USA-HD Quality?

[nlk10010]

Don't want to put every channel under a microscope but I've gotta tell ya', was watching Monk on USA-HD last night (8/8) and in spots it was one of the worst
"HD" pictures I've seen. The noise in dark scenes was bad enough (I've seen that on other stations although not quite as bad) but there were even brightly lit shots (e.g. close-up of Monk's face in the Captain's office) which had enormous amounts of mottling and noise-type confetti.

I just had a tech on the roof who checked my dishes so I don't think it's that but, did anyone else notice this or is something off with my equipment (622)? Is it the same on D* or did Dish have too much HD going on last night with the Olympics and have to throttle back on the bandwidth/bitstreaming?

[cjwct]

I noticed since I have been "turbo charged" there has been pixelation ad stuff, so I switched my display to 720p and no more problem

[nlk10010]

I noticed since I have been "turbo charged" there has been pixelation ad stuff, so I switched my display to 720p and no more problem

Well, perhaps we're describing the same thing but this is more like mottling, not blocking or pixelization. In any case I'm loathe to change my LCD's settings, perhaps I'll look at the 622's settings.

TurboHD indeed! More like parsing out the bandwidth.

Thanks for the info.

[KAB]

Olympics this morning looked stellar.

[StonesCat]

More often than not, it's the program itself. Monk never looks great in HD, but watch Burn Notice on the same channel and it looks great. Lighting choices by shows and movies account for most of the "bad" or "good" HD pictures we see.

[Chena]

Olympics this morning looked stellar.

I will admit I did have the teeniest glimmer of hope they would activate USAHD for ak/hi.

Hahahahahahahaha! Still red in the guide.

[mike123abc]

Some shows just compress easier than others. Dish is pushing the bandwidth on the HD, shows that are not easy to compress show with a lot of artifacts. I saw scorpion king on SciFi HD last night and it had a lot of compression issues noticeable. Dropped frames really showed on a lot of panning scenes.

Just like with SD, every time they improve the encoders they add more channels to the TP rather than just have better PQ... They are in a numbers game with DIRECTV right now, and they are going to be sure the have the maximum they can squeeze in, even if they look half baked.

[dlsnyder]

I agree, Monk didn't look great in HD. It was still WAAY better than watching it in SD as I did the last - what? - five seasons?

The little bit of Olympics coverage I watched in the wee hours this morning before work looked really good. Watched a bit of the women's soccer game - USA vs. Japan.

[shodobe]

Olympics this morning looked stellar.

I totally agree. Very, very good picture. Clear and crisp.

[nlk10010]

I agree, Monk didn't look great in HD. It was still WAAY better than watching it in SD as I did the last - what? - five seasons?

The little bit of Olympics coverage I watched in the wee hours this morning before work looked really good. Watched a bit of the women's soccer game - USA vs. Japan.

Well, this reminds me of that funny series of D* commercials: you know, the one with the bunch of cable executives sitting around the table trying to figure out how they can keep subscribers. You've got another one: "let's make the SD picture so bad that no one will notice the crappy HD".

I DO agree that some (many) of the Dish HD channels look excellent; I just wince when I see something like I saw last night on Monk (I think artifacts is a good word to describe it).

Thanks anyway for the feedback. Both commiseration and tough love are appreciated.