# poor quality recordings



## morganhorse (Oct 11, 2006)

I recently had Dish installed with a DVR 625. The recordings are just plain bad. They look like a DVD recorded on extended play-rather pixilated. Football fields and skin tones look blotchy and cartoonish. I called CS and got a kid who must have been pulled in off the street. He had no clue and finally gave up and said they will send me a new DVR. Any thoughts?


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## flatus (Aug 18, 2006)

Look bad compared to what? A different dish receiver?


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## morganhorse (Oct 11, 2006)

flatus said:


> Look bad compared to what? A different dish receiver?


I can't compare it to another dish receiver-I haven't seen another one. But I know a bad image when I see it. I am curious if this is a problem with other 625 owners or atypical. I went to a satallite to have digital quality image. The original image is fine but playback is way below standard definition for DVD recording. I did see a few complaints about pixelation on the software thread. If my recordings are normal for this receiver then it's not worth it.


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## kf4omc (Apr 11, 2006)

My recordings on my 625 look excatly the way they were when recored.

I cant see how the Video would look diffrent. Isnt the 625 even when watching Live tv playing off the hard drive.?


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## calgary2800 (Aug 27, 2006)

My live and 625 recordings look the same to me.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

E* simply spools the satellite feed to the hard drive with no further compression. There could be playback errors related to storage and retrieval, but the overall PQ cannot change between live and recorded.


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## morganhorse (Oct 11, 2006)

Thanks for the feedback. There has to be something wrong. There is a very discerable difference between the original "live" picture and playback. I will find out in a few days when the new receiver arrives.


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

Definately something wrong since the hard drive simply records the digital signal then plays it back. It should look exactly like what you see off the satellite. In fact, a test would be to simply hit the "back" button and look at it since that is coming off the hard drive also. It would be the same as your recorded signal, just about seven seconds behind the "live" signal.


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## tnsprin (Mar 16, 2003)

Richard King said:


> Definately something wrong since the hard drive simply records the digital signal then plays it back. It should look exactly like what you see off the satellite. In fact, a test would be to simply hit the "back" button and look at it since that is coming off the hard drive also. It would be the same as your recorded signal, just about seven seconds behind the "live" signal.


In fact, currently ( and possibly the violation of TIVO patents), it actually doesn't ever play back the stream live. It records it and then plays it back.


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

You are correct, which is even more of a reason why there should be no difference.


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## morganhorse (Oct 11, 2006)

I called a different Dish number and an actual tech called me back. The problem is not about recording. It's about local channels. I did not realize that the distorted recordings were coming from local channels only. Whether live or recorded, local channels are distorted. The other channels are fine. He said the process of uploading and downloading creates distortion. He said he actually has Direct TV in his home and it is the same way. Well, this is a bummer for me because I got Dish primarily for a consistent high quality local channel image for football and recording a couple of network shows each week. I don't remember reading any Dish disclaimers about inferior local images. Now I seem to be stuck with this for 18 months. I assume local channels on cable don't have this problem?

By the way he said "live tv" is live and not recorded.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

morganhorse said:


> Well, this is a bummer for me because I got Dish primarily for a consistent high quality local channel image for football and recording a couple of network shows each week. I don't remember reading any Dish disclaimers about inferior local images. Now I seem to be stuck with this for 18 months. I assume local channels on cable don't have this problem?


Email [email protected] if there are serious quality issues. Yes, analog cable doesn't have the problem with digital conversions - they have other issues. Properly adjusted both can be good. Adjusted poorly both can be bad.


morganhorse said:


> By the way he said "live tv" is live and not recorded.


Hmm. If you have a non-DVR and a DVR ask yourself why the DVR playback is behind the non-DVR. (Hint: It's the buffering on the hard drive.)


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## flatus (Aug 18, 2006)

morganhorse said:


> He said the process of uploading and downloading creates distortion. He said he actually has Direct TV in his home and it is the same way. Well, this is a bummer for me because I got Dish primarily for a consistent high quality local channel image for football and recording a couple of network shows each week. I don't remember reading any Dish disclaimers about inferior local images. Now I seem to be stuck with this for 18 months. I assume local channels on cable don't have this problem?


All of the signals are compressed, the compression used loses some of the data. The more a video stream is compressed, the worse the picture. Locals seem to be the most highly compresses, presumably because they reach the fewest people per channel.

The quality of a cable can vary greatly from cable company to cable company, so your last question is impossible to answer. I have both sat and cable and the dish feed is much better than the cable company's locals.


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