# 622 HD picture quality



## chriscpmtmp (May 13, 2006)

Hello everyone, I only recently found this forum. Its nice to see a forum with some good dishnet talk!

Anyhow, I just upgraded my 6000 to a 622. I also run a 921 in my second setup. So far, it seems this receiver (the 622) doesn’t have the picture quality of either of the others (the 921 or the old 6000). Since Wednesday, I’ve been watching almost all of the NBA games in HD. I can see noticeable shimmers on the stationary things like the advertising in the background. The half court shots have a funny look to them, with the sharpness missing in the players numbers. Today’s NHL game on NBC-OTA had the same issue with the letters on the boards, but it seem better than the NBA games. I’m running this on a panasonic 42 inch plasma through component.

I looked around and didn’t see anything about this anywhere. I’ve crunched through a bunch of STBs in the last 5-years, and this one is the poorest PQ. The tough part is this box crushes the 921 as far as reliability and usability. I was planning to upgrade the 921 too, but that is a much bigger screen (a projector). Maybe its just some poor productions, I’m not sure. Any idea whether this is a bad box, or just an issue I have to accept.

Chris


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

This may be a dumb question... but have you checked your ViP622 to see if it is sending 720p or 1080i through your outputs? Those boxes come set at 480i by default to ensure initial compatibility with TV sets... so that would be what you're seeing unless/until you configure it to actually display HD.

Sorry if that's a dumb question for you, but I had to ask!


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## Virus (Sep 22, 2005)

The 622's video is 2nd to none in Picture Quality. It has to be a setup problem.


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## dfergie (Feb 28, 2003)

Yup a setup problem... I had a 6000u (replaced with an 811) I have a 921 and a 622, the HD from the 622 even from my Mpeg 4 locals is much better than my 921 ( and totally blows away my D* HD)...


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## chriscpmtmp (May 13, 2006)

Virus said:


> The 622's video is 2nd to none in Picture Quality. It has to be a setup problem.


I have tried both 720P ans 1080i. I don't think there is much other setup.

The NBA game on ABC-OTA looked better, but still not second to none. At the end of the game when they showed the final score, the spurs logo was jumping all over the place.

I'm wondering if the Sat channels are over compressed or something. ESPN-HD is MPEG2 and ESPN2 is MPEG4, right?


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## Mikef5 (Apr 13, 2006)

chriscpmtmp said:


> I have tried both 720P ans 1080i. I don't think there is much other setup.
> 
> The NBA game on ABC-OTA looked better, but still not second to none. At the end of the game when they showed the final score, the spurs logo was jumping all over the place.
> 
> I'm wondering if the Sat channels are over compressed or something. ESPN-HD is MPEG2 and ESPN2 is MPEG4, right?


If you are talking about ESPN-HD, when they shoot some of their stuff they don't always use HD cameras for all the shots they will use standard cameras and up convert that to the station for airing. A lot of the stations do that, those HD cameras are very expensive and for cost cutting measures they use standard cameras on some of the unimportant shots. That's why some of the shots look better and some look very soft because of the up converting.

Laters,
Mikef5


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## Jim5506 (Jun 7, 2004)

The only streams that the truly MPEG4 are HD locals.


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## Bill R (Dec 20, 2002)

Virus said:


> The 622's video is 2nd to none in Picture Quality. It has to be a setup problem.


Yes, I agree. I have had three different HD receivers connected to my (very high end) HD TV and the 622 is better than any of the others.


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## chriscpmtmp (May 13, 2006)

Jim5506 said:


> The only streams that the truly MPEG4 are HD locals.


Hmmm So Dish makes me get this new receiver to ge the "new" content even though that content is MPEG2 and clearly doable with my existing receivers - what a scam.

Anyhow, I did some more comparisions and this this one is closer than I though. The shimmering Spurs logo was there on my Zenith OTA recorder too. The colors are way different than my 6000 was, so recalibrating the Monitor helped a bit. The Spurs game seems to have a better production than some of the others.

I'll probably drag it to the basement for more comparisons before I replace the 921.


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## anderdea (Jan 13, 2004)

I kept my 921 (in a different room than the 622) and have it and the 622 connected to a high end "Zektor HDS 4.2" component distribution amp/switcher. One output which is ampified goes vai a 50' component (Canare Cable) to my projector and the local non amplified output goes to my 60" Sony HD, LCD RPTV. When I put both receivers on the Discovery HD channel and do an A-B switching comparison, the picture quality is almost identical. The 622 may have a slight picture quality edge but not enough to swear to. I do see a lot more stable picture on my 921, especailly on recorded HD material than on the 622. The 622 image seems to jump from frame to frame at times. I understand that this is an issue being worked on. 

It's great to have two HD DVR's. I am on my 3rd 921 (about 15 months ago) and have had a pretty good one this time around, knock on wood, that's why I kept it. I have to say after living with the 622 for a couple of weeks now. It seems to do everything the 921 was suppose to do in the first place. I do however, like the interface (menu etc) stying and graphics on the 921 better than the 622, the 921 is more colorful and elegant. My 2 cents.


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## Steve H (May 15, 2006)

chriscpmtmp said:


> Hello everyone, I only recently found this forum. Its nice to see a forum with some good dishnet talk!
> 
> Anyhow, I just upgraded my 6000 to a 622. I also run a 921 in my second setup. So far, it seems this receiver (the 622) doesn't have the picture quality of either of the others (the 921 or the old 6000). Since Wednesday, I've been watching almost all of the NBA games in HD. I can see noticeable shimmers on the stationary things like the advertising in the background. The half court shots have a funny look to them, with the sharpness missing in the players numbers. Today's NHL game on NBC-OTA had the same issue with the letters on the boards, but it seem better than the NBA games. I'm running this on a panasonic 42 inch plasma through component.
> 
> ...


Chris, 
I just went to the 622 and I notice the same effect on my locals form NBC- Salt Lake..............VERY poor picture. CBS & FOX (SLC) & CBS west coast are ok. I think the poor picture is the fault of the broadcasting station.


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## GBrock (Jan 20, 2004)

Steve H said:


> Chris,
> I just went to the 622 and I notice the same effect on my locals form NBC- Salt Lake..............VERY poor picture. CBS & FOX (SLC) & CBS west coast are ok. I think the poor picture is the fault of the broadcasting station.


KSL's OTA picture is garbage. They broadcast an SD simulcast subchannel (5.1) and the weather subchannel (5.3) along with their HD channel (5.2). It's going to make watching NBC's football coverage pretty painful in the fall...

So any judgments you're making on the 622 PQ shouldn't use KSL (Sat or OTA) as a source...


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## Steve H (May 15, 2006)

GBrock said:


> KSL's OTA picture is garbage. They broadcast an SD simulcast subchannel (5.1) and the weather subchannel (5.3) along with their HD channel (5.2). It's going to make watching NBC's football coverage pretty painful in the fall...
> 
> So any judgments you're making on the 622 PQ shouldn't use KSL (Sat or OTA) as a source...


Thanks for the info. I almost wish I have my old 501 SD setup to watch KSL. It sure would be nice if D* would offer a different NBD HD to me, I would take it in a second.


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## megeed (May 16, 2006)

Hello I am new to the HD thing, and I still haven't gotten my 622. 

How is the 622 at upconverting regular SD programs through the HDMI connection? Is it going to be worse than what my Panny TV does now, or should I expect and improvement?


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## Steve H (May 15, 2006)

megeed said:


> Hello I am new to the HD thing, and I still haven't gotten my 622.
> 
> How is the 622 at upconverting regular SD programs through the HDMI connection? Is it going to be worse than what my Panny TV does now, or should I expect and improvement?


Once you get the whole system to turn on it works fine. There is a "compability problem" with the 622 & HDMI & certain TV's.


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## Jim5506 (Jun 7, 2004)

chriscpmtmp said:


> Hmmm So Dish makes me get this new receiver to ge the "new" content even though that content is MPEG2 and clearly doable with my existing receivers - what a scam.


NO it is not a scam, everyone knows that the new channels are ONLY available with the ViP series receivers.

These channels are encoded as MPEG2 with either MPEG4 headers or a flag that makes them available to only the ViP receiver.

This is the way they have been advertized from the outset.


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## chriscpmtmp (May 13, 2006)

Jim5506 said:


> NO it is not a scam, everyone knows that the new channels are ONLY available with the ViP series receivers.
> 
> These channels are encoded as MPEG2 with either MPEG4 headers or a flag that makes them available to only the ViP receiver.
> 
> This is the way they have been advertized from the outset.


Just because they set it up this way, doesn't make it a NOT a scam. If they aren't using MPEG4, then they should let the channels be available with the older receivers.

On the PQ, my original impression was with poor source material and color problems. After a calibration, a good source does look as good or better than my other boxes.

However, since last Wednesday, I have had two incidences that required a hard boot. One was the jittery picture. The other, this morning, was the dreaded blank screen this morning. I'm really bummed about this morning. The 921 didn't need rebooting in that timeframe. I'm going to ignore these two reboots and hope no more happen.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

chriscpmtmp said:


> Just because they set it up this way, doesn't make it a NOT a scam. If they aren't using MPEG4, then they should let the channels be available with the older receivers.


Why?

Using this same logic... one could argue it is a "scam" that customers with SD receivers aren't able to watch the HD channels in a downconverted format.

Whether we like it or not... Dish knows one day they are going to want to be all MPEG4 to help with bandwidth problems... so they want to start the slow migration period now. Customers with existing equipment and accounts can continue as we are without penalty or having to be forced to upgrade anything at all!

New customers and existing customers who wish to pay more for more channels can choose to do that by upgrading to the newer receivers.


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## Rob Glasser (Feb 22, 2005)

chriscpmtmp said:


> However, since last Wednesday, I have had two incidences that required a hard boot. One was the jittery picture.


Not that it's a fix, but when you see the jittery video on live TV, just hit skip back once and watch slightly delayed. It tends to get rid of the jittery video, until you go back to live TV. Quicker work around than rebooting.


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## rpc981 (Feb 5, 2005)

On the one hand, the picture looks really clean. But, on the other hand there is hardly any contrast. I'm going through the hdmi output with a 10' cable into a Mitsubishi 52" dlp. I have a Comcast DVR and still have my 921 - both going through component video and the picture looks great on both. I'm wondering if the 622 is defective. The tv has independent adjustment capability for each input and I've tried turning the contrast way up and brightness. Every variation I can think of, but no "pop" to the picture. Is anybody else having this issue?


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