Social Feed

Thanks for the quick replies.

I should have mentioned it in my first post but it does look a little better than the channels provided by Dish but definitely not as good as a direct antenna connection to my tv set.

I was hoping to watch NFL and NBA games ota as for some reason the cbs & abc feeds from Dish are horrible during game time while ota by direct antenna connection to my tv is much sharper (no "halo effect" around the players). So my fear is come game time I will get that halo effect again via the ota tuner and I'm back to connecting my antenna directly to the tv and lose the benefit of recording games on my Hopper.

Don't get me wrong, the ota tuner picture via the Hopper is not bad but nothing near the bluray quality like I get via the direct antenna connection to the tv. I was just wondering if the HWS improved on this in anyway or this is the norm.

Hmm, my two Dish OTA tuners hooked up to one Hopper each provides OTA just as good as my TiVo and directly connected to my TV, which are all EXCELLENT PQ. If you have a very high end HDTV, the PQ might be a bit better directly from the antenna to the HDTV because your TV is getting the original source signal at its native resolution and using its very expensive electronics to process it compared to the fact that the Dish OTA module (and the TiVO) go through their own processing TiVo or Dish processing before leaving that box, and then into your television. While Dish and TiVo both seem to process VERY WELL, Dish does force you to choose an output resolution for all channels, so if you are tuned to a 720P OTA, but have the Hopper set to output 1080i, then your TV further processes it and displays it at the displays native resolution or YOU may be even further processing it through an A/V Receiver and further up-scaling it to 1080P, and there may be some noticeable, but very slight degradation due to the number of times the video has be converted and converted again in the chain. There are some purists who believe we are making PQ's worse, not better by this approach. I say, if one has good quality components in the chain, it results in better PQ. I can't say the same if one has crap equipment in the chain.

However, in cases of entry level or cheaper HDTV's, the PQ from a Dish module through the Dish box (and an A/V Receiver with a good processing chip) and out to your cheap TV can result in a noticeable IMPROVEMENT in PQ compared to connecting an OTA antenna directly into the HDTV, even with the many steps of processing and conversion.

Anyway, the difference between the Dish OTA module and connecting directly an OTA antenna into the HDTV should be of most minimal difference. I would consider getting an RMA for the Dish module if it is more than a slight difference.

The AVR is a good point, and it may be affecting it. We need to know how the OP's chain is setup and what setting they are using.

dalyew said:

Thanks for the quick replies.

I should have mentioned it in my first post but it does look a little better than the channels provided by Dish but definitely not as good as a direct antenna connection to my tv set.

I was hoping to watch NFL and NBA games ota as for some reason the cbs & abc feeds from Dish are horrible during game time while ota by direct antenna connection to my tv is much sharper (no "halo effect" around the players). So my fear is come game time I will get that halo effect again via the ota tuner and I'm back to connecting my antenna directly to the tv and lose the benefit of recording games on my Hopper.

Don't get me wrong, the ota tuner picture via the Hopper is not bad but nothing near the bluray quality like I get via the direct antenna connection to the tv. I was just wondering if the HWS improved on this in anyway or this is the norm.

Click to expand...

Since at this moment there is no NBA games, and I am guessing you watched preseason Football. If this is the case. Keep in mind in most area's it is not HD for Preseason. It is wide screen SD. A lot of locals will not pass thru HD for Preseason games at least this is the case in my area. What happens if you watch a prime time show in HD? Is the picture just as crappy? A high quality picture should be like Leno or Letterman. You don't have to watch just check the picture. I am just saying it may be the programming. NFL games are normally very appealing. JMO

DishSubLA said:

Hmm, my two Dish OTA tuners hooked up to one Hopper each provides OTA just as good as my TiVo and directly connected to my TV, which are all EXCELLENT PQ. If you have a very high end HDTV, the PQ might be a bit better directly from the antenna to the HDTV because your TV is getting the original source signal at its native resolution and using its very expensive electronics to process it compared to the fact that the Dish OTA module (and the TiVO) go through their own processing TiVo or Dish processing before leaving that box, and then into your television. While Dish and TiVo both seem to process VERY WELL, Dish does force you to choose an output resolution for all channels, so if you are tuned to a 720P OTA, but have the Hopper set to output 1080i, then your TV further processes it and displays it at the displays native resolution or YOU may be even further processing it through an A/V Receiver and further up-scaling it to 1080P, and there may be some noticeable, but very slight degradation due to the number of times the video has be converted and converted again in the chain. There are some purists who believe we are making PQ's worse, not better by this approach. I say, if one has good quality components in the chain, it results in better PQ. I can't say the same if one has crap equipment in the chain.

However, in cases of entry level or cheaper HDTV's, the PQ from a Dish module through the Dish box (and an A/V Receiver with a good processing chip) and out to your cheap TV can result in a noticeable IMPROVEMENT in PQ compared to connecting an OTA antenna directly into the HDTV, even with the many steps of processing and conversion.

Anyway, the difference between the Dish OTA module and connecting directly an OTA antenna into the HDTV should be of most minimal difference. I would consider getting an RMA for the Dish module if it is more than a slight difference.

Click to expand...

Out of all the replies to my post I think this one has nailed it. I'm using a Mohu Ultimate amplified antenna in my third floor (top floor) apt and I'm located approximately 20 miles away from all the major networks towers so I'm getting pretty strong signals. As I mentioned in my first post, with a direct antenna connection to my new 55" Panasonic Plasma ST60 the picture, especially with local news (and last night the Dolphins preseason game), the picture is downright astounding. I mean not even my old uncalibrated Samsung Bluray player is giving me that kind of picture. But as I said in my second post, it's not that the picture through Dish's ota tuner is horrible, it's just not as good. You're also right about a cheaper tv. I have a much cheaper and older 50" Samsung Plasma where the picture is much softer and not as sharp as the Panny and the picture there is acceptable but with not much detail.

What you said about the video processing explains what I'm seeing which is unfortunate as I was hoping that the Hopper wouldn't deteriorate the pq. Last night I also observed that both the network and ota tuner pictures were improved over what I described in my first post, but varying pq, I found, has been normal for this Hopper receiver. My suspicion (and a tech's that came to visit) that there's something querky going on with the video processor in the unit and suggested I changed it to another unit or upgrade to a HWS. I would've preferred the latter but that would mean a $200 cost and I would rather wait when I can upgrade for free. I was informed if I replaced my Hopper 2K with another 2K that would lessen my chance of getting a HWS free upgrade in the near future, so since I'm getting "OK" picture most of the time, I'll stick it out till I can get the upgrade. Btw, my Hopper and Joey system was installed the very week it was introduced last year March. The installer that came was new to the system and I even had to finish installing the Joeys (thanks to this forum) before he came back the next day with more info from his office.

I intended to do a workaround by using a splitter as another member also suggested, which is really not a bad solution since my Harmony remote is already programmed for ota already.

I'm happy I posted here though. You guys are great and well informed members and I thank you all for taking the time out to post your replies. Wish there was some form of event we could all get together and have some beers and discuss all these satellite and tv stuff but that's for another post .

I wrote this up when I first got my OTA adapter. ATSC receivers have two revisions. Being retired from TV for 3 years, now, I was in on testing two revisions of ATSC receivers and the OTA Dish has, looks more like it is revision 1 than 2. There are major revisions in 2 and signal strength/quality is one of them. I mostly have it so I have something during a storm. I use Dish locals all other times or OTA right to my TV. Revison 2 does not improve resolution, it improves signal quality (how easy it is to pick up a channel)

DishSubLA, you were right, my AVR was the culprit. Bypassed it and connected directly to tv and the pq is now much better. Ota channels pq increased significantly (still not as good as the direct antenna connection) but now much better. Thanks for the tip as not only this solved my ota problem but the general pq issues I was having with my Hopper.