New Hopper PQ worse than old VIP 211?

[Skidplate]

New member here. Been with Dish for 12 years.

Took the Hopper/Joey plunge two weekends ago to replace two old VIP 211s as I needed more tuners. Already had RG-6 cable to the existing locations so the new hardware was installed into the existing infrastructure.
So far so good. At first glance, all looked good. The next day I noticed pixelation and macroblocking in many of the channels. When watching almost any sports event, when motion occurred, the edges of the person in motion had a slight ragged pixelated halo around them that mostly subsided when motion slowed or stopped. When using freeze frame or slow motion, the moving object was quite pixelated. I would expect motion blurring to be a blurred image on my 60Hz TVs, not a badly pixelated image. The macroblocking was clearly evident when looking at some live newscasts and seeing large blotches of solid color instead of hair or facial features. There was no detail. I don't recall any of these issues with my old VIP 211s, but of course I can no longer compare them side by side. The problems seem worse on the TV connected to the Hopper (Sharp) than on the Joey (Samsung). The Hopper connected Sharp has intermittent pixeling around stationary graphics (such as game scores and logos) that I don't recall seeing on the Joey connected Samsung.

So I called Dish service and they sent out a tech the following weekend. He arrived, saw and confirmed what I was seeing and verified 1080i on Hopper and TV. He did a switch check, confirmed signal levels and said he was stumped and would have to send out his supervisor. Many hours later the supervisor arrived in his personal car. He confirmed the PQ issues and played with the remote for half an hour before stating he had to go back to the office to check some things but he would return that same day and take care of my issue. Never saw or heard from him but I did find an email that night stating I had rescheduled my appointment to the following Wednesday?? I never rescheduled any appointment. In fact I was still waiting for him.

So I called Dish service again and they sent out a tech today. Turned out it was my original installer. We proceeded to replace the LNB - no help. Replaced HDMI cable to Hopper - no help. Replaced the RG-8 from the node to the Hopper - no help. Replaced the Hopper with a new one - no help. Replaced the node - no help. Ran out of hardware to change so I told the tech I would post here and go from there. I have read here of many folks stating that the PQ with the Hopper/Joey was fantastic so I am hopeful someone can tell me if I really have a problem and suggest a diagnostic path now that I am committed to a two year contract or tell me that this is what it is supposed to look like and I was imagining my 211s looked better.

I suppose I could take the Samsung off the bedroom wall and drag it out to the family room to connect it to the Hopper to rule out the Sharp as the problem. Or it might be easier to swap the H/J cables at the node then swap the Hopper/Joey locations for the test?

Equipment:

Hopper/Joey (on my second Hopper - first one was replaced today)
TV connected HDMI direct to Hopper - Sharp LC-46D64U
TV connected HDMI direct to Joey - Samsung LN40B55K1FXZA
All cable is RG-6.

Thanks in advance,



Gary


A freeze frame from live football:

[oldengineer]

My node has Host and Client connecters so I don't think you can swap connections there. The Hopper should be connected to the Host connecter.

I swapped a 211K for a Joey on a 60" Sony SXRD set and the PQ was as good if not better with the Joey. The Dish, LNB and all cabling were not changed.

There were some threads about incorrect output from Hoppers a few months ago. They were sending 480i data when they were set to 1080i. I think the trick was to set resolution to 480i and then reset it to 1080i. It's worth a try.

[TheKrell]

There should be an info button on your TV remotes. Does it report the correct resolution?

[garys]

Have you checked the aspect ratio "*" button? It should be set to normal.

[Skidplate]

My node has Host and Client connecters so I don't think you can swap connections there. The Hopper should be connected to the Host connecter.

I swapped a 211K for a Joey on a 60" Sony SXRD set and the PQ was as good if not better with the Joey. The Dish, LNB and all cabling were not changed.

There were some threads about incorrect output from Hoppers a few months ago. They were sending 480i data when they were set to 1080i. I think the trick was to set resolution to 480i and then reset it to 1080i. It's worth a try.

My plan was to swap the H/J connectors at the node and swap the H/J hardware to follow the swapped cables. Then I can try the Hopper with a different TV.

I don't think I can swap my old 211 for a Joey as my 211s were deactivated by Dish when the H/J was installed.

We tried all the tricks for 'stuck resolution' with no help. Switching to lower Hopper output was clearly worse.

Thanks.

[Skidplate]

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There should be an info button on your TV remotes. Does it report the correct resolution?

Yes, TV reports 1080i. Thanks.