• 12/26/99 (jbuff) Some PQ Questions and Answers
• 1/01/00 What's that strange logo in the lower left corner of my screen?
• 2/02/00 How does compression work, and how does it affect Picture Quality?
• 2/02/00 What does compression have to do with picture "softness?"
• My signal strength is only 61 Will my picture improve if I can increase it?

9/24/00 PQ problems on x700 and x800 receivers
Recent changes in some compression systems at Echostar have caused a few more blackouts recently, sometimes on receivers which had never before exhibited this particular bug. This is a transient issue, and Echostar recently replied with the following statement.

"The effect many posters here are seeing is a side effect of some recent improvements EchoStar has made to our compression gear in an effort to enhance picture quality and performance. While the problem is visible on certain models of our receivers, the cause has been isolated to a bug in the compression techniques used at our uplink facility. The receivers exhibiting the symptoms are NOT at fault. We are currently testing the fix for the bug and expect to have it resolved within a week.

As we incorporate this fix into our compression equipment, these effects should be eliminated. Mike Dugan and the EchoStar team have given this corrective action the highest priority and wish to assure you all that we are working hard to eliminate the cause. We will notify the forum administrators when the fix is implemented. We appreciate your feedback and welcome your detailed email comments (i.e. channel number, time of problem, receiver model, problem description) at dishquality@echostar.com. We appreciate your patience and apologize for any inconvenience."