Dish fixed STARZ HD

[MikeD-C05]

I just got an email from the dishquality folks tonight Thanking me about my compliments on the fix they did on my Houston Cbs station in mpeg4. They asked me how I liked Starz hd now?

IT LOOKS GREAT!!!!! NO more jerky shots when the camera pans. It is wonderfull. Dish finally got this mpeg 4 thing down . Both my mpeg4 locals and Starz hd look as great. I am so pleased. This means that the transition to mpeg 4 for all hd next year and then the sd in the years to come, won't be as bad as I thought.

Kudos to the Kip and the dish engineers for getting the mpeg 4 thing down RIGHT! So see complaining does work to the dishquality folks. It took a little while but good things come to those who wait ... and complain.

My 622s are now working pretty rock solid with very little problems and my picture quality is once again AWESOME. Life is good. Thanks Dishnetwork. :up

SEnd all picture /audio complaints to : dishquality@echostar.com .

 

[cebbigh]

Any idea if the changes were via software or something done internally by dish that did not require changes at the receiver level?

 

[Sean Mota]

If it is really fixed they need to put Starz HD back in full resolution 1920x1080i and not keep the current resolution (HD Lite) 1440x1080i. Also the same with NBC HD and CBS HD. As long as Starz HD remains in HD Lite mode, it will always be a problem with the channel because we are paying for an inferior product (AKA... DirecTv and its HD Lite Mode and VOOM HD Lite).

 

[John Kotches]

Sean:

Because they fixed the reported problem doesn't mean the online MP2 --> MP4 encoders are capable of keeping up with true 1080p content.

That said; I'd love to see them get there; as I just installed a 1080p front projector. MI:2 looked incredible on CBS last Saturday night as an OTA HD presentation.

Cheers,

 

[Sean Mota]

I agree John. I just wanted to clarify that Starz HD is not fixed 100% since the thread only made an emphasis on the video problem. It has been more than a month since Starz-HD debuted on Dish (correct me if I am wrong). I hope that in December 2006, we will not be having the discussion that Dish has not figured out a way to do MPEG-4 at 1920x1080i and find out that just like in Voom HD lite, they are trying to shift the blame some other place. It gets to a point where it just painful to speak about HD Lite on your channels. Especially when every month the bill comes and we have to pay for an inferior product. Mind you that there is nothing better out there that can replace it.

 

[MikeD-C05]

Whether it is true HD 1920 x 1080i I don't know. I just know that both Straz hd and my Cbs hd local station in Houston look great now. I can tell no difference at all between the mpeg2 ota version of ota or the Cbs hd station in New York . Maybe once they move all hd to mpeg 4 then they can do true full time Hd. Untill then I will consider it fixed because I can watch it now without visible motion aritfacts or without feeling sick to my stomach. Untill this week I couldn't watch Starz hd at all and now I can . I am very happy.

 

[ChetK]

Since 1440x1080 is 75% of the 1920x1080 image, wouldn't it be funny (and fair) if we only had to pay 75% of the fee to add StarzHD?

 

[John Kotches]

Since 1440x1080 is 75% of the 1920x1080 image, wouldn't it be funny (and fair) if we only had to pay 75% of the fee to add StarzHD?

75% of 0 = 0

There is no charge to add Starz-HD itself. It's part of the Starz package

Cheers,

 

[ChetK]

75% of 0 = 0

There is no charge to add Starz-HD itself. It's part of the Starz package

You know what I mean.

 

[dslate69]

Another thread assimilated by hd-lite dribble.

 

[riffjim4069]

I have noticed some improvement with StarzHD, and I've also noticed the two 1920x1080i Washington DC HD LIL channels (CBS and NBC) have improved as well - the jitter/stutter appears to have been corrected. Watching SD broadcasts on these channels looks fine (I don't watch much SD). The HD is also improved....however, it lacks detail.

For example: News9 broadcasts 5-6 hours of locally produced HD news daily for more than a year. While the picture appears to look OK on the surface (it's nice just getting rid of the jitter), the fine details are non-existent. Earlier they conducting a live interview at their HD studio. OTA looked stunning and very detailed...the pin stripes on the individuals suit were so well defined you could spot minuscule pieces of lint; however, the pin stripes on channel 6360 were non-detailed shiny lines that would alternate between blurring, if he shifted position too quickly, or appeared out of focus with floating motion artifacts - tiny mosquito noise sums it up quite nicely.

E* thanks for getting rid of the video jitter/stutter - thanks for keeping the majority of images on the screen in focus - but no thanks for the continued lack of detail in these so-called HD images. If you like HD, you will quickly discoverer the differences between OTA and Dish HD LIL are striking; one is HD and the other is something less....much less.

I'm just amazed at the number of people who willingly fork over Big $$$ for DishHD and don't realize they are viewing an inferior product half of the time; they are being gypped and don't know the difference. Amazing! These are the same people who will sit quietly in a restaurant while being serviced a terrible meal, with equally poor service, out of fear of upsetting the host. Well folks, if you enjoy paying money to eat shite...well, more power to ya...however, please continue to sit quietly while some of us, who don't enjoy shite and actually have a pair, help create a better viewing experience for you. Gee-Whiz...a thank you every once in a while wouldn't hurt!!!

 

[HookedOnTV]

I don't really understand why they are down-rezing. They're using mpeg4 at 15Mbps which is more than ample for full rez.

 

[Paradox-SJ]

with threads like this "dish fix starz hd" they are even less likely to try and fix and adjust it.

IMO Starzhd still looks muted, flat, lifeless and most of the time not even on par with a DVD.

I agree that the jetters seem to be gone but the picture quality, you know that HD look we all paid so much to get is missing.

I guess it just goes to prove that if you feed crap to someone long enough they will grow to like it.

sad

 

[Sean Mota]

Another thread assimilated by hd-lite dribble.

Yes... but I think that the HD Liters do not realize that we, in the Dish Network World, do not want the same thing that Happen to the DirecTv driven HD Liters. Do you want to get a message like this from Dish or would you rather continously complaint about fixing the real problem (HD Lite)?

Originally Posted by LEM
I just upgraded my Directv hardware to HD, and now I've discovered that Directv won't be giving me true HD, but what has been referred to as "HD-Lite", to save bandwidth. So, I complained to Directv.
Here is their response:
----------------------------------
Thank you for writing. I am sorry to hear that you are not interested in HD-Lite. HD-Lite is considered the new industry standard for High Definition. HD-Lite carries a resolution of 1080i. Because DIRECTV is the largest High Definition provider and is signing up more High Definition customers the HD-Lite is the new standard adopted by most HD providers.
Thank you again for writing and stay tuned to DIRECTV (website address edited out) for the latest news and information about our services.
Sincerely,
Christopher A
DIRECTV Customer Service

 

[waltinvt]

Original remark by dslate69
Another thread assimilated by hd-lite dribble.

Yes... but I think that the HD Liters do not realize that we, in the Dish Network World, do not want the same thing that Happen to the DirecTv driven HD Liters. Do you want to get a message like this from Dish or would you rather continously complaint about fixing the real problem (HD Lite)?

What gets me is we have these threads discussing various legitimate Dish problems such as HD Lite, software downloads, or in this case, HD quality on StarzHD.

Now as we know can sometimes happens with "E", the problem doesn't get fixed right off , so the thread continues on for a while (HD Lite is a classic example) or resurfaces now and then.

Eventually you always get these dwebs that just feel compelled to jump into the thread and complain about the complaining.

It doesn't matter that they either do not understand the problem, never had the problem OR convinced themselves that it's not a problem, yada, yada - they just have to bitch about all the complaining being done. Sometimes I wonder if they're Dish plants or related to Charlie.

 

[mdonnelly]

Yeah Walt, yeah Jim, yeah Sean, we all understand the problem with Dish and HD-Lite. What I don't understand is why you think being a gadfly and hijacking each thread that talks about Dish, whether in a good light or bad, is helping your cause.

It's not. All you're doing is lowering your credibility factor with your constant HD-Lite gadfly chatter. The problem has been noted and reported. If you want to bump a thread now and then, fine, but don't hijack each and every one that comes along.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

What I find funny about some of these HD Lite folks are....

1) They don't have a HD Display which can display above 1440 x 1080 (Or can even display that much!)

2) In certain cases I know of at least 2 people who have whined about HD Lite so much, yet I later found out that they don't even have HDTV's or subscribe to HD services from Dish. (In other words they like listening to themselves talk)

I will take 1440 x 1080 any day over 1280 x 1080.

 

[abricko]

I'd still rather have more HD channels at HD-Lite or better w/o the crappy MPEG4 problems (jitter and color issues that E* have seemed to begin to fix). To me even at HD-Lite they still look good (not as PERFECT as 1080i) but often better than 720P programming (and I still watch 720P stuff).

To me priorities are:

-Having an Anamorphic (16x9) Image (even if it's 480i 16x9 sent as anamorphic rather than letterboxed 4:3) on as many HD* / SD channels as possible (can you imagine not having to zoom the picture to watch Mythbusters or other 4:3 letterboxed movies or shows?)

-Having more HD* (i use this term mostly to represent 16x9 content delivered at 720p or above) channels to choose from. (CinemaxHD, MHD, FoodHD, remaining Voom Channels...)

-More storage for my 622 (I know it's coming, just not soon enough)

-Lastly having content delivered at TRUE 1080i

 

[Sean Mota]

Yeah Walt, yeah Jim, yeah Sean, we all understand the problem with Dish and HD-Lite. What I don't understand is why you think being a gadfly and hijacking each thread that talks about Dish, whether in a good light or bad, is helping your cause.

It's not. All you're doing is lowering your credibility factor with your constant HD-Lite gadfly chatter. The problem has been noted and reported. If you want to bump a thread now and then, fine, but don't hijack each and every one that comes along.

Because the problem with Starz HD is not fixed. It is a misleading thread and something needs to be mentioned to that effect. If the title or the information have said otherwise I wouldn't have mentioned it. I waited for a few to correct the information and no one did. I jumped in and said yes we recognize that the video problem was fixed but not the HD Lite problem. Does that irrate anyone? Well, that is the problem of those that get angry about it. I am just telling like it is. The problem on Starz HD has not being fixed!

 

[Sean Mota]

What I find funny about some of these HD Lite folks are....

1) They don't have a HD Display which can display above 1440 x 1080 (Or can even display that much!)

2) In certain cases I know of at least 2 people who have whined about HD Lite so much, yet I later found out that they don't even have HDTV's or subscribe to HD services from Dish. (In other words they like listening to themselves talk)

I will take 1440 x 1080 any day over 1280 x 1080.

Sorry, Scott I do not concur with your assessment on this. This is the type of thinking that was created when SD Lite was introduced back them when LIL channels came into being. Suddenly the SD picture was degraded and everyone comfort to the crappy SD picture. Guess what with the same type of thinking you folks can drive the HD PQ the same way. It is like going to a restaurant paying for a well done steak but the restaurant owner gave it to you raw and you decided to eat it and pay for it because it was ok. HD Lite is not ok. There are lots of people that wished that there was an alternative that will appreciate the business of those who really care about quality in their HD channels. We just haven't reached that point yet. We cannot say "yes" to HD lite. To do so, it is a disgrace to the HD cause and any HDTV owner.