Terrible Picture Quality (photos)

[coolhand79]

I recently made the jump from Comcast to DishNetwork' TurboHD. My reasoning was that I pretty much only watch HD, so why pay for all the other channels that comcast makes me pay for.

Based on the picture quality, I am REALLY regretting my decision. I hope that it is a fixable situation... I can't imagine anyone thinking that what I am experiencing is HD.

I have 3 main gripes:

1) all pictures seem soft, lacking crisp detail

2) intermittently, I will lose sound for around a second.

3) very often, I will see "blocky" artifacts in dark solid backgrounds or extremely grainy detail. See these examples from the Presidential Debate.

I find this to be unacceptable and really hope that there is just something wrong that is very correctable. I find the picture quality overall to be slightly less than my upscaling dvd player (!).

I have my 722 connected to my 1080P tv via both composite and HDMI - both have similar problems.

The signal strength on one of the transponders IS low (less than 30) and dish is coming out this weekend to investigate. However, as I understand it, a digital signal you either get or you don't - there are no variations in strength.

What can I do to make the quality better? Is everyone simply living with this level of quality? Can I epect a stronger signal to remedy any of this?

Thanks so much everyone!!!
Luke
(Bay Area)

 

[Jim S.]

Are you sure your receiver is set to 1080?

Are you watching programs originating in HD?

 

[goaliebob99]

Looks like he's watching Fox News, wich dish does not carry in HD. Unless he's watching his local fox. Even then dish may not carry it as it verys from market to market.

 

[digital echo]

If it looks the same on both HD imputs, you may have tv issues..

 

[rglore]

"blocky" artifacts are very common on any live feed, MPEG real time encoding is not yet up to pre-recorded encoding levels. Hit the "info" button on your TV to see what resolution your Dish receiver is outputting. Looks like Dish may be using a SD feed from your local FOX station.

 

[kb7oeb]

I'm pretty sure the Fox network did not air the debates in HD

 

[DishSubLA]

I watched the debates on CNN HD and it looked quite good, although almost nothing currently on Dish beats Dish's live feeds of the Dem Convention. Those must have been really high bit rates. However, I watch several Dish HD channel and am quite satisfied although sharpness does vary according to the programmer. But my great HD picture was the result of well over a week of tweaking with the HDTV and my aunt's HDTV. There are so many different adjustments on modern flat screen TV's that it takes some time for the non-professional to get it right. But once I adjusted the HDTV, I started enjoying really impressive HDTV.

A final thought on providers and HDTV. As one example, when This Week with George Stepenapolis (I can't spell his name) first went HD, the picture was sublime. It was so crisp and clean and the detail was so beautiful. I recorded the show off of my OTA, so I know I am getting as good as it gets. Then as the weeks passed, I noticed the PQ was "softer" and quite noticeably inferior to just the week before. I subsequently recorded the show on both Sat and OTA tuner and there was virtually no difference between the two. Conclusion: This Week was purposely softening the PQ. Somebody didn't like all the wrinkles showing, and we are an ageist society and TV networks always want younger looking talent. This is a growing problem and it seems more and more shows are doing this. There have been several articles citing actors who "HATE HD" because it makes them look older and some DEMAND softening the PQ. Softening the PQ was also done with many SD programs (Bob Newhart in his 80's and 90's TV shows and why he always preferred Film to videotape). Even production people talk about the pain HD causes them because flaws can be seen with the sets on HD. They have to freshen the paint and make perfect wallpaper, etc. During the SD days TV sets could be quite battered and torn and chipped, but it wouldn't show on the TV, and staff knew this. But not anymore. Tonight Show with Jay Leno and even Late Night with Dave Letterman look great, while ABC's Nightline in HD lack sharpness, and not mistake. Too many shows with old looking talent are softening HD and it stinks.

 

[RandallA]

What were you using to watch the Comcast HD? Component, HDMI? If you had never used that HDMI port on your TV, you should adjust your picture settings to your likings on the TV.

 

[coolhand79]

The debates were broadcast in HD. I've attached screen shots of the event details.

Even if they weren't, I don't think the output would be acceptable.

I have my output set at 720p. It looks the same at 1080i.

I'm also attaching a pic of one of the diagnostic screens.

I am encouraged to hear that this doesn't seem to be the norm...

@ Jim S. - I've attached pics of both the program and my output settings showing HD

@goaliebob99 - I was watching my local FOX channel in HD

@digital echo - comcast signal looked fantastic.

@RandallA - I was using HDMI to watch Comcast.

 

[Jim S.]

I don't have HD locals via Dish. But I can say that Comcast may or may not look better than Dish, depending on how greedy your local system has been about packing multiple signals into one carrier. Speaking of which, do you know how many subchannels your local Fox station is broadcasting? They could be broadcasting enough of them to be detrimental to the HD quality.

In your pictures of the debate, I can't tell whether the picture quality is really that bad, or whether your TV is not calibrated right, or whether it's just the photography making them look washed out like a bad analog signal.

I HAVE seen what is, to me, really bad HD quality on Dish, since I have a 46" screen and sit close to it. But it's not all the channels, and not all the time.

 

[RandallA]

Is that KTVU-HD? One thing I've noticed is that the picture quality for KTVU or our Fox affiliate here in the Bay Area is not that great compared to KPIX and KGO and even KNTV. I use an antenna to get KTVU-HD and the picture quality is just slightly better than the one coming from Dish Network. I was watching the MLB playoff game last night and the picture quality didn't impress me.

KTVU has only one subchannel as far as I know.

Our Dish Network HD locals come from 119 not 129 and looking at your signal for 129 that's pretty close to the best you're going to get in our area. Once Ciel 2 is launched, we should get better signal from 129.

 

[kb7oeb]

The debates were broadcast in HD. I've attached screen shots of the event details.

Yes but I don't think Fox passed the HD, even if they did they had the poorest PQ out of all the locals in my area for the debate. For the remaining debate compare ABC,CNN,CBS and NBC to fox.

So far you are mostly talking locals, you may benefit by connecting an antenna to your DVR for locals, the PQ is generally better and you also get the ability to record 3 things at once.

 

[kstuart]

Several Points:

- Your color adjustment on your TV is set too high (like 90% of people).

- Fox and ABC currently have problems with audio dropouts during any point with little or no motion (such as a slate). Dish is actively working on that problem.

- Do you have the same picture problems with NBC ? Try the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

- What about other HD channels, like The Weather Channel HD ?