that comparisons are difficult for that reason. DirecTv may do the same.
I guess I should clarify what I've said a bit
. The downgrading I have mentioned is referring to reductions in resolution and very damaging video filtering methods. The existence of both of these has been shown in this thread and can be verified by others. The resolution dropping further (544x480 to 480x480) is a new downgrade, and the unnecessarily excessive filtering is an old downgrade (at least 2 years old) that is being made more obvious than ever by the use of lower resolutions. I am not trying to suggest that they recently bought new software and/or hardware that is inferior to what they had before. I'm just saying that the setup they currently have makes use of methods and/or technology that are inferior in comparison to what other companies possess, use, and have had at their disposal for a good long while, hence the comparison to Bell. Due to the secrecy you mentioned, I don't and can't know the exact details of what the satellite providers are using for filtering, encoding, and so on. However, comparisons and analysis can help a great deal to reveal some information about how the video is being handled, as has been done throughout this thread.
Didn't mean to create any confusion. Sorry about that.
If you check the previous threads, you will find that emails to dishquality are almost always answered with specific replies about the issue in question.
Tech Support are people in cubicles with telephones. They know a lot more than the normal C S Reps, but they are still phone reps.
Dishquality is the email address of the guys in the room with the monitors.
Unfortunately, people on this site constantly post the exact address without munging it, so there is more and more likelihood that email ends up in the "Spam" folder due to stronger filtering being necessary.
Every posting on an address on the web increases the spam greatly.
Buckchow commented "Due to the secrecy you mentioned, I don't and can't know the exact details of what the satellite providers are using for filtering, encoding, and so on. However, comparisons and analysis can help a great deal to reveal some information about how the video is being handled, as has been done throughout this thread."
Yes, I agree with the comment. I had not realized the extent of the edge enhancement on some shows, and that is an interesting fact to know. I suppose if questioned Dish would respond that they understand your concern but their processing is meant to enhance the viewing experience for the vast majority of their subscribers.
On another note, I have emailed to Dish a few times to note a problem of some kind, most notably the lack of sync between audio and video. Dish has responded to me every time, and on the video/audio issue two or three times. (They basically ultimately had to say with regard to that problem that they would just keep working on it; the cause was apparently a processing problem related to software and not easily remediable.) If you email Dish with a pretty precise description of your findings, they'll probably tell you why they're doing what they're doing. If this happens, let us know, because more knowledge is better than less.
Best regards,
Fitzie
Yes, I agree with the comment. I had not realized the extent of the edge enhancement on some shows, and that is an interesting fact to know. I suppose if questioned Dish would respond that they understand your concern but their processing is meant to enhance the viewing experience for the vast majority of their subscribers.
On another note, I have emailed to Dish a few times to note a problem of some kind, most notably the lack of sync between audio and video. Dish has responded to me every time, and on the video/audio issue two or three times. (They basically ultimately had to say with regard to that problem that they would just keep working on it; the cause was apparently a processing problem related to software and not easily remediable.) If you email Dish with a pretty precise description of your findings, they'll probably tell you why they're doing what they're doing. If this happens, let us know, because more knowledge is better than less.
Best regards,
Fitzie
Okay, here are some more comparisons of the design-covered shirt shown in two previous posts.
Just to recap, the first comparison was here and was between Dish with edge enhancement (EE) @ 544x480 and Bell at 704x480. Bell's image was much better than Dish's, and was used as a reference for the second comparison here. The second comparison was between the samples from the first comparison plus a new sample from Dish without EE @ 480x480. Dish without EE at the lower resolution was better than Dish with EE at the higher resolution. This result was expected because the form of EE used by Dish on many SD channels is highly destructive.
The new samples in this post are DIRECTV @ 480x480 and Dish with EE @ 480x480, both from HBO 2 West. Note that DIRECTV does not use edge enhancement for any channels as far as I am aware.
To begin, let's look at what the downgrade from 544x480 to 480x480 can do to channels on Dish using EE.
Ouch. At the new resolution of 480x480, the spots on the shirt sure are smeared together a lot more, as are some other details. The shapes are more-or-less as poorly defined as before (in some cases slightly better, in other cases slightly worse). The extra brightness above and extra darkness below edges is as unpleasant and unnatural as ever due to the edge enhancement and continues to wash out some details between horizontal edges.
Next let's see how much damage is done by the EE on Dish at 480x480:
No surprise here. The channel on Dish with no EE (HBO Comedy) is far better than the one with EE. As mentioned in previous posts and later in this one, the most popular (major) SD channels do have EE applied to them and come from 119W. As a result, more often than not a Dish viewer is watching the worst PQ the company currently offers up. Very thoughtful as usual for Dish to have their priorities backwards.
For reference, Dish's raw bitrate for the 480x480 channel with EE (HBO 2 West) was about 25% higher than Bell's raw bitrate for this sample, which makes Dish's poor PQ a considerable amount more awful in comparison.
Since most major channels on Dish have EE applied to them and are dropping to 480x480, it makes the most sense to use a sample from Dish with EE at 480x480 for a comparison to DIRECTV. Here's that comparison then:
DIRECTV is looking terrible here. They tend to soften more than Dish and their bitrate is about 40% lower than Bell for this sample. Other factors are no doubt involved. While the bitrate difference is large, it shouldn't be as much of a factor as it might seem since DIRECTV's resolution is about 32% below Bell's for an effective bitrate difference of just 8%. Due to the excessive softening (and possibly low-quality encoders), the DIRECTV image actually has less detail than the sloppy EE-filtered Dish image, which gives Dish an edge over DIRECTV in that regard. The advantage of DIRECTV over Dish in this case is that the details that remain don't have their proportions and natural appearance quite as messed up as by heavy edge enhancement. I've definitely seen better from DIRECTV in the past, but even at its best in recent years DIRECTV has been at least as many miles away from Bell's quality as Dish has been.
If Dish without EE @ 480x480 definitely looks better than DIRECTV @ 480x480, and the quality level of Dish with EE @ 480x480 is comparable to DIRECTV depending on the viewer's TV type and size, then why did I say in a previous post that Dish needs more help than DIRECTV with PQ currently? One reason is that DIRECTV's business has been good, and the better business is with their current low quality, the less interested they are in improving their service. Why compete unless forced to, right? Ugh. Another reason is that the large majority of the major SD channels on Dish are plagued by EE. Just about any SD channel coming from 119W has EE applied to it, and every SD channel seems to be getting downgraded from 544x480 to 480x480 making the problem worse. When you look at DIRECTV's SD image on a large and/or high-res display, it does look quite soft and you may lose more details, but the shapes and edges in a full frame (rather than a close-up) look reasonably natural and scale pretty well for viewing. When you look at Dish's EE-filtered SD image on a similar display, noise introduced by the EE throughout a frame is emphasized, the image is glowing all over where it shouldn't be, and neither edges nor shapes look nearly as natural as they should (as shown in this post).
With Dish losing more customers than it is gaining, they shouldn't feel like they can afford to reduce PQ when the technology to improve it is available. If they want to do better than DIRECTV, blowing away DIRECTV's SD PQ would be a good place to start. It would make SD-only customers with good TVs a bit happier, and it would thrill SD+HD customers who regularly watch programming on some SD-only channels but find the awful picture distracting. It would also help Dish to compete with services like FiOS TV that reportedly offer far better SD PQ than any cable or satellite provider. Verizon's FiOS service has better PQ because they supposedly pass the feeds along to their subscribers at full bitrates. Bell has shown that similar levels of quality can be obtained at reduced bitrates nearly equal to those used by Dish, so improvement is not an impractical goal to achieve.
Yes, Dish has a bunch of SD channels on 110W and those generally don't have EE applied to them and look better than DIRECTV and Dish's EE-filtered channels, but they're mostly minor channels (e.g. special interest channels, Encore theme channels, pay-per-view). The best of any PQ on DIRECTV and Dish is still lousy compared to Bell at similar bitrates, so comparing the two US providers to one another is like comparing two rotten apples and trying to decide which one will be the least unpleasant to eat. Given the opportunity I would just throw them both away and get a fresh a one, but they're the only two apples rural US consumers are allowed to have so we just watch them rot more and more as time passes by. I've been with DIRECTV for 10 years and Dish on-and-off for a bit less time, and I would have no regrets about canceling both services in favor of FiOS if/when it becomes available here. The price and picture will be much better and every channel I want is on that one service. Until that time comes, I'll just keep concerning myself with the services I am able to get and hope that they decide to compete more actively against one another, cable providers, and telco providers.
Let the disagreements with something I've said begin... now!
Just to recap, the first comparison was here and was between Dish with edge enhancement (EE) @ 544x480 and Bell at 704x480. Bell's image was much better than Dish's, and was used as a reference for the second comparison here. The second comparison was between the samples from the first comparison plus a new sample from Dish without EE @ 480x480. Dish without EE at the lower resolution was better than Dish with EE at the higher resolution. This result was expected because the form of EE used by Dish on many SD channels is highly destructive.
The new samples in this post are DIRECTV @ 480x480 and Dish with EE @ 480x480, both from HBO 2 West. Note that DIRECTV does not use edge enhancement for any channels as far as I am aware.
To begin, let's look at what the downgrade from 544x480 to 480x480 can do to channels on Dish using EE.
Ouch. At the new resolution of 480x480, the spots on the shirt sure are smeared together a lot more, as are some other details. The shapes are more-or-less as poorly defined as before (in some cases slightly better, in other cases slightly worse). The extra brightness above and extra darkness below edges is as unpleasant and unnatural as ever due to the edge enhancement and continues to wash out some details between horizontal edges.
Next let's see how much damage is done by the EE on Dish at 480x480:
No surprise here. The channel on Dish with no EE (HBO Comedy) is far better than the one with EE. As mentioned in previous posts and later in this one, the most popular (major) SD channels do have EE applied to them and come from 119W. As a result, more often than not a Dish viewer is watching the worst PQ the company currently offers up. Very thoughtful as usual for Dish to have their priorities backwards.
For reference, Dish's raw bitrate for the 480x480 channel with EE (HBO 2 West) was about 25% higher than Bell's raw bitrate for this sample, which makes Dish's poor PQ a considerable amount more awful in comparison.
Since most major channels on Dish have EE applied to them and are dropping to 480x480, it makes the most sense to use a sample from Dish with EE at 480x480 for a comparison to DIRECTV. Here's that comparison then:
DIRECTV is looking terrible here. They tend to soften more than Dish and their bitrate is about 40% lower than Bell for this sample. Other factors are no doubt involved. While the bitrate difference is large, it shouldn't be as much of a factor as it might seem since DIRECTV's resolution is about 32% below Bell's for an effective bitrate difference of just 8%. Due to the excessive softening (and possibly low-quality encoders), the DIRECTV image actually has less detail than the sloppy EE-filtered Dish image, which gives Dish an edge over DIRECTV in that regard. The advantage of DIRECTV over Dish in this case is that the details that remain don't have their proportions and natural appearance quite as messed up as by heavy edge enhancement. I've definitely seen better from DIRECTV in the past, but even at its best in recent years DIRECTV has been at least as many miles away from Bell's quality as Dish has been.
If Dish without EE @ 480x480 definitely looks better than DIRECTV @ 480x480, and the quality level of Dish with EE @ 480x480 is comparable to DIRECTV depending on the viewer's TV type and size, then why did I say in a previous post that Dish needs more help than DIRECTV with PQ currently? One reason is that DIRECTV's business has been good, and the better business is with their current low quality, the less interested they are in improving their service. Why compete unless forced to, right? Ugh. Another reason is that the large majority of the major SD channels on Dish are plagued by EE. Just about any SD channel coming from 119W has EE applied to it, and every SD channel seems to be getting downgraded from 544x480 to 480x480 making the problem worse. When you look at DIRECTV's SD image on a large and/or high-res display, it does look quite soft and you may lose more details, but the shapes and edges in a full frame (rather than a close-up) look reasonably natural and scale pretty well for viewing. When you look at Dish's EE-filtered SD image on a similar display, noise introduced by the EE throughout a frame is emphasized, the image is glowing all over where it shouldn't be, and neither edges nor shapes look nearly as natural as they should (as shown in this post).
With Dish losing more customers than it is gaining, they shouldn't feel like they can afford to reduce PQ when the technology to improve it is available. If they want to do better than DIRECTV, blowing away DIRECTV's SD PQ would be a good place to start. It would make SD-only customers with good TVs a bit happier, and it would thrill SD+HD customers who regularly watch programming on some SD-only channels but find the awful picture distracting. It would also help Dish to compete with services like FiOS TV that reportedly offer far better SD PQ than any cable or satellite provider. Verizon's FiOS service has better PQ because they supposedly pass the feeds along to their subscribers at full bitrates. Bell has shown that similar levels of quality can be obtained at reduced bitrates nearly equal to those used by Dish, so improvement is not an impractical goal to achieve.
Yes, Dish has a bunch of SD channels on 110W and those generally don't have EE applied to them and look better than DIRECTV and Dish's EE-filtered channels, but they're mostly minor channels (e.g. special interest channels, Encore theme channels, pay-per-view). The best of any PQ on DIRECTV and Dish is still lousy compared to Bell at similar bitrates, so comparing the two US providers to one another is like comparing two rotten apples and trying to decide which one will be the least unpleasant to eat. Given the opportunity I would just throw them both away and get a fresh a one, but they're the only two apples rural US consumers are allowed to have so we just watch them rot more and more as time passes by. I've been with DIRECTV for 10 years and Dish on-and-off for a bit less time, and I would have no regrets about canceling both services in favor of FiOS if/when it becomes available here. The price and picture will be much better and every channel I want is on that one service. Until that time comes, I'll just keep concerning myself with the services I am able to get and hope that they decide to compete more actively against one another, cable providers, and telco providers.
Let the disagreements with something I've said begin... now!
Fantastic comparison. So the only thing to do if you care about SD PQ is drop both US carriers and sub to Bell then? (or SC which you didn't include in the comparisons)
It just occurred to me that there is another alternative. In the long run Dish may want to encourage customers to upgrade to ViP receivers and get their signals from Eastern Arc. Reducing PQ, then encouraging customers to upgrade when they complain about the bad picture, might be part of their long term plans which would include eventually getting rid of all MPEG-2 receivers. Who knows, this makes more sense than some of the stuff they do.
I wonder, what are the resolutions, filtering and bitrate of MPEG-4 SD channels on EA? Is the PQ of SD channels on Eastern Arc noticably better than on Western Arc?
It just occurred to me that there is another alternative. In the long run Dish may want to encourage customers to upgrade to ViP receivers and get their signals from Eastern Arc. Reducing PQ, then encouraging customers to upgrade when they complain about the bad picture, might be part of their long term plans which would include eventually getting rid of all MPEG-2 receivers. Who knows, this makes more sense than some of the stuff they do.
I wonder, what are the resolutions, filtering and bitrate of MPEG-4 SD channels on EA? Is the PQ of SD channels on Eastern Arc noticably better than on Western Arc?
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For people that only care about SD PQ and not content, or for people who would be completely satisfied with the content they offer, it could be considered a reasonable alternative. However, in the US I think you can only sub to Bell through some kind of broker. I'm not sure that's entirely legal, especially since taxes and such aren't paid to the US. Probably more talk on that topic in the Canadian services forum here at sat-guys. The content issue is the real problem. The Canadian government seems quite devoted to keeping out as much programming as possible from the US by requiring certain percentages of programming at certain times of day be made in Canada, thus making it impossible for cable and satellite providers to just reach carriage agreements for US feeds. I'm sure there are other complicated issues involved, and those too are probably discussed in the Canadian services forum.
I've never had any digital SC samples to play with, nor do I know how to get any, so I couldn't compare to it. Would be interesting though.
Haven't really looked into EA's SD PQ yet. I've read on here that it's another 480x480 platform and that it looks like DIRECTV. If it looks anything more like the Western Arc 480x480 channels without EE than DIRECTV, that would definitely make it an alternative.
Those comparisons show pretty clearly that Dish has DirecTv beaten on PQ at least as far as SD goes, and that is probably the main concern for Dish. The Bell 704/480 picture is obviously much better than either Dish or DirecTv, but is not competing with them.
With my locals now in HD, I watch very little SD anyway except for TCM, which shows most of its movies in black and white. (Plus, I'm EA with Mpeg-4.) But thanks for another interesting comparison. Maybe someone can do the same for EA.
Regards,
Fitzie
With my locals now in HD, I watch very little SD anyway except for TCM, which shows most of its movies in black and white. (Plus, I'm EA with Mpeg-4.) But thanks for another interesting comparison. Maybe someone can do the same for EA.
Regards,
Fitzie
Those pictures just proved to me what I saw many years ago with Directv, their SD is crap. I have not seen it lately but if those pictures are recent, they just tell the story with Directv's SD picture quality.
Interesting feedback so far. I think it's most interesting that some people are acknowledging the drops in Dish's PQ while others are being distracted by how the DIRECTV image looks without seeming to notice how much Dish's PQ is dropping and how much closer Dish's EE-filtered 480x480 SD looks to DIRECTV for major channels than when Dish had all major channels at 544x480. The DIRECTV vs. Dish difference for that comparison isn't all that big if you look past the edge enhancement, which is shown at the end of this post, especially compared with Dish without EE at 480x480 (minor channels only) and Bell at lower bitrates. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to say the DIRECTV image is good in that comparison, just that it isn't being judged entirely fairly.
Here are some observations about the comparison image including DIRECTV:
- Dish's bitrate in that comparison is over 220% higher than DIRECTV and over 25% higher than Bell's.
- Even though the bitrate for the "Dish with EE" sample is higher than Bell's, Dish's PQ is significantly worse, even in comparison to the "Dish without EE" sample at a lower bitrate shown in other comparisons.
- It was noted in the comparison post that DIRECTV's raw bitrate was 40% below Bell's and that their effective bitrate (due to downscaling) was only 8% below Bell's. Since it seems highly likely that both DIRECTV and Dish use encoders that are inferior to those used by Bell, all of the bitrate comparisons to Bell so far have only really been to show that better PQ can be obtained at the bitrate being used. This is made especially obvious when again considering the two observations listed above.
- When looking at a full frame from DIRECTV in comparison to Dish's EE-filtered channels, it is very common for DIRECTV to look better, although that won't be the case 100% of the time.
I don't want this thread to turn into a big DIRECTV vs. Dish debate since the focus is supposed to be on Dish degrading their SD quality and the fact that it could be improved instead. Just to show that DIRECTV isn't always as bad as they appear to be based on the sample in the last comparison post, I'll give two quick comparisons here. The first one is a full-frame comparison of a letterbox film from TCM. For this comparison, I've been very friendly and given two versions of the Dish sample. The first version is with full edge enhancement (as received from the satellite) and the second version has most of the edge enhancement removed (via Avisynth) so that a comparison to DIRECTV can be made more fairly.
Dish @ 544x480 with EE - Unmodified Frame:
Dish @ 544x480 with EE - Frame Modified to Remove Most EE:
DIRECTV @ 480x480 without EE - Unmodified Frame:
The difference between the two Dish images with full-EE and reduced-EE in this case isn't quite as pronounced as it often is in other cases since the dim lighting in the scene limits the amount of contrast and doesn't trigger as much of the EE-filtering in the first place. Still, the difference is quite visible between the Dish images. As far as comparing either Dish image to the DIRECTV image, there's no question which one looks better in this case. This is what I was referring to in the previous post when I said DIRECTV's image should scale well and look better on large or high-res displays. You really, really don't want to blow up that Dish picture on a nice big TV, even if it might have a few more details buried in the picture somewhere, and also because such TVs don't have nice EE-reducing filters in them. Note that this comparison isn't meant to suggest that DIRECTV's PQ always looks that much better than Dish though because it doesn't.
The second comparison is using that shirt close-up again.
The first sample is from DIRECTV, the second is Dish with EE after I've removed most of the EE, and the third is the image from Dish with EE as it was originally received. This makes it easier to compare DIRECTV to Dish more directly in terms of what actual details were retained. Also don't forget the facts listed at the top of this post, especially the one about Dish's bitrate being over 220% higher than Dish for this particular comparison. The average bitrates used by the two providers are generally much, much closer than this, but just as the first comparison in this post showed, Dish can have substantial dips below DIRECTV in quality just as DIRECTV can fall below Dish. Neither company is really doing a lot better than the other in any consistent manner, and Dish's PQ at high bitrates seems to be edging closer and closer to DIRECTV's PQ at low bitrates.
All of that wonderful stuff being said, my next post should be a Dish Western Arc vs. Dish Eastern Arc comparison, possibly with DIRECTV thrown into the mix as well.
Here are some observations about the comparison image including DIRECTV:
- Dish's bitrate in that comparison is over 220% higher than DIRECTV and over 25% higher than Bell's.
- Even though the bitrate for the "Dish with EE" sample is higher than Bell's, Dish's PQ is significantly worse, even in comparison to the "Dish without EE" sample at a lower bitrate shown in other comparisons.
- It was noted in the comparison post that DIRECTV's raw bitrate was 40% below Bell's and that their effective bitrate (due to downscaling) was only 8% below Bell's. Since it seems highly likely that both DIRECTV and Dish use encoders that are inferior to those used by Bell, all of the bitrate comparisons to Bell so far have only really been to show that better PQ can be obtained at the bitrate being used. This is made especially obvious when again considering the two observations listed above.
- When looking at a full frame from DIRECTV in comparison to Dish's EE-filtered channels, it is very common for DIRECTV to look better, although that won't be the case 100% of the time.
I don't want this thread to turn into a big DIRECTV vs. Dish debate since the focus is supposed to be on Dish degrading their SD quality and the fact that it could be improved instead. Just to show that DIRECTV isn't always as bad as they appear to be based on the sample in the last comparison post, I'll give two quick comparisons here. The first one is a full-frame comparison of a letterbox film from TCM. For this comparison, I've been very friendly and given two versions of the Dish sample. The first version is with full edge enhancement (as received from the satellite) and the second version has most of the edge enhancement removed (via Avisynth) so that a comparison to DIRECTV can be made more fairly.
Dish @ 544x480 with EE - Unmodified Frame:
Dish @ 544x480 with EE - Frame Modified to Remove Most EE:
DIRECTV @ 480x480 without EE - Unmodified Frame:
The difference between the two Dish images with full-EE and reduced-EE in this case isn't quite as pronounced as it often is in other cases since the dim lighting in the scene limits the amount of contrast and doesn't trigger as much of the EE-filtering in the first place. Still, the difference is quite visible between the Dish images. As far as comparing either Dish image to the DIRECTV image, there's no question which one looks better in this case. This is what I was referring to in the previous post when I said DIRECTV's image should scale well and look better on large or high-res displays. You really, really don't want to blow up that Dish picture on a nice big TV, even if it might have a few more details buried in the picture somewhere, and also because such TVs don't have nice EE-reducing filters in them. Note that this comparison isn't meant to suggest that DIRECTV's PQ always looks that much better than Dish though because it doesn't.
The second comparison is using that shirt close-up again.
The first sample is from DIRECTV, the second is Dish with EE after I've removed most of the EE, and the third is the image from Dish with EE as it was originally received. This makes it easier to compare DIRECTV to Dish more directly in terms of what actual details were retained. Also don't forget the facts listed at the top of this post, especially the one about Dish's bitrate being over 220% higher than Dish for this particular comparison. The average bitrates used by the two providers are generally much, much closer than this, but just as the first comparison in this post showed, Dish can have substantial dips below DIRECTV in quality just as DIRECTV can fall below Dish. Neither company is really doing a lot better than the other in any consistent manner, and Dish's PQ at high bitrates seems to be edging closer and closer to DIRECTV's PQ at low bitrates.
All of that wonderful stuff being said, my next post should be a Dish Western Arc vs. Dish Eastern Arc comparison, possibly with DIRECTV thrown into the mix as well.
Comparison to Eastern Arc - Part 1 - More Shirt Spots
Alright, I have some samples from Dish WA, Dish EA, and DIRECTV from "TV Land" earlier today. I'm not doing detailed comments after these, so I'll just say right now that the quality on Eastern Arc is a very nice surprise since, at least for the "TV Land" channel, there was no edge enhancement compared to WA and more details were retained than on Dish WA and DIRECTV. I chose three sets of images to compare. Close-ups shouldn't be necessary. Enjoy.
Dish Network WA - MPEG-2 on 119W with EE:
Dish Network EA - H.264 on 72.7W without EE:
DIRECTV - MPEG-2 on 101W without EE:
Alright, I have some samples from Dish WA, Dish EA, and DIRECTV from "TV Land" earlier today. I'm not doing detailed comments after these, so I'll just say right now that the quality on Eastern Arc is a very nice surprise since, at least for the "TV Land" channel, there was no edge enhancement compared to WA and more details were retained than on Dish WA and DIRECTV. I chose three sets of images to compare. Close-ups shouldn't be necessary. Enjoy.
Comparison to Eastern Arc - Part 1 - More Shirt Spots
Dish Network WA - MPEG-2 on 119W with EE:
Dish Network EA - H.264 on 72.7W without EE:
DIRECTV - MPEG-2 on 101W without EE:
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Thanks, Smith,P. Pretty picture. And, over 10 Mbps shown. Wow. More bits are better.
If we're on the down side of a wave now, maybe we'll go back up in a couple of years.
If we're on the down side of a wave now, maybe we'll go back up in a couple of years.
Comparison to Eastern Arc - Part 3 - Nature
Comparison to Eastern Arc - Part 3 - Nature
Dish Network WA - MPEG-2 on 119W with EE:
Dish Network EA - H.264 on 72.7W without EE:
DIRECTV - MPEG-2 on 101W without EE:
Here's the last one for now. For this and the other two comparisons to EA, don't forget that the EE on WA directly causes horizontal lines to blend together, indirectly causes vertical lines to blend together more than just just reducing the resolution alone, and artificially thickens horizontal edges (among other unpleasant things). Helpful things to keep in mind if the WA image tries to trick you into thinking it's not as messed up as it really is.
Comparison to Eastern Arc - Part 3 - Nature
Dish Network WA - MPEG-2 on 119W with EE:
Dish Network EA - H.264 on 72.7W without EE:
DIRECTV - MPEG-2 on 101W without EE:
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Thanks, fixed that. They all said MPEG-2 for a while as well, but I fixed that already. The dangers of copying and pasting.
