# Internet Picture Quality



## Mike109 (Jun 28, 2010)

I have a question about Internet downloaded movies to the 722k DVR.

When I download an HD movie it takes a long time. A message comes up & typically states I can start watching in 1 ½ to 2 hours. The last movie it said I can start watching in 1 hour 41 minutes which happened to be the length of the movie. Even after 2 hours it still said the same thing.

I thought the Internet movies were streaming, but from my experience that does not seem to be the case.

After it's eventually downloaded, I go to play the movie after selecting it from My Rentals, the first screen that appears on the TV has a Quality indicator which states HD but has only one green square displayed. Since I cannot watch a download until it appears it is completed, why does it not display all 4 squares green? IOW I am not watching a streaming movie, so if I have to wait how come it does not download at the highest quality?


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## MCHuf (Oct 9, 2011)

Mike109 said:


> I have a question about Internet downloaded movies to the 722k DVR.
> 
> When I download an HD movie it takes a long time. A message comes up & typically states I can start watching in 1 ½ to 2 hours. The last movie it said I can start watching in 1 hour 41 minutes which happened to be the length of the movie. Even after 2 hours it still said the same thing.
> 
> ...


First off, what is your internet download speed? Mine is at 15mps and it takes less than 5 minutes to be able to start watching a 45 minute program in HD. It takes a little longer to be able to start watching a HD movie, but within a 1/2 hour it's pretty much fully downloaded. And SD programming is pretty much instantly watchable. Your dl speed might be too slow to be able to watch without it being mostly downloaded. Have you tried watching shows through the Dish Online site? If you're having problems streaming from there, then it is probably a dl speed problem.

Dish On Demand isn't real streaming. At least some of it needs to downloaded before it can be watched.

I've seen that one green square too. But I don't think it means anything because the HD picture quality of the downloaded programs is as good as the satellite broadcasts. And when I pause the program, it does show all four green squares.


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## Mike109 (Jun 28, 2010)

I have 3Mbps DSL. Dish typically states I can start watching in about 1.5 to 2 hours, it just depends on the program. Those times are for an HD movie in the 100 to 120 minute running length time. IOW the download time takes approx the movie running time. In fact I d/l a movie the other night that was less than 2 hours running time & Dish indicated I could start watching in 2+ hours.

I tried watching the movie that I mentioned in my first posting after 2 hours but could not even start.

Usually I d/l overnight & it's ready to watch the next day. But in this particular case I thought I'd cancel the d/l but could not.

I have never tried DishOnline using the PC.

That one green square made me question if Dish used a different bitrate/quality depending on the d/l speed, even though I am unable to watch the movie until it appears it is fully d/l'd.

Another reason I questioned the 1 green square quality is that I had recorded the same move a couple months ago from Starz, IIRC, and I thought it looked as sharp as any HD movie. I liked it an thought I would d/l the internet version in order to watch it again, but it looks slightly soft. Unfortunately the Starz version has already been deleted so I cannot make a better comparison. But the Internet version, IMHO is not sharp.

I'll pause mine next time & see if all 4 squares become green.


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## Ray [email protected] Network (Dec 28, 2010)

The 3 MBs download speed is a minimum recommendation. I have 12 MB broadband here and it shows 53 minutes to download a movie (1080i). The higher the movie quality the longer the download. If you have further questions, please let me know. Thanks.



Mike109 said:


> I have 3Mbps DSL. Dish typically states I can start watching in about 1.5 to 2 hours, it just depends on the program. Those times are for an HD movie in the 100 to 120 minute running length time. IOW the download time takes approx the movie running time. In fact I d/l a movie the other night that was less than 2 hours running time & Dish indicated I could start watching in 2+ hours.
> 
> I tried watching the movie that I mentioned in my first posting after 2 hours but could not even start.
> 
> ...


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## Mike109 (Jun 28, 2010)

Ray [email protected] Network said:


> The 3 MBs download speed is a minimum recommendation. I have 12 MB broadband here and it shows 53 minutes to download a movie (1080i). The higher the movie quality the longer the download. If you have further questions, please let me know. Thanks.


I understand it takes longer with a slower connection speed. But when done will I end up with the exact same picture quality that you get?


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## neomaine (Feb 3, 2003)

Yes, you will. That's are huge advantage over other streaming alternatives that people don't really discuss.


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## brucegrr (Sep 14, 2006)

You also have to account for other things that are using bandwidth. These things will reduce your speed from the 3MB's you have. Downloading is a far better way to do it for you. Streaming at the speed you have would be frustrating and I doubt that you could stream HD material successfully.


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## Ray [email protected] Network (Dec 28, 2010)

Yes, you will get the same movie quality after the download is completed. With the download I began yesterday, I was able to view (streaming) the movie after about 15 minutes but with slower broadband speeds you will have buffering. I allowed the download to complete, since I was at work, and later checked to make sure the download completed, which it did. Thanks.



Mike109 said:


> I understand it takes longer with a slower connection speed. But when done will I end up with the exact same picture quality that you get?


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## Mike109 (Jun 28, 2010)

I started watching 2 Internet HD movies via My Rentals. Neither one displayed the Quality screen when it started. And when I paused there was no Quality screen.

It makes me wonder that when I did see the single green square Quality indicator that perhaps the download was not 100% finished. I should have been because it had been a few days since it started. I've seen the Quality display on other movies but can't say that it's been there on all of them. Any idea why or what makes it appear?


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## MCHuf (Oct 9, 2011)

Ray [email protected] Network said:


> Yes, you will get the same movie quality after the download is completed. With the download I began yesterday, I was able to view (streaming) the movie after about 15 minutes but with slower broadband speeds you will have buffering. I allowed the download to complete, since I was at work, and later checked to make sure the download completed, which it did. Thanks.


I usually queue up 3 or 4 items to download before I go to bed (I don't do this every night though). They're ready to go the next day without any problems. It does make things a lot easier. We average 10 - 15 movies/shows downloaded on the hdd at any given time. Plus we keep stuff that we dvr'd but haven't watched yet on a ehd. Altogether not as good as something like Netflix, but very nice for someone without a fast internet service. And now that Netflix has lost the Starz movies, we watch them through the 722K because we have BBMP.


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