# Great signal, but bad picture?



## highdef1214 (May 23, 2006)

I am new to this site, but wanted to see if I could get any info on my problem.

I am on my third 211, in only a week and a 1/2 of service. From the very beginning of installation I had bad HD reception. My last tech replaced every piece of equipment that could of been replace with brand new equipment. My receiver is getting a signal between 106 and 110, but all of my HD channels have static/white snowy dots on the screen. Sometimes my screen turns black, but I still can see the banner and hear audio from what’s playing, but this is a known issue with DN.

The tech said somewhere I am losing signal and told me to call dish again and have another tech look at, maybe they might find out what's wrong. It's at the point where I can actually see the picture breaking up. For instance HBOHD boxing, every time one of the boxers stood up from the stool I would see pixalation(seeing the tiny color boxes.

Also a Dish rep said the 211 has a software issue, would this be a reason why I am getting poor HD pictures? Would the 622 be better?

Where could I be losing signal, and why doesn't dish techs know how to fix my problem?

The tech said it might be my TV, which is only a year old. But I just switch from comcast to dish, and I never had this problem, the picture was perfect.
I also tried my dvd player and PS2 game that supports 1080i, and nothing happens, it's fine.

I also tried the HDMI cable and it looks the same as the component, bad HD picture with static. I also tried three differnet component cables, but I still get bad HD picutres. My SD channels are fine, but HD is horrible.
I get bad HD reception with the static or grainy look on every HD channel.

At this point any input that you can think of would be helpful.


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## thanwu (May 2, 2006)

I switched from comcast to Dishnetwork in Jan. this year. My experience is that the video quality of HD channels are much better in cable than dish. I had 811 in the begining and upgraded to 211 in April. I did not really see any dramatic improvement in terms of video quality. I am wondering if the signal strangth you got from your dish is not strong enough. Did you check the signal strength for the three satellites? I don't think upgrade to 622 would help you from experience of 811 and 211.



highdef1214 said:


> I am new to this site, but wanted to see if I could get any info on my problem.
> 
> I am on my third 211, in only a week and a 1/2 of service. From the very beginning of installation I had bad HD reception. My last tech replaced every piece of equipment that could of been replace with brand new equipment. My receiver is getting a signal between 106 and 110, but all of my HD channels have static/white snowy dots on the screen. Sometimes my screen turns black, but I still can see the banner and hear audio from what's playing, but this is a known issue with DN.
> 
> ...


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## BoisePaul (Apr 26, 2005)

This is a very strange issue. Generally, with a digital signal such as the one used by the DBS providers, one does not see "snow" or other such analog PQ anomolies. If you're seeing it with both HDMI and Component connections, but don't see it from other sources, I'm inclined to believe that the problem lie in the receiver. However, as it has been replaced we've ruled that out. A low or lost signal wouldn't cause PQ degradation, rather you'd see some blocking and then lose the picture entirely, and probably get an "acquiring signal" message. Plus, if you see this on ALL HD channels, that almost eliminates the possiblility of it being a signal issue as you would be getting some channels from the 110 orbital location and others from a second dish pointed at 61.5 (seeing that you're located in NJ). Plus, there are SD channels on 110 that would suffer the same signal loss problems.

Considering all of this, my best guess would be that there is some type of compatibility issue between your E* receiver and your TV. It might be helpful to post the make and model of your TV, as similar problems may have occurred. You might also try, and it hurts me to say this, connecting your 211 to your TV using s-video to see if the PQ problems remain. The picture will be 480i 4x3 for all channels including HD, but it might provide a clue as to what is going on.


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## highdef1214 (May 23, 2006)

I have a 30PW8402 Phillips crt TV. I also tried S-Video cables, and honestly I couldn't see the grainy/snowy picture. It may be because on S-Video, the picture has fewer details in the picture than with components. With a S-Video cable, it showed on the option 1080i, but the picture had less detail and had a more analog look, but with components it was clearer, better color, with more details, but the grainy/snowy look was there.


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## highdef1214 (May 23, 2006)




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## highdef1214 (May 23, 2006)

I was thinking about the problem that I am having and I know that the 211 uses MPEG 4 
Technology. When I was with another provider their receiver was MPEG 2 and the HD picture was breath taking or a WOW effect when you see HD programming. 

Could this be the reason why I am getting poor PQ? Would MPEG 4 not be compatible with the TV that I have and would MPEG 2 be better??


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## AcuraCL (Dec 12, 2005)

Have you adjusted the brightness/contrast with test patterns shown on HDNet?

These settings look _way off _from the photos ....

Different boxes (cable stb, dish receiver, atsc tuner) can have different output levels ... they shouldn't, but they do. You have to recalibrate your tv for THIS box.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

If you are using TNTHD as an example (per your posted pictures) you should not compare during times of day (like Charmed I notice from the pictures) where TNT is stretching an SD signal and upconverting.

Those programs will never look as good as HD, because they aren't HD.


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