I can only speak for myself and I consider DishHD quality to be generally poor. I've lost track of the number of times I have quit watching a program solely due to its poor picture quality. Must be at least 30 times. I watch a lot of problems nowadays despite their mediocre quality. The few times I actually see good HD now hit me as a big, bonus surprise. I think to myself, "Great! Something I want to watch AND it actually has good PQ!" This doesn't happen very often.
I was surprised just the other night when watching the "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" movie. The PQ was pretty good. Compression artifacts in scenes with low lighting and contrast were minimal, even with motion. It's been a while since I've seen this from DishHD.
E* chooses to be the leader in HD channels, not HD quality. If they prioritized quality they could have decided to not offer some of the channels and given more bandwidth to the ones they kept. I know this is not a popular decision with the buying public, so I don't blame them.
Worse yet, DishHD PQ has been on a steady downhill slide over the past 12-18 months. The PQ right now is worse than it was 6 months ago. The PQ 6 months ago was worse than it had been 12 months ago. A year ago it was common to see great PQ on HDNET, VOOM Equator, HBO, ESPN, HDNMV, and other channels. On my old 942 I recorded brief clips of a few programs just to save as great HD demos to show to family & friends. But now on my 622 I have nothing of the sort. I have a lot of HD recorded, but nothing I would hold up as a good example of HD.
One 148W, I am seeing some of the highest bitrates I have EVER seen on Dish - with at least 3-4 titles this week on SHO in the 16.25 - 16.50 Video Bit Rate area (too bad they are butchering the movies with pop ups now).
HBO on 148W is passing 98% the same bitrate as the HBO C Band feed on 128W. However, HBO seems to have dropped their feed a bit as things as about a quarter point below what they were 6 months ago.
On 110W, WHEN A SPORTS HD SPECIAL EVENT RUNS AT NIGHT - they usually do not start HD PPV up until 6am and just leave a Dish Slate up. In those overnight hours, as TNT-HD, HD-PPV and HBO-HD share that transponder via statmux, I have seen the HBO rate just as high and beat 148W in that 2% time when 148W is not passing the full HBO C Band feed.
Now,we can argue that the 14.25Mbps TOTAL bitrate cap on HBO isn't enough to give great HD, but truth be told as it's telecined - the rate can actually be higher than what HDNET used to show without telecine.
So the problem is with HBO.
But, overall, outside of SHO, I rarely see great HD on E* - they should remove Atlanta, Chicago and Denver from Conus and give us back full bitrate on HDNET. Otherwise, I have one foot out the door.
EDIT - I should note the the HD PPV off 148W does have some have some beautiful HD Quality at upward of 17.50Mbps Video Bit Rate and even telecined - putting it well ahead of what HDNET used to deliver.
Perhaps the only real HD feed on Dish is HBO.
It might be the only one not touched - but its not great HD.