StarChoice vs. ExpressVu picture quality

[Mr Tony]

I know there are some people who have had both StarChoice and ExpressVu recently (heck, some of you have both at the same time)

What is the difference in the picture quality between StarChoice & ExpressVu. Right now I have Evu and it looks good to me, but was thinking of moving to StarChoice or complimenting my Evu account.

Now if SC would get MuchMoreRetro & MuchLoud

 

[Derwin0]

My wife's uncle has Starchoice, and has said it's better than my mother-in-law's Expressvu. He says the picture quality seems to be better across the board (ie. no channels that seem worse than others, all pretty much good). Also he says he gets less rain fade than Expressvu. Both are located Kirkland Lake (Northern Ontario).
We went with Expressvu instead of Starchoice, as I already had Dish, and plenty of hardware (switches & lnb's) to use. Plus channel line-up was better.

 

[Mr Tony]

same here

Got ExpressVu because I already had Dish 500's laying around and SW21 switches. Plus, I already had a Dish500 on the roof for my Dish Locals "must carry" (of which it moved to the main satellite 3 wekks later).

 

[mikekohl]

Star Choice versus ExpressVu

Star Choice should win this contest hands down.
1. They use Motorola receivers. XVu used Echostar type.
The Motorola Digicipher 2 system is far superior to
Bell's use of Nagravision encoded MPEG-2.
2. Compression levels are much different.
Look at Lyngsat to confirm, but compare the channel loading
(signals per transponder) of each service. Star Choice
typically has 6 to 8 channels per transponder.
XVu typically has 10 to 12 (or more).

Many of the Canadian cable channels (Showcase, TMN and others)
make their first trip to satellite on Star Choice's datastream.
XVu actually takes some channels from this source and re-encodes
them for retransmission. So they are a second generation signal
in many situations.

I could find a few examples of less than great off-air signals on
Star Choice, but it has to do with where the signal is picked up.
Off-air small market signals such as Regina, Saskatchewan do not
look great when compared to identical signals in major markets.
(Check out CBC-Regina on 305 versus Edmonton and Calgary CBC
on 306 and 307). BUT--XVu has the same problem with certain
off air signals.

Star Choice feeds most of their signals from regional uplink locations
directly. Bell collects everything with a huge fiber optic network
and delivers them to Toronto (North York). These are added to
satellite received signals in that location, and all is retransmitted
to NIMIQ satellites from that one location.

Overall, I would say that Star Choice delivers consistently better
signals to their customers.

Mike

 

[Mr Tony]

Thanks for the responce Mike!

Makes it easier to understand now (instead of someone saying Star Choice is better or ExpressVu is better)

 

[CKNA]

Star Choice should win this contest hands down.
1. They use Motorola receivers. XVu used Echostar type.
The Motorola Digicipher 2 system is far superior to
Bell's use of Nagravision encoded MPEG-2.
2. Compression levels are much different.
Look at Lyngsat to confirm, but compare the channel loading
(signals per transponder) of each service. Star Choice
typically has 6 to 8 channels per transponder.
XVu typically has 10 to 12 (or more).

Many of the Canadian cable channels (Showcase, TMN and others)
make their first trip to satellite on Star Choice's datastream.
XVu actually takes some channels from this source and re-encodes
them for retransmission. So they are a second generation signal
in many situations.

I could find a few examples of less than great off-air signals on
Star Choice, but it has to do with where the signal is picked up.
Off-air small market signals such as Regina, Saskatchewan do not
look great when compared to identical signals in major markets.
(Check out CBC-Regina on 305 versus Edmonton and Calgary CBC
on 306 and 307). BUT--XVu has the same problem with certain
off air signals.

Star Choice feeds most of their signals from regional uplink locations
directly. Bell collects everything with a huge fiber optic network
and delivers them to Toronto (North York). These are added to
satellite received signals in that location, and all is retransmitted
to NIMIQ satellites from that one location.

Overall, I would say that Star Choice delivers consistently better
signals to their customers.

Mike

I do not know how SC and BEV pick up their signals, but Digicipher2 is not any better than DVB-s . They both use MPEG2 for video just differ how they deliver it. Picture quality will depend only on how they recieve the channels and how much they compress them.

Claiming that Digicipher2 is better than DVB-s is total bull. The only advantage that Digicipher2 has for the provider, is that its encryption has never been hacked. That is changing though as E* and BEV are switching to Nagravision2 which will eliminate all pirates.

 

[Satellite Expert]

The only advantage that Digicipher2 has for the provider, is that its encryption has never been hacked.

DD is part of the DCII and ATSC spec. It is an add on for DVB and requires an additional audio signal

 

[CKNA]

DD is part of the DCII and ATSC spec. It is an add on for DVB and requires an additional audio signal

Yeah, so?. DD is part of DVB spec also. It is just optional. Granted DD sounds better than mpeg audio but most people don't hear the difference anyway.

Besides question was about picture quality and not what audio codecs they use.

 

[Mr Tony]

lets not argue people

I will be hooking up my SC system this weekend (weather and college hockey permitting) and I'll be making my own decisions

 

[bigoranget]

I find the PQ on StarChoice channels to be much better than Bell's. THere are a few channels on StarChoice that are worse. Space, MuchMusic, MuchMoreMusic are the few that I can think of.

 

[CKNA]

That is fine that people find SC picture better than BEV. The reason for this is less compression and not because SC uses Digicipher2 instead of DVB-S.