Who has the better SD PQ? Dish or Directv?

[Ricknau]

Someone in another thread compared Dish's SD picture quality to old streaming video. Lot's of compression "artifacts". That matches my experience from almost a year ago which prompted me to drop Dish and try Voom after I got a 50" TV. On the bigger screen the blockiness was so much more evident that I just couldn't take it. But, of course, Voom is no more so I have to find a new home. No cable where I live, satellite is my only option.

So my question is:

Of those of you who have experience with both Dish and Directv, which has the better SD quality. Or asked another way: Does Directv's SD PQ suck as bad as Dish's?

I'll ask this in the Dish forum also. I need to pick real soon if I want to avoid a black spell. Actually it's probably too late for that.

 

[scottie_h]

Unfortunately, I can't answer your question YET. I place my order with Robert at Value Electronics today, so shouldn't have much (if any) 'downtime'...

 

[charper1]

You can ask 100,000 people and you will get a 50/50 split. All you can do is look for yourself if you have a dealer or a friend that has both running to the same exact TV so you can do a fair comparison. I have had both running through the same 2 TV/video setups and my selection is DirecTV, but not by enough to matter. To me they have better hardware/software, service and overall channel selection for a bit more per month than one morning latte. AND after all the price changes took effect it is damn near the same.

 

[MichaelC]

I just got Direct, I thought Voom's SD picture was better than Dish when I switched to Voom, but SD on my new Zenith HD-SAT520 receiver is better than Voom. I'm happy with the SD and I have less over scan too. The Zenith receiver automatically switches display output to the TV. 480p or 1080i depending on the input. The Voom receiver I had in 1080i all the time. SD looks better in 480p.

 

[jdspencer]

I have DirecTV and do see the problems mentioned. I can only compare Dish's superstations PQ, and it also sucks. I suspect that it depends on what stations you're watching.

 

[Stargazer]

I have seen so many threads about this. To me it is hard to tell the difference. I think there will be more of a difference based upon the television you are watching it on and the wires you choose to use (coax or A/V or S-Video).

 

[tdti1]

I have had them both, I am very picky when it comes to my TV, I want quality, so I dumped them both, but I think DTV was a bit better, but then again some channels on dish was better than DTV, its hard to say. I just use dvd's the BUD and my OTA now.

 

[ww2154]

I had direct tv for 6 years, cable for a year then switched to dish last fall because I bought a hd tv and you did not have to buy the dish equipment plus dish offered my locals and direct did not. To me direct tv picture quality is better for sd, I do not know about hd quality for direct but dish hd quality is great.

 

[Pete In Plano]

I just got Direct, I thought Voom's SD picture was better than Dish when I switched to Voom, but SD on my new Zenith HD-SAT520 receiver is better than Voom. I'm happy with the SD and I have less over scan too. The Zenith receiver automatically switches display output to the TV. 480p or 1080i depending on the input. The Voom receiver I had in 1080i all the time. SD looks better in 480p.

I have the same box and the OTA tuning is sooo much better than Voom. And the SD and HD is much better than Voom, too. I was real disapointed by the SD on the Voom service but the SAT520 on D* makes it look pretty darn good!!!

 

[Wiggin78]

I had Voom for 3 months, then Dish for 3 months, and now we ar back with D*. We just switched back to D* last Friday and as soon as i saw the SD picture I immediately saw an improvement. I also have the Zenith HD-SAT520 so I don't know how much of the improvement is the receiver. The overall quality of D* is better than Dish. Over the past 5 years I have had both services for an equal amount of time and I would go with D* hands down.