Eastern Arc SD Bitrates Up, PQ Down

**buckchow** · 03-09-2010 06:18 PM

Late last year with the move to Nimiq 5 at 72W (Eastern Arc), Dish Network switched all transponders from QPSK to 8PSK providing ~10 Mbps additional bandwidth on each transponder. Sadly, instead of allowing the bitrates for all of the SD channels to be opened up to fill this extra capacity, Dish forced null data into the stream, so the bitrates remained the same and the new available capacity was being wasted.

Early last month, Dish finally opened up those bitrates. This yielded ~40-50% increases in video bitrates for many of the SD channels on Eastern Arc. So, what would they do for the SD channels with all of those nice extra bits?

Would they restore the resolution of the channels from 480x480 to their original 704x480, eliminating unpleasant aliasing and rainbow artifacts? No.

Would they reduce the filtering on the channels that strips away fine details? No.

Did they do anything at all? Certainly! They increased the filtering and are now stripping away more details than before. Only the brilliant minds at Dish Network would decide that a substantial increase in bitrates should coincide with a substantial reduction in picture quality.

Anyway, here's a pair of images for comparison. I can provide more if necessary. These are both from TCM (Channel 132). The film was 2.55:1 so I've cropped off the black bars on the 480x480 frame and zoomed to 2x so the details are more visible.

July 6th, 2009:

March 9th, 2010 (Today):

You can see on the piano, bricks, curtain, and in other places how a whole bunch more detail has been removed. The curtains are the messiest looking thing I can see here, but I wouldn't be surprised if something else is worse. If by some chance you can't see any problems then I can post close-ups.

Also here's a bitrate comparison graph. Blue is old (7/6/2009), Red is new (Today).

Finally, I should note that I noticed the PQ reduction on my TV before I started picking things apart on the computer. I had become suspicious and wanted to verify that something unpleasant was going on before posting. Not exactly comforting to confirm that DVR recordings now take up 50% more space than before yet are of lower quality. Ugh.

**TheKrell** · 03-09-2010 07:20 PM

Appalling.

**Slamminc11** · 03-09-2010 07:24 PM

Umm...okay....I mean What! How could they, umm...

**reddice** · 03-09-2010 07:38 PM

SD on a HDTV looks like crud to me. I still watch SD channels, mainly cartoons (Boomerang Channel) but if it is a movie or a series then I wait until it is on a HD channel or I don't watch it.

**mike123abc** · 03-09-2010 09:11 PM

I still do not understand why they bother with SD on EA. Since only the HD receivers can see EA MPEG-4 SD, they could just eliminate the SD version of every channel they have the HD version.

But, I am sure it is some contract deal that they have to offer the SD channels.

**digiblur** · 03-09-2010 09:25 PM

Originally Posted by mike123abc

I still do not understand why they bother with SD on EA. Since only the HD receivers can see EA MPEG-4 SD, they could just eliminate the SD version of every channel they have the HD version.

But, I am sure it is some contract deal that they have to offer the SD channels.

When they do away with the $10 HD tier they could do away with the SD channels like they have done with the SD locals on EA. Otherwise people not paying for HD would get the HD channels on EA.

**TheKrell** · 03-09-2010 09:44 PM

Originally Posted by digiblur

When they do away with the $10 HD tier they could do away with the SD channels like they have done with the SD locals on EA. Otherwise people not paying for HD would get the HD channels on EA.

Maybe so, but they would get the HD channels in SD. I thought I read around here somewhere that some folks already had 211's with the HD output disabled.

**rglore** · 03-09-2010 09:49 PM

Dish is probably working on a software update for the VIP receivers to output HD channels as SD only unless you pay the extra HD fee. Then, they can drop the redundant SD channels when extra EA capacity is needed.

**dcbag** · 03-09-2010 09:53 PM

Originally Posted by Slamminc11

Umm...okay....I mean What! How could they, umm...

They must be doing this so all you folks would think their HD looks so good. I still say HD from Dish has less picture quality than SD over the air.

**digiblur** · 03-09-2010 10:00 PM

Originally Posted by rglore

Dish is probably working on a software update for the VIP receivers to output HD channels as SD only unless you pay the extra HD fee. Then, they can drop the redundant SD channels when extra EA capacity is needed.

I think they would have had this ready for EA when it started. Now the people that have HD capable receivers will lose their OTA programming and HD locals will be pissed.