# Dish HD Picture Quality Poll 4/16/2009



## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

Been seeing some comments in a few threads so I thought it might be time for a poll.

I will seed the thread with my own personal experience. I replaced my older TV this week because it was failing... and find that even without tweaking my TV to optimal settings my Dish HD is sharper than ever. Sure, some channels are better than others (content varies too)... but some of the things I had been attributing to Dish signal compression appear to have been my old TV to blame.

Anyway, let's try to keep things civil... but please vote and explain your answer for discussion.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

Same doesn't really require explanation, does it?


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## Brandon428 (Mar 21, 2007)

I have only been with dish for almost 2 months and its been crisp since I switched from Directv,in fact I find some of the movie channels especially HBO looks a little better than Directv.


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## CoolGui (Feb 9, 2006)

Brandon428 said:


> I have only been with dish for almost 2 months and its been crisp since I switched from Directv,in fact I find some of the movie channels especially HBO looks a little better than Directv.


What you are saying breaks all laws of physics (according to some) and I'm sure will be rebutted with flametastic replies.

That being said, thanks for sharing your opinion.


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## Brandon428 (Mar 21, 2007)

I'm not trying to start a pissing contest for the record. Just my opinion.


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## Paul Secic (Dec 16, 2003)

Stewart Vernon said:


> Been seeing some comments in a few threads so I thought it might be time for a poll.
> 
> I will seed the thread with my own personal experience. I replaced my older TV this week because it was failing... and find that even without tweaking my TV to optimal settings my Dish HD is sharper than ever. Sure, some channels are better than others (content varies too)... but some of the things I had been attributing to Dish signal compression appear to have been my old TV to blame.
> 
> Anyway, let's try to keep things civil... but please vote and explain your answer for discussion.


The only channel I have issues with sometimes is HGTV. HD lite.


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## FarmerBob (Nov 28, 2002)

I was told by DISH a while ago that they have a software problem that is causing PQ issues. And it just happens to be where what makes the dynamics of an HD picture noticeably bad. But has little effect on SD broadcasts. And since I originally inquired, over a short period of time, I have been having a hell of a time dialing in my set which previously took nothing to get an amazing picture. Now it's to the point that I am thinking something is seriously broken and I'm hoping it's not my 7 month old television. I have an eMail into my DISH rep updating him, as per his request, and have not heard back yet. He's pretty good at responding and with the truth.

We'll see.

P.S.
Also last night a couple of our local channels 7 & 9 dropped analog and switched to digital (was UHF 16 & 17), but moved back to their analog channels 7 & 9 (HVHF - doesn't this defeat the DTV idiom?). Now all my locals via DISH locals and OTA antenna through the 722 are not working. TV direct no problems. I think DISH is having some hiccups.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

Of course "same" doesn't really require further explanation 

I notice on ESPNHD I get some "flashing" where it's like a frame or two is missing sometimes... and of course some of the "HD" channels aren't really HD... but I wanted to keep those particular types of observations outside of this thread.

Some folks had speculated on lower picture quality because of the newest HD channel additions, and I was wondering if anyone was really seeing anything different.

Like I said, I just got a new HDTV and am finding things MUCH improved than with my old TV on pretty much every channel.


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## HobbyTalk (Jul 14, 2007)

Stewart Vernon said:


> I notice on ESPNHD I get some "flashing" where it's like a frame or two is missing sometimes...


Do you see this on indoor events only or on outdoor events too?


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## djrobx (Jan 27, 2009)

Brandon428 said:


> I have only been with dish for almost 2 months and its been crisp since I switched from Directv,in fact I find some of the movie channels especially HBO looks a little better than Directv.


I swear DirecTV has a low-bitrate MPEG-2 source feed for HBO and Cinemax. Those channels look noticeably worse than the rest of their MPEG-4 lineup. It's tolerable, but it's worse than HBO on U-verse, and that's pretty heavily compressed. I'm guessing it's related to whatever spat DirecTV had with HBO that caused them to not get the rest of the HBO's and Cinemaxes in HD like they said they would in a 2007 press release.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

HobbyTalk said:


> Do you see this on indoor events only or on outdoor events too?


I see it on pretty much everything. It happens maybe a few times an hour, so not that frequent, but enough to notice.


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## GrumpyBear (Feb 1, 2006)

I am kind of in the same boat as Stewart. 
I voted better, but I am not sure if its the New TV, or the New HomeTheater Unit.


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## rocket69 (Oct 27, 2008)

PQ on dish has been nice and strong and still is better then direct on my LCD's. 

Any one that comes over i point it out giving them the same HD channel on direct and dish at the same time and switch inputs(Bolth HDMI cable are the ones from directv) and every one can see the difference direct is not as sharp and not so vivid. just for the nay sayers bolth inputs are on standard mode displayed.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

CoolGui said:


> What you are saying breaks all laws of physics (according to some) and I'm sure will be rebutted with flametastic replies.


What laws of physics would those be?


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## tnsprin (Mar 16, 2003)

harsh said:


> What laws of physics would those be?


Reportedly HBO is now requiring there MPEG4 feeds to be carried essentially unmodified. If true they "should" look the same. But ...


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## Dario33 (Dec 15, 2008)

PQ has been pretty steady in recent weeks.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

For me, I have seen some sharper pictures in the past few months with the same plasma I've had for over 5 years. So in that sense, the picture quality has improved and I answered the poll that way. But....

It doesn't help much to have really sharp pixels if the overall screen is seeing more frequent pixelation and video stuttering/jumping. And I'm experiencing just that.


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## Silverado_11 (Apr 18, 2008)

DISH prides itself for having the best technology out there (Vip 722) which I have. It is a great receiver. Love Dish Quality. Picture is Superb!!!


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## Paul Secic (Dec 16, 2003)

djrobx said:


> I swear DirecTV has a low-bitrate MPEG-2 source feed for HBO and Cinemax. Those channels look noticeably worse than the rest of their MPEG-4 lineup. It's tolerable, but it's worse than HBO on U-verse, and that's pretty heavily compressed. I'm guessing it's related to whatever spat DirecTV had with HBO that caused them to not get the rest of the HBO's and Cinemaxes in HD like they said they would in a 2007 press release.


When I had U-verse last year I could see another program underneath all of the premiums. Slightly.. Does anyone know what it was?


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## JBT (Jul 8, 2008)

It's been looking better IMO. Honestly it's usually the show that determines it though. I can watch the same channel and one program will look great and another won't. (Both programs say they are HD not just stretchovision).


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## CoolGui (Feb 9, 2006)

harsh said:


> What laws of physics would those be?


It was mostly sarcasm, but people have gone on at no end in these forums about how Dish HD resolution is less and they carry more HD channels per transponder, etc, etc, etc, so of course Dish HD quality must be lower. I'm not in the know enough to confirm any of this, so I'm not actually making the argument for or against, I was mostly poking fun about it.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

tnsprin said:


> Reportedly HBO is now requiring there MPEG4 feeds to be carried essentially unmodified.


I don't think that report was ever substantiated.


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## ImBack234 (Aug 26, 2008)

I like the PQ on Dish. I know it could be sharper but I can live with it.
I have notice my NY locals seem sharper lately.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

I set this poll to expire the end of the month... but at the moment it seems like overwhelmingly most folks haven't seen any changes lately, and a few (maybe folks like me who have bought new TV sets) have seen an improvement.

So far this seems to put to rest the discussion of lowering quality to add more channels, at least in my opinion.


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## tnsprin (Mar 16, 2003)

harsh said:


> I don't think that report was ever substantiated.


Actually it was reported as such by HBO during there planning days for MPEG4, but not sure if they really enforce it.


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## MarcusInMD (Jan 7, 2005)

Going down hill the past 6 months or so. FoodTV is really bad when action increases, followed by HDTV.


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## Henry (Nov 15, 2007)

My PQ has improved. I've been using the same Sharp LCD TV for over two years.


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## PRIME1 (Nov 29, 2007)

Mine seems to be the same from what I can tell. I am quite happy with the HD we are getting.


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