Does Dish downrez HD channels?

BTW,

Why in the hell did Dish pick 1440x1080i?

Whats so special about it? I assume it would use less bitrate than 1920? By the time all HD channels are carried by providers and there is no more SD, the HD will be so compressed itll look like SD :haha
It's come down to some physical characteristics, like 4:3 ratio, square pixels, sensor's parameters of scanners[cameras], math on encoders, etc.
1440x1080 ED => 720x540 SD
 
Are you absolutely sure of that? We're not talking about a granularity of 8 to 10 on the cband transponder, but rather only 4 channels. What JimK2 says (1) makes a whole lot of sense, (2) agrees with the theoretical arguments I was making in another thread, and also (3) agrees with what Charlie has repeatedly been telling us. Yes, we know Charlie can get the tech details wrong, but we still have 1 and 2 and with repeated retellings, I would hope somebody would have gotten to Charlie to get him straightened out by now :eek: on 3, if in fact that's a fib.

I can imagine some limited breaking apart and splitting of the 4 channel blocks. But Dish can't do much of that without mangling the expensive statistical multiplexing already done by content providers. But 4 + 4 (maybe splitting 1 off?) seems to fit on Dish transponders just fine. Unless you're saying the bitrate of the 4+3 channels already exceeds Dish capacity?

Simple mathematics will tell you the answer. If Dish was running the same size transponders and the same channels in the same mux as the master feeds then I would probably say they were passing what they get.

Re-encoding an MPEG4 feed into their MPEG4 mux is no different than encoding an MPEG2 master feed.
 
I was looking for a thread like this. I have D* right now, but am thinking of jumping back to DISH, BUT the PQ is an issue for me and I am afraid I will be unhappy if I see a significant difference. I think, after reading this thread, I need to find an outlet where they have BOTH DISH and DIRECT hooked up to the same LCD TV and then flip channels and inputs to see if it is something I can put up with.

Any ideas where I would find that?

Other option is to keep D* and order E* and hope they will cancel under 3 days if I don't like what I see? Any hints on how to do that?

I realize all the variables that have been posted here, opinions, etc and also the type of HD TV, size, time of day, etc, but I watch events 7- 10 pm on Vizio 42" LCD 1080p capable.

Any other comments/ideas on how I can make this decision. I have a few months as my contract with D* ends in November, but I think I can get out of it, as I just received a False Advertising Ad from them in the mail -- talked to their marketing dept and they have blatantly made false statements in the brochure about availability of their 1080p--they imply and outright state that I can view 1080p moves on their PPV channel numbers and all I need is a 1080p capable TV and a HD DVR. I have both and I cannot view their 1080 ppv movies without Broadband--the brochure says nowhere that I need Broadband.

Anyway--back to the topic--I will be following this and hope to see more input to help me with my decision.
 
I have seen DirecTV's HD on a model of the DVR on the KA dish. The DVR was clunky and slow... didn't like it at all. I didn't notice that the picture was any better than mine at home, looked about the same to me. But I don't have a side by side setup nor will I ever.
 
BUT the PQ is an issue for me and I am afraid I will be unhappy if I see a significant difference. .
Your not going to see a significant difference, because there isn't one.:)
On a scale of 1-10 , 10 being the best in HD PQ
Fios a (10)
Directv (9)
Dish Network (8.5)
my local cable companys
Blue Ridge (7)
Service Electric (5)
RCN (7)
 
Well Don, I cant tell the difference. Something had me favoring the "B" video, but I cant say anything for sure. I tried to compare blacks against each other, even clarity, cant pick one over the other on my 50".
 
BTW,

Why in the hell did Dish pick 1440x1080i?

Whats so special about it? I assume it would use less bitrate than 1920? By the time all HD channels are carried by providers and there is no more SD, the HD will be so compressed itll look like SD :haha
I think the origninal Voom channels did that and after E* bought them they saw that it could fool a lot of people.
 
Last year I had both DISH hd and DIRECTV hd dvrs for about 6 months. I compared them on the same input using a hdmi selector switch. I gave DIRECTV the SLIGHT edge in pq. I gave DISH a HUGE edge in tech and having the best dvr in the industry. The Directv hd dvr hr 21 was no comparison to the 722 dvr. So I chose DISH because it is more important to me to have a good dvr that does all I need for recording my shows. THe pq edge was very minor . I notice the picture on HD shows was slightly brighter than DISH. On SD picture I thought DISH was better. The directv pq on sd shows was horrid in comparison to DISH. At the beginning of 2008 there was less hd channels than now. DISH has more national hd channels than DIRECTV ,especially variety and premium movie channels. DIRECTV still reigns supreme for sports hd channels. Since I could care less about sports and love movies, DISH won in the over all comparison.

DISH-better sd pq, better high tech dvrs, more premium and national variety channels in HD.

DIRECTV -slight edge for hd pq.
 
I have a few months as my contract with D* ends in November, but I think I can get out of it, as I just received a False Advertising Ad from them in the mail -- talked to their marketing dept and they have blatantly made false statements in the brochure about availability of their 1080p--they imply and outright state that I can view 1080p moves on their PPV channel numbers and all I need is a 1080p capable TV and a HD DVR. I have both and I cannot view their 1080 ppv movies without Broadband--the brochure says nowhere that I need Broadband.

You might have a problem with that since they do have some 1080p PPV's available on the HR2X's without having to have a broadband connection. DirecTV reserves about 100GB on the harddrive for their use and they 'push' a number of 1080p PPV movies to that partition via satellite. To see what's on your HR2X go to channel 1100 and select High-Def, then 1080p. As of this post the movies that have been pushed to my HR21 are:

Confessions of a Shopaholic
Defiance
Fired Up
The International
Jonas Brothers: The Concert
Paul Blart: Mall Cop
Revolutionary Road
Watchmen

You can tell the ones that have been pushed, they have a green circle with a check mark in it. So you might not be able to view a 1080p PPV movie that you want they do make a number available without the need for broadband.
 
It's funny that people have to ask if Dish is downrezzing their HD channels. If you can't tell by looking at it, does it matter?

Dish HD looks very good on a 67" DLP from 10 feet away. The satellite HD looks nearly as good as OTA HD - I see compression artifacts even at full bit rate OTA, and it's no better or worse than HD coming from the satellite.

I had Comcast a few years ago, and the HD was also very good but has supposedly deteriorated. UVerse HD looked terrible to me, even when there wasn't motion on screen, and FIOS is such a marginal player it doesn't deserve to be mentioned (if you can get it, go for it, but most people can't and never will).
 
neither do you


How do you know that? Maybe I do, maybe I dont, but can you say 100 percent for sure that I dont! Do you know with out 100 percent of a shadow of a doubt!!!!!!!!!! Maybe I say I dont to keep out of trouble with E*! Or Maybe I really dont work for them? You Dont know and it's Really None of your buisness if I do or dont! Just to throw that out there with out no basis and really adds nothing of value to this thread! ;)
 
I can only speak about the 722k from Dish and past experience with the 622. When I switched to Direct a year and a half ago, the 622 vs the HR20 HD PQ had an edge over the HR20, but it was very small. More of a difference than a higher quality, imo.

On the 722k, the HD PQ is at par with Direct's best, and the SD PQ is superior. All my opinion of course.
 
I was looking for a thread like this. I have D* right now, but am thinking of jumping back to DISH, BUT the PQ is an issue for me and I am afraid I will be unhappy if I see a significant difference. I think, after reading this thread, I need to find an outlet where they have BOTH DISH and DIRECT hooked up to the same LCD TV and then flip channels and inputs to see if it is something I can put up with.

Any ideas where I would find that?

Other option is to keep D* and order E* and hope they will cancel under 3 days if I don't like what I see? Any hints on how to do that?

I realize all the variables that have been posted here, opinions, etc and also the type of HD TV, size, time of day, etc, but I watch events 7- 10 pm on Vizio 42" LCD 1080p capable.

Any other comments/ideas on how I can make this decision. I have a few months as my contract with D* ends in November, but I think I can get out of it, as I just received a False Advertising Ad from them in the mail -- talked to their marketing dept and they have blatantly made false statements in the brochure about availability of their 1080p--they imply and outright state that I can view 1080p moves on their PPV channel numbers and all I need is a 1080p capable TV and a HD DVR. I have both and I cannot view their 1080 ppv movies without Broadband--the brochure says nowhere that I need Broadband.

Anyway--back to the topic--I will be following this and hope to see more input to help me with my decision.

I doubt if you would see any significant difference between D* and E*. I've compared 1080i programming over the air and with the same program through the Dish satellite (Eastern Arc) and I can't see any significant difference on a 52" Samsung unless I am within 6" (yes, six inches) of the screen.
 
How do you know that? Maybe I do, maybe I dont, but can you say 100 percent for sure that I dont! Do you know with out 100 percent of a shadow of a doubt!!!!!!!!!! Maybe I say I dont to keep out of trouble with E*! Or Maybe I really dont work for them? You Dont know and it's Really None of your buisness if I do or dont! Just to throw that out there with out no basis and really adds nothing of value to this thread! ;)

Unless the whole thing about being unemployed is some bizarre lie, I think we can be confident that you do not work for Echostar. come on Bob. This is just silly. You have told your story about working for Echostar in the PAST many,many times.
 

WPXS 13 St Louis(Mt Vernon)

Dish 500, Legacy Model 3900 and DP Model 510

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