New HDTV...not so hot picture!

[RocketFoot]

Hi guys...I just got a Sony Wega 42" LCD rear projection HDTV and hooked it up to my Dish DVR625. The results are less than perfect...lots of compression issues and image shadows. Is this typical or is there someway I can get the best picture possible until I can upgrade to Dish HDTV? I am even using video-S connection from the 625 to the TV. I checked my dish signal and it is pulling 88-90...cold that be a problem? Any help or ideas will be appreciated.

 

[RandallA]

Signal is not a problem, with digital TV you either get it or you don't. Some HD TVs do a better job with SD signals than others, sounds like yours doesn't. Even with an HD receiver you'll probably experience the same thing with the SD channels.

Some people have recommended lowering the Contrast in your TV, you may want to adjust the picture and see if that works.

 

[jmel]

svideo?

no wonder why.

SD stuff isn't going to look all that great on an hdtv... personally i would actually recommend using rca hookups as some tv's actually do a bit more post processing on composite inputs than svideo.

Another thing tho, is that you shouldn't probably get your hopes up too high as the picture will never look as good as hd... kinda spoils you.

 

[herky]

Hi guys...I just got a Sony Wega 42" LCD rear projection HDTV and hooked it up to my Dish DVR625. The results are less than perfect...lots of compression issues and image shadows.

Unfortuneately this is an issue with sony tvs, they do a poor job with SD. I have two customers with the 60" models and sd is atrocious. But I have a customer with a mitsubishi 65" dlp and it is stunning even for sd. His viewing distance is approx 8 ft much less than recommended for tv this size and he even surfs the internet with this tv. It is not 1080p but the text is still crisp. samsungs dlp also do a nice job with sd.

If you decide to keep this tv, hd is definitely the way to go. the picture will be awesome.

 

[RocketFoot]

Sounds like I'm gonna have to look into upgrading to Dish HD...

I have had compression issues since I got the 625, my old tv was a Sony 27" Trinitron.

Also, is there anyway to set the output of the 625 to 16:9? Or what is the best setting to use on the tv...

 

[MikeD-C05]

NO you need an upgrade to the 622hd dvr. That is the only way that the picture quality will improve on an hd tv.

 

[RocketFoot]

NO you need an upgrade to the 622hd dvr. That is the only way that the picture quality will improve on an hd tv.

If I upgrade to the vip622, will all my channels be better or just the HD channels? Also, without searching through tons of posts...how much $$$ am I looking at to upgrade to the 622?

 

[MikeD-C05]

IF you are registered with Dishnetwork you can see under Equipment the Dish n up lease specials. YOu should be able to get one for $149.00 up front and then a mail in $50.00 credit and you get it for $99.99 total. IF you don't have hd and this is the first time for upgrade to hd I believe you can get it for either 10.00 off or 20.00 for 10 months. But you need to check with the csrs and I suggest you call them. The Dishwebsite has the offer on the front of their page.

As far as the picture quality that will depend on your television. I have a Toshiba 57 " hd tv and my picture looks excellent on hd and good on sd. This depends on your video coming in and what source too. If you are getting hd it will look excellent, normal sd national channels will look good and your sd locals will look the worst . This is because of compression by Dish on the sd locals. But if you do the proper adjustments to your picture controls with SHARPNESS being turned way down first of all and your contrast , brightness and color turned down to 50 % you will get a decent picture. But again this will depend on your tv and your settings on your pq.

Most people with an hd tv say that having an hd receiver will make the picture look great compared to an sd receiver on an hd tv. It will upconvert everything to 720p or 1080i which ever you set it at.

 

[dishbd]

I have a 622 and a Westinghouse 32" LCD TV. While the HD is awesome, the SD is not that great. SD just looks better on a CRT TV. At least with my cheapo LCD tv.

 

[RocketFoot]

My installer wants to come out and look at it...he said he has the same set up (wide screen HDTV with SD programing) and his picture is great. He thinks my dish or switch may be bad. I have had PQ trouble ever since I uprgadded to DVR. They converted my old dish to handle the DVR or something to that effect. Is this possible or just smoke?

 

[RandallA]

I'd say it's all smoke. Like I said with digital you either get the picture or you don't. Your TV might not process the SD signals very well and you may need to adjust the picture settings.

 

[RocketFoot]

Well, with some minor sharpness tweaks...I got the PQ pretty good! I still wish SD was much better...but I am happy with my setup for now! Thanks for the replies...

 

[Mike_H]

A note for folks. Just because you have Dish HD doesn't mean the shows you watch are going to be any better. It just adds HD for most broadcast networks and then some movie channels. So if you have Dish HD and watch a show on TLC, it's just as crappy as if you didn't have Dish HD.

Anyone that gets a HDTV should be sure to check out the forums over here:http://www.avsforum.com/ as they have very good information for most televisions. How to set them up to get the best picture and stuff. Usually TV settings out of the box are just not very good, and leave lots to be desired. And the closer you sit to the tv, the more obvious the issues will be. Not just due to compresson in the signal, but the simple fact that the SD picture doesn't have enough information in the signal to give you that good of a picture.

 

[gdodd12]

But shouldn't running the signal from HD box to tv via HDMI clean up the standards a bit? I can't imagine going from the 625 with composite hookups, to the 622 with HDMI won't help at least a little as far as SD goes.

 

[Anole]

But shouldn't running the signal from HD box to tv via HDMI clean up the standards a bit? I can't imagine going from the 625 with composite hookups, to the 622 with HDMI won't help at least a little as far as SD goes.

No, the HDMI connector will just deliver the crappy picture that much better.
The whole point of using the composite connections, is apparently to soften or roll-off the video so you don't see the sharp/jagged edges.

Then, too, some TV sets handle the video processing differently on each type of input.
So, you can optimize the sharpness/brightness/contrast for the particular source (connector).

I watched a SD movie last night on my new LCD TV, and could see a little compression artifact, but only because I was looking for it.
Otherwise, it might have gone unnoticed by most viewers.

Don't forget that each channel is different on the quality supplied in SD.
Local channels are worst.
All the regular 'cable' channels are somewhat better.
The premium channels like HBO/ShowTime -may- be a bit better yet (or not)

With the statistical multiplexing Dish does (shares the bandwidth between all the channels on any given transponder) it's possible that any channel could take a momentary quality hit if all the other channels demand high data rate at the same time.

 

[gdodd12]

No, the HDMI connector will just deliver the crappy picture that much better.
The whole point of using the composite connections, is apparently to soften or roll-off the video so you don't see the sharp/jagged edges.

Then, too, some TV sets handle the video processing differently on each type of input.
So, you can optimize the sharpness/brightness/contrast for the particular source (connector).

I watched a SD movie last night on my new LCD TV, and could see a little compression artifact, but only because I was looking for it.
Otherwise, it might have gone unnoticed by most viewers.

Don't forget that each channel is different on the quality supplied in SD.
Local channels are worst.
All the regular 'cable' channels are somewhat better.
The premium channels like HBO/ShowTime -may- be a bit better yet (or not)

With the statistical multiplexing Dish does (shares the bandwidth between all the channels on any given transponder) it's possible that any channel could take a momentary quality hit if all the other channels demand high data rate at the same time.

Yeah, I have noticed some SD channels look better than others. So do you suggest having the Satellite box go into an HDMI source and use that for HD, and a composite source, and use that for SD?

 

[Anole]

I wasn't really suggesting anything other than you're in a catch-22 situation.
...and answering the one question...
Changing the input on the TV when you change between HD and SD channels would be a big pain, but you could sure give it a try and see if it helps.
Are there any settings on the Vip 622 that would help?

 

[gdodd12]

I wasn't really suggesting anything other than you're in a catch-22 situation.
...and answering the one question...
Changing the input on the TV when you change between HD and SD channels would be a big pain, but you could sure give it a try and see if it helps.
Are there any settings on the Vip 622 that would help?

Well, my 622 won't be here until Saturday, so I can't technically comment on the topic of improved SD picture from the new box and HDMI connection. But my SD picture, right now, isn't that bad. I am using an Aquos LCD with composite connections. I expect it will improve some. I am not really worried about it honestly. The SD picture is pretty good now. Of course that depends on the channel.

 

[bigthrust]

I have a 622 and a Westinghouse 32" LCD TV. While the HD is awesome, the SD is not that great. SD just looks better on a CRT TV. At least with my cheapo LCD tv.

I too have a Westinghouse LCD (but 40"). Out of the box it looks like crap. You must spend time tweaking the settings. Now HD and SD both look great (HD will knock your socks off)

 

[kwindrem]

I have a Sony KDL46XBR2 and it's SD conversion is much, much better than the ViP622.

With the 622 set to 720 or 1080 out, vertical transitions (like on text) are horible almost as if the deinterlacer is taking fields 1 and 2 backwords. In some scenes, the sharp vertical transitions seem to bounce up and down.

If I switch the 622 output to 480, the TV's SD converter then functions and things look generally much better. Unfortunately, there's no option on the 622 to pass the native video format to the TV and it's probably not a realistic thing to do as the guide and menu formats would be constantly changing.

With as much SD programming as there is, I wish Dish would work on the SD upconversion algorithm in the 622.