DirecTV quality *BLOWS* Dish out of the water

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scriabinop23

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Nov 6, 2003
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I just made the switch from DishNetwork to DirecTV this past weekend and must say the difference was completely understated on all of these satellite boards.

The picture quality, sharpness, and colors are SOOOO much better on DirecTV compared to DishNetwork, its like comparing ripe tropical fruit to sour vineger rancid grapes.
:)

Seriously, overall the quality is 25% better I would say. The higher resolution is the most noticeable feature. My 34" 16:9 directview really shows the difference. I made the switch partly motivated due to a 2-tivo/3lnb deal for $169!! Pretty amazing. Dish network's PVR508/301 setup really can't compare. They are in different leagues.

I find it unbelievable now that so many people have much anything good to say about dishnetwork. Overpriced limited equipment, and overcompressed signal really kill Dish if you see the two side by side.
 
scriabinop23 said:
I just made the switch from DishNetwork to DirecTV this past weekend and must say the difference was completely understated on all of these satellite boards.

The picture quality, sharpness, and colors are SOOOO much better on DirecTV compared to DishNetwork, its like comparing ripe tropical fruit to sour vineger rancid grapes.
:)

Seriously, overall the quality is 25% better I would say. The higher resolution is the most noticeable feature. My 34" 16:9 directview really shows the difference. I made the switch partly motivated due to a 2-tivo/3lnb deal for $169!! Pretty amazing. Dish network's PVR508/301 setup really can't compare. They are in different leagues.

I find it unbelievable now that so many people have much anything good to say about dishnetwork. Overpriced limited equipment, and overcompressed signal really kill Dish if you see the two side by side.

This is very subjective opinion as the PQ depends greatly on how compressed the signal is, you TV Screen Size, whether the TV is calibrated or not, type of TV (tube, rear projection, plasma, etc). If you are happy with the switch that's what counts.
 
Sean Mota said:
scriabinop23 said:
I just made the switch from DishNetwork to DirecTV this past weekend and must say the difference was completely understated on all of these satellite boards.

The picture quality, sharpness, and colors are SOOOO much better on DirecTV compared to DishNetwork, its like comparing ripe tropical fruit to sour vineger rancid grapes.
:)

Seriously, overall the quality is 25% better I would say. The higher resolution is the most noticeable feature. My 34" 16:9 directview really shows the difference. I made the switch partly motivated due to a 2-tivo/3lnb deal for $169!! Pretty amazing. Dish network's PVR508/301 setup really can't compare. They are in different leagues.

I find it unbelievable now that so many people have much anything good to say about dishnetwork. Overpriced limited equipment, and overcompressed signal really kill Dish if you see the two side by side.

This is very subjective opinion as the PQ depends greatly on how compressed the signal is, you TV Screen Size, whether the TV is calibrated or not, type of TV (tube, rear projection, plasma, etc). If you are happy with the switch that's what counts.

On both my HD 34" Toshiba and my X1, the picture quality is noticeably better. Its not subjective - I believe DirecTV encodes at a higher resolution to start (544x480 instead of dish's 480x480, right?).

If you ever have a chance to see their SD signals side by side on the same set, you'll see what I mean.
 
scriabinop23 said:
On both my HD 34" Toshiba and my X1, the picture quality is noticeably better. Its not subjective - I believe DirecTV encodes at a higher resolution to start (544x480 instead of dish's 480x480, right?).

If you ever have a chance to see their SD signals side by side on the same set, you'll see what I mean.

Again your analysis is purely subjective. You have not shown any real data that dictates a general rule. The rule being that D* SD signal is better than E* SD signal.

I have read so many threads of the same thing going back and forth and ultimately the comparison is useless. Nobody can tell you objectively what is making the PQ better in one service or the other.

Do a real analysis that does not depends on eyes of the beholder. Your hypothesis to your claim is based solely on the resolution that each service starts and I do not know that the conclusion is accurate based on just this. No offense intended :)
 
Matt_Stevens said:
E* blows D* away wgen it comes to High Def picture quality. That's all I care about.

Besides CBS, 3 channels (Discovery, ESPN HD, HDnet) of HD is worth sticking with 150+ crappy SD ones? I'll give you the fact that DishNet has DirecTV beat at the moment with HD bitrates.

Besides, my local OTA KPBS in HD airs just as many nature programs filmed in HD as I need. Discovery HD would be nice, but I don't mind the free alternative.

All of these new technologies on the horizon with DirecTV (spaceway satellites, upcoming extra DirecTV satellite, 8PSK/(retro-style error correction protocol) deployment) really blow away anything Dish has coming, am I correct?

Besides arguing about which is better from an abstract perspective, why doesn't someone end this argument and post resolutions and bitrates of all of the SD channels from both providers? The fact that DirecTV starts at a high res is a start though. (I agree Sean)

PS. I'm sure this argument is moot on 27" SD tv's. Bad signal = bad signal, no matter what sort of tv you have.
 
Yeap, that's me. :D

Just wanted to say that the extra rebate has increased to $30 now instead of $27.50. I know it's not much but it helps offset the initial equipment cost... And prices are still cheap at $50 for a Tivo package plus you get free shipping (after rebate) and a free dvd player with your activation.

In case you want to contact me, my email is:

tivosmart@NOSPAM.hotmail.com
(remove the NOSPAM from the address above)
 
I believe that the hardware and software that the DirecTv receivers have are better than the Dish Network receivers. Also the DirecTv receivers are smaller and turn channels quicker than the Dish receivers in which is a fact.
 
I have had both Dish and Direct in the past 12 months and I noticed the Dish image to be "softer" and not as crisp as Direct's. The only way I can compare Dish's HD PQ is at the BB's and CC's, where the PQ is very good, although I cannot say it is noticeably superior to Direct.

With that said, over the past year I have noticed that the Direct PQ has degraded significantly and I tend to notice macroblocking much more on the 26 inch analog RCA HT than I did in the past. It is actually to the point where it is becoming an annoyance and a distraction. Hopefully, the new satellites will allow Direct to ease up on the compression and overcrowding of transponders.
 
The picture quality has degraded over the past year. The reason for this is the addition of more locals to the 101 location. Once D*7S goes up the picture quality should improve. Assuming D* doesn't cram more locals onto the main bird.
 
silversurfer01973 said:
The picture quality has degraded over the past year. The reason for this is the addition of more locals to the 101 location. Once D*7S goes up the picture quality should improve. Assuming D* doesn't cram more locals onto the main bird.

Unfortunately, Direct has stated that it will add 40 new local markets when the new bird goes up. This means that another 240 or so SD channels will hog up a lot of the new transponder space. The question that remains is whether Direct will increase the picture quality of the SD channels or whether they will add more HD channels. Of course, they could do some combination of the two. I am hoping that they at least add 4 new HD channels with this satellite, but I am prolly deluded!
 
It was my understanding that some of those 40 are already on the main bird. I am not aware of any additional markets being announced. Jabroni, where did you get this info?
 
I knew I would be asked that question! LOL

I have read about it at AVS forums and I cannot remember the links to press releases. But the additional 40 markets is for sure and even after they add these, Dish will still have 60 more markets or so more than D*.

I will look on the Direct website for a press release.
 
Here it is, from Direct's website:

COMING IN EARLY 2004
Good news! Local channels are coming to these areas in early 2004:

• Albany, NY**
• Albuquerque, NM**
• Bakersfield, CA
• Baton Rouge, LA
• Charleston, WV
• Chico, CA**
• Corpus Christi, TX
• Dayton, OH
• Duluth, MN**
• El Paso, TX
• Eugene, OR
• Fargo-Valley City, ND
• Flint-Saginaw, MI
• Fresno, CA
• Ft. Myers, FL
• Harlingen, TX
• Harrisburg, PA
• Lafayette, LA
• Lansing, MI
• Lexington, KY
• Little Rock, AR**


• Madison, WI
• Medford, OR**
• Mobile, AL
• Monterey, CA
• Omaha, NE
• Paducah, KY**
• Portland, ME
• Reno, NV**
• Rochester, NY
• Santa Barbara, CA
• Savannah, GA
• South Bend, IN
• Spokane, WA
• Tallahassee, FL**
• Topeka, KS
• Tulsa, OK
• Tyler, TX
• Wichita-Hutchinson, KS
• Wilmington, NC
• Yakima, WA
 
Matt_Stevens said:
E* blows D* away wgen it comes to High Def picture quality. That's all I care about.
You don't know what you are talking about.

Anyone who thinks they can tell is only saying that is looks better to them. The plain fact is that both look the same.
 
I had both services for about a week and I would put both receivers on the same station and use my AV Receiver to switch the source back and forth. For the most part I think Dish looked better on the premium channels. They were about the same on regular channels and dish was lower on locals/networks (I have Tulsa locals with Dish and I had national networks with Dtv, so it wasn't really a fair comparison)

Also keep in mind a lot of this is receiver specific on the DirectTV side. I had a Sony A5. I'm sure other receivers use different decoder chips and may look better. At the time, the receiver I had was Sony's top-end receiver. My Sony A5 always looked better than the cheapo RCA units my in-laws had.
 
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