Better HD Picture Quality: Show & Hbo or Starz & Max

Which has the better Picture Quality

  • HB0 HD and ShowHD (Mpeg2)

    Votes: 11 29.7%
  • StarzHD and MaxHD (Mpeg4)

    Votes: 26 70.3%

  • Total voters
    37

JimK2

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Oct 2, 2006
550
1
I've noticed Show & Hbo HD Picture Quality degradation over past month, just wondered if anyone else noticed
 
Max is MPEG4? It's on the worst transponder (sat 127/tp 27) out there--the same one as A&E and Universal HD.

Max looks a little better than HBO and Showtime. However, that's not saying much.
 
Max is MPEG4? It's on the worst transponder (sat 127/tp 27) out there--the same one as A&E and Universal HD.

Max looks a little better than HBO and Showtime. However, that's not saying much.

I didn't vote because I think it changes. At various times they've all looked better and worse.

Seems like a month or so ago (maybe less) some looked better than they had in a while but the last few weeks they haven't looked any better than dvd. In fact, I've got dvds I burned off HD channels (in SP and using just an S-Vid connection of course) last year that look better than what some of these channels claim is HD now.

I've always wondered if Dish shuffles channels and varies quality deliberately, in an attempt to placate everyone.
 
Last time I compared them closely was about 6-8 weeks ago and at that time, HBO & Showtime were definitely better. I recorded portions of two programs on each and did rapid comparisons for about 45 minutes. HBO and Showtime were sharper with fewer, but different, compression artifacts.

However I was watching an episode of Weeds either last night or the night before, and the quality was poor - running about halfway between SD and HD. Lots of contour artifacts on low contrast surfaces.
 
I find myself preferring the MPEG4 picture quality though I think it could be improved significantly.
 
Max is MPEG4? It's on the worst transponder (sat 127/tp 27) out there--the same one as A&E and Universal HD.
I guess I'm the only one who noticed that they fixed TP27 a few days ago (I think they moved the "TP27" ID to a transponder that was working better).

And, the signal strength of a transponder has absolutely nothing to do with the picture quality, anyway...
 
I just recorded scary movie 4 and the grudge 2 off of starz

Two movies i might not even watch but I went so what i pay for all of these channels it's about time i at least recorded a few

When I went to transfer to external the file size was so much smaller. Each was over 2 gig but not even 3 gig. So two movies at 4.x size and I have mr and mrs smith saved and it's over 8 meg by itself. That was a showtime or hbo movie

and the 3 hr nascar race from last night was over 10 meg i believe

Now I do need to watch and compare the quality but if it's not that different it's a HUGE space saver

so this is the mpeg4 difference and if so I know I will record when I can and delete these mpeg2 space hogs

All I know is to me size DOES matter when it's eating up HD space. It seems it was about 2x standard size and not the 4, 5 or 6 gig per hour on mpeg2
 

Couple of questions regarding Dish

DD designation missing from HBO Starz etc

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