Recent content by Lance Rock

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    HDNet Movies on Eastern Arc looks terrible as of late

    And...I'll just add that, checking the John Wayne movie playing now, El Dorado, a quick static scene sample also yielded 2 minutes and 48 seconds of movie elapsed per minute of DVR elapsed. So, perhaps they did indeed tweak the bitrate for the better compared to the past few nights. Looking...
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    HDNet Movies on Eastern Arc looks terrible as of late

    Thanks! Good to know. I've been looking into doing the whole external HD thing.
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    HDNet Movies on Eastern Arc looks terrible as of late

    My apologies for not being clearer. My scenario was confusing. :) I'm saying that for every *minute* of DVR space used/elapsed, "x" amount of a movie (in minutes and seconds) elapses. That is, the faster the minutes of the DVR are ticking down (i.e. more DVR space used), the higher the average...
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    HDNet Movies on Eastern Arc looks terrible as of late

    Well, one thing I did notice was that the bitrates seemed to be quite low over the last few overnights for the channel on EA, whereas, checking this afternoon, it seems to be better. That is, even though they're not the same movies, and thus making the comparison moot from an authoritative...
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    HDNet Movies on Eastern Arc looks terrible as of late

    I didn't say HDNET. I said HDNet Movies. Two different channels. :)
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    HDNet Movies on Eastern Arc looks terrible as of late

    Anyone else noticed this? Really washed out, soft and color faded, overcompressed and with poor contrast. I can roughly tell that the bitrates for this channel have been low for some time by the amount of space being used up on my DVR (compared to older broadcasts of the same movie prints), but...
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    Is the HD quality of today really getting worse

    Unfortunately, with higher resolutions, even higher bitrates are required if the PQ is to maintain integrity (i.e. freedom from compression artifacts). Yet, the bitrate trend -- due to TP cramming -- seems to be going the opposite way, so................... :)
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    Is the HD quality of today really getting worse

    As others have noted, the real solution is to not compress the beejeezus out of the picture (i.e. overloading the TPs) just for the sake of HD count bragging rights. Yet, I realize that's what most people want, so the trend will most likely continue -- even when new space opens up. The notion of...
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    4/6/2011 3:56pm - Uplink Activity Report - 228 changes

    Considering the choice transponders on EA that currently house 9, or even *10* full-time HD channels, and with resulting artifacts, I just wish someone would tell Dish that...lol. :)
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    Goodbye Charlie... (OFFICIAL I am Leaving DISH Thread)

    This must be the standard line that cables companies near and far all use for their farewell speech. My buddy got it from his CC when he left for Direct 14 years ago, and I got it when I bolted for Dish...with a totally different CC...lol. My reply to the nice lady was..."No offense, but you're...
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    HD Picture Quality: Dish vs Directv

    There's other things to consider in terms to comparing HD quality, other than just the obvious one of any deliberate resolution reduction by the providers [whether that's noticeable or not to most viewers, I'll leave to the debate of others]. I'll also include the already importantly noted...
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    Turner Classic Movies - Eastern Arc - audio out of sync (and more)

    It was moved there, along with a whole bunch of other channels, during the post-77 malfunction reshuffle. Apparently, rather than just adding the channels directly from 77 to 61.5, they need to balance the power structure. Hence, why some 72.7s were moved to 61.5 instead. Unfortunately, the...
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    Turner Classic Movies - Eastern Arc - audio out of sync (and more)

    Audio, at least, seems like it's back in sync now -- as of 9pm EST.
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    Turner Classic Movies - Eastern Arc - audio out of sync (and more)

    I know they added a 9th HD channel to 61.5 transponder 25 today (CI), and unfortunately its effects were immediately noticeable on probably my favorite channel -- Turner Classic Movies HD. The audio is now out of sync, the picture is occasionally stuttering and dropping frames, and there are...
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    HD-Lite?

    This is true, but I'd also add that if a provider is going to compress the bejeezus out of an HD signal, they're probably better off down-rezzing it slightly [with the caveat that it's done fairly transparently]. That is, if Dish were to run everything at 1920, they better give it enough bits...