Direct tv verses dish hd

[johnny58259]

I have directv now thought about switching to dish but which provider has the best hd picture quality directv claims that dish only has part time hd channels then the channel is brocast in standard definition so could somebody give me the rundown on which provider is better I know dish is cheaper thanks for any help.

 

[whatchel1]

Your question is too vague. There is a channel comparison under the EKB heading above. E* has some HD channels that D* doesn't and vice versus. The difference in PQ is quite small.

 

[mdavej]

DirecTV does technically have the best HD PQ. But they also have the worst SD PQ, and several channels in SD that Dish has in HD. As the previous poster said, the HD PQ difference is barely noticeable, if at all. The part-time business is technically true, but very misleading. Several regional sports channels are broadcast only part time on Dish. Makes perfect sense, to me, but DirecTV makes it sound like Dish randomly shuts off all their HD channels, which is completely false.

Having had both, I can tell you that Dish's HD PQ is excellent and that they have a lot more basics in HD (BBCA, TCM, E!, G4, DIY, H2, etc.), basically all the HD folks have been whining about D* not adding for years. If you like expensive sports packages, full-time regional sports off-season, PPV, lots of basic content in dazzling SD, and painfully slow DVR's, then DirecTV is the provider for you.

 

[osu1991]

It is subjective. I watch them both weekly and I can't tell much if any difference. My sister has the same 60in LCD I have and I set them both up. She has Directv and I have Dish. At any one time a channel may look slightly better on one or the other, but not enough that it matters. You need to see what channels are in HD that you actually watch on each provider. The only channels that are part time HD on Dish are the RSN's. They are only in HD for the games.

 

[johnny58259]

So if u are just wanting espn and espn2 movie channels plus the basic channels and locals in hd then dish is the way to go plus it's cheaper

 

[dare2be]

So if u are just wanting espn and espn2 movie channels plus the basic channels and locals in hd then dish is the way to go plus it's cheaper

That's a fair assessment. Locals in HD will depend on your location. Check here for your city/market.

 

[satjay]

As someone who has Dish now I would agree with most of what the above posters are saying, as far as cheaper, it depends on setups, though the recent Hooper/Joey system has brought fees in line. Prices are a few dollars apart after promos are done. As has been said many times, review whats important to you programming wise.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Another factor now is what receiver you are using.

A number of folks are reporting better HD quality with the Hopper then with other older DISH equipment.

 

[satjay]

Another factor now is what receiver you are using.

A number of folks are reporting better HD quality with the Hopper then with other older DISH equipment.

I would agree Scott, I think the Hooper has a great HD picture, don't have scientific evidence but I think the PQ is good

 

[johnny58259]

Thanks for all your help now only problem is how to get out if a 2 year contract any ideas I called direct and because I upgraded some of my equipment there will be a 400.00 cancellation fee.

 

[satjay]

With the equipment upgrade only way is to pay ETF and thats a a hefty cancelation

 

[Bodo Fenrirsson]

I have both DIRECTV & Dish. I think PQ is subjective. I have my DIRECTV receivers set up for Native & original format,while I have 2 Dish ViP722k DVR's & one ViP211k. Both of my ViP722k's resolution are set to 1080i(but both also have Logitech Revue's attached to them which ups the resolution to 1080p) & my ViP211k's resolution is set to 720p because that is what the TV that it is hooked up to supports. I have no complaints with either service,it all depends on LOS(I had DIRECTV first because that was the easiest LOS I could get. I just got Dish network added last month because I was able to cut the trees down blocking the LOS for it. The only reason I didn't get the Hopper/Joey set up was because I already had the ViP722k's bought & payed for,one of them for over a year) & personal taste of what you want to watch,sports or movies & basic channels in HD.

 

[3HaloODST]

Another factor now is what receiver you are using.

A number of folks are reporting better HD quality with the Hopper then with other older DISH equipment.

Yeah but is this true? There is only so much that can be done at any given bitrate. It's not like the H/J add Megabits of data to the video streams... Perhaps they have better ways of dealing with softness and artifacts? Too bad someone can't post side-by-side direct screens...

...it all depends on LOS...

LOS/SS don't affect picture quality. The signal either works or it doesn't.

 

[mdram]

I have directv now thought about switching to dish but which provider has the best hd picture quality directv claims that dish only has part time hd channels then the channel is brocast in standard definition so could somebody give me the rundown on which provider is better I know dish is cheaper thanks for any help.

the question is why are you switching?
is dish cheaper? its really minimal. it depend on plan and equipment needs

when i went to direct from dish my plan went up by @ 9 a month. but i added a receiver and multi room viewing.

if its just to take advantage of promo offers then that will be eaten up by your etf fee.

if you want to lower your current price, change package, remove receiver, ect.

which provider is best depends on your viewing habits. for me they are about equal at the moment.
i switched to get my locals. dish ahs since started carrying them.

i personally would not switch to get a hopper/joey system unless they upped the hopper tuners to 5 and put one in the joey.

so you have thought about switching, but for what reason?

 

[wolfjc]

It is subjective. I watch them both weekly and I can't tell much if any difference. My sister has the same 60in LCD I have and I set them both up. She has Directv and I have Dish. At any one time a channel may look slightly better on one or the other, but not enough that it matters. You need to see what channels are in HD that you actually watch on each provider. The only channels that are part time HD on Dish are the RSN's. They are only in HD for the games.

I have a question about RSNs and full time HD.
I live in Cincinnati and I am under the impression that my local RSN FSN Ohio only has HD when there is a game on.
Does any one know if all or most of the RSNs have full time HD?

 

[Bodo Fenrirsson]

...LOS/SS don't affect picture quality. The signal either works or it doesn't.

In my case,LOS was a big factor in that I had a tree blocking it & keeping me from getting Dish. Some people might not be able to get 110,119,& 129. That was my original problem & steered me to go to DIRECTV,because I did have LOS for 99,101,& 103. In preparing to finally get Dish installed,I bought both EA & WA 1000.4 LNB's. Fortunately the installer was able to get 110,119,& 129 satellites for me. That's why for me it is a matter of LOS(as in can I pick up the satellites without a tree,building,or other obstruction blocking it) & what is it that I want to watch & does the particular provider carry it.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Yeah but is this true? There is only so much that can be done at any given bitrate. It's not like the H/J add Megabits of data to the video streams... Perhaps they have better ways of dealing with softness and artifacts?

With an upgraded MPEG4 decoder and a much faster processor it is possible that the PQ could be better. I think that the HD quality between providers (DISH and DIRECTV) is almost equal. And I have seen both look VERY good... but I have also seen both look VERY bad. I guess since the encoders are encoding 8 channels at once the PQ can vary depending on whats happening on those other 7 channels.

 

[lparsons21]

the question is why are you switching?
is dish cheaper? its really minimal. it depend on plan and equipment needs

when i went to direct from dish my plan went up by @ 9 a month. but i added a receiver and multi room viewing.

if its just to take advantage of promo offers then that will be eaten up by your etf fee.

if you want to lower your current price, change package, remove receiver, ect.

which provider is best depends on your viewing habits. for me they are about equal at the moment.
i switched to get my locals. dish ahs since started carrying them.

i personally would not switch to get a hopper/joey system unless they upped the hopper tuners to 5 and put one in the joey.

so you have thought about switching, but for what reason?

All good questions and points.

If I were to switch to E*, and that is highly probable come August, I would save $16/month at the retail price differences. In the 1st year, I would save $41/month which would allow me to not only pay for the 1 year ETF with D* ($240), but put an additional $240 in my pocket.

Yes, I would have less full time tuners, but with my viewing/recording patterns PTAT +2 is more than good enough. So a 1 Hopper + 1 Joey install would easily and cheaply replace my 3 HR24s, which would also give me unified control of MRV which is not the case at all with the 3 HR24s.

 

[3HaloODST]

In my case,LOS was a big factor in that I had a tree blocking it & keeping me from getting Dish. Some people might not be able to get 110,119,& 129. That was my original problem & steered me to go to DIRECTV,because I did have LOS for 99,101,& 103. In preparing to finally get Dish installed,I bought both EA & WA 1000.4 LNB's. Fortunately the installer was able to get 110,119,& 129 satellites for me. That's why for me it is a matter of LOS(as in can I pick up the satellites without a tree,building,or other obstruction blocking it) & what is it that I want to watch & does the particular provider carry it.

True, LOS determines whether or not you get Dish. Luckily Dish has an EA and a WA to try, however depending on the area you may or may not be able to get locals and/or HD locals depending on which setup you have. You're right, it depends on which provider has what you want to watch, and LOS. Just assumed you meant that LOS affected PQ, since this is a PQ thread.

With an upgraded MPEG4 decoder and a much faster processor it is possible that the PQ could be better. I think that the HD quality between providers (DISH and DIRECTV) is almost equal. And I have seen both look VERY good... but I have also seen both look VERY bad. I guess since the encoders are encoding 8 channels at once the PQ can vary depending on whats happening on those other 7 channels.

As bad as it is to have 8 channels on a TP (and even 9 or 10 on certain TPs on certain sats,) the beauty of the variable bitrate is that they can share the bitrate as needed. Then there's services such as U-verse that have a fixed bitrate, which not only is inefficient, but also limits the bandwidth when it is needed most (such as during fast motion, sports, etc.) thus U-verse HD is regularly bandwidth starved.

But yeah, I wonder how the Hopper/Joey decoding hardware compares to say, the 722K, which they also claimed had better hardware than the 622/722? Maybe most of those noticing are just noticing the difference in the plain 722/622? If I recall correctly, the 922 had essentially the same hardware inside as the 722K, thus I wonder if Hopper has improved on that hardware any, or is essentially the same?

 

[isaacmorseMI]

The Hopper uses a totally different Broadcom chipset than the other Dish recievers.

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